Jimi’s walking the talk for mental health, and it’s working

Jimi Hunt was walking a few kilometres out from Mangawhai – on his 100-day trek right down the length of New Zealand – when a physiotherapist pulled up to help him.

The physio had heard Jimi was having a spot of bother with his Achilles, and he came to give him a good massage. Jimi is receiving kindnesses like that all the time. He has a tracker, and he’s encouraging people to come and walk with him on his Walking Home trek – you can find him easily enough. As I write this story on Saturday, I can see he is trekking along the coast past Milford in Auckland.

“I’ve had a beautiful response,” he says. “People are finding me in random places and coming and walking with me. A lady brought me a ginger beer on a beach; and a guy found me in a forest.

“They walk with me for a bit, and we chat. I might not know what you do or who you are, but I care about what you’re passionate about. What lights your fire.”

READ MORE:
* Why your brain – and your mental health – love a good walk
* Doc’s prescription: take a walk to see me in the morning
* The Resilience Project: What millennials can learn about resilience from Boomers and the post-war generation

‘I was suicidal’

And it’s that sense of connection that’s behind Jimi’s walk. He says his involvement in mental health (he has worked in the profession for 10 years), all started from his own experience. “I had anxiety and depression, and I was suicidal,” he shares. “I made a decision I needed to do something drastic, so my tomorrows would not be the same as my todays, because my todays really sucked.”

One of the first things Jimi did was float the length of the Waikato River from Port Waikato down to Taupo – on a lilo. And no, he is not recommending you do this – that was a fully supervised event to draw attention to the things he has learned that can make a difference to the way we feel.

“I learned I needed to break my patterns, and put myself in new situations. And every time I learned something that made me a little bit healthier and happier, I thought I need to tell people about this.”

He founded the mental health charity Live More Awesome, and never dreamt that his lilo trip would turn into a book and documentary.

“Taking steps to make myself better resonated with other people,” he says. “When you are vulnerable yourself, you give permission for other people to be vulnerable. People know my history, and when they come and walk with me now, we get to skip the small talk. People come straight out (with their stories) and we talk about how to make ourselves happier and healthier.”

And making people feel better is exactly what Jimi’s doing now. His hike is all about helping people connect – telling them what works. “It’s not so remarkable walking the length of the country,” he says. “Plenty of people do that. It’s about creating opportunities for connection, because this is what saves us.”

What Jimi’s talking about is a connection with self, with the land, and with others. Each of these connections is invaluable in keeping us healthy mentally. And he wants action – he says there is plenty of awareness of mental health issues, but we have to act, and he is literally pounding the pavement to pass on the message.

‘Happiness not found in a Lotto win’

He says happiness cannot be found in a Lotto win. “Many studies have shown if you win the lottery tomorrow, your happiness will return to pre-Lotto levels within six months.”

Fighting loneliness, for example, is vital. He says today we have a lot of social media “acquaintances”, but that’s not the same as a close friendship. “We have fewer quality connections, and it’s killing us,” he says. “We’ve become an isolationist society.

“Phone calls are better than texts; zoom calls are better than phone calls; and in-person catch-ups are better than zoom calls. I want people to come walk with me. You get to meet other people along the way, have conversations and form bonds over common things.”

Jimi is all in favour of activities that encourage connection, such as a bowling or tramping club. For the same reason, he can’t wait to live in a retirement village.

Connecting with ourselves is another of his three tenets for good mental health. “We are inclined to use social media, TV and headphones for escapism, to distract ourselves. But it’s good to just sit quietly on our own. If distracting thoughts come up, we can choose whether they are helpful or destructive.

“Walking is particularly helpful in stressful situations. It allows us to respond to stimuli, instead of just reacting. We have the ability to consider a ‘thought’ and think a particular response might not be the best course of action.”

And Jimi is adamant we need to “ground” ourselves in nature – to feel the grass and sand beneath our feet; to touch a tree and literally discharge our positive ions.

The ‘green prescription’

“Eco therapy is often called a ‘green prescription’,” he says. “The Japanese have a term for it, called ‘forest bathing’. We know that just 20 minutes in a green space reduces our stress levels (cortisone hormones).

“Sitting on the sand is another way to regulate your nervous system. You won’t be feeling that ‘fight or flight response’ – it’s about rest, rejuvenation and relaxation.”

Jimi’s outlook even stops him worrying about the scary situations that can occur on a long walk. “New Zealand drivers on New Zealand roads are scary. Some rural roads have no shoulders. But I just see these as obstacles to overcome; they’re an opportunity for self-reflection.”

Other big adventures undertaken by Jimi include building the world’s biggest waterslide.

Meanwhile, Jimi is managing around 4km an hour, and he expects his Walking Home trek to take 100 days (all up) to reach Bluff, by which time he will have walked 3000km.