We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Jackie Lamoureux. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Jackie below.
Jackie, sincerely appreciate your selflessness in agreeing to discuss your mental health journey and how you overcame and persisted despite the challenges. Please share with our readers how you overcame. For readers, please note this is not medical advice, we are not doctors, you should always consult professionals for advice and that this is merely one person sharing their story and experience.
I have struggled with my mental health since I was a child, despite maintaining a healthy lifestyle, being active, and eating right. Over the years, I’ve been on medication, and while some things helped a little, I found the most significant change came when I decided to prioritize myself more. I began doing things that truly made me happy, even if they were unconventional or different from what others expected of me. I realized that doing less of what I thought would make others happy and focusing on what I truly needed for my own well-being was vital. This was especially challenging when dealing with depression, but over time, I understood that while others could offer support and advice, it was ultimately up to me to take the steps necessary for my own healing. I focused on doing what felt right deep down, seeking fulfillment and joy in my own way. This process, though difficult, has been a key part of how I’ve persisted through the challenges of mental health.
Great, so let’s take a few minutes and cover your story. What should folks know about you and what you do?
I’m not totally sure where to start, but I guess I would say the seed was planted in 2018. I experienced an unfortunate tragedy of losing a friend, he drowned on a summer trip. He was a person who really lived life to the fullest. After that I had hit my peak depression. I was really struggling, contemplating thoughts of suicide. I felt I wasn’t really heading anywhere with my life, I was feeling fulfilled. I felt drawn to the mountains during this time. It sounds cheesy, but I felt like maybe if I got closer to the sky someone up there could give me some answers. Turns out, I wasn’t totally wrong because the answer for me, was the mountains. I fell in love with the climb. The sometimes awful uphill slog that can break you down, scare the s*** out of you at times, and then the view from the top. A view you end up seeing a million times and it never tastes less sweet, because of what it took for you to get there. The amount of times you talked yourself out of turning around and giving up, and you never did and you get to the top. That’s when I realized how transformative it can be to push through your challenges, and go beyond what you think you can do. I realized the parallels between climbing a mountain and my own mental health.
Fast forward to 2022, I had felt inspired that I wanted to share that feeling with other people. So I mostly on a whim (like most of my ideas) registered a non profit that night. And so became the Summit for Serotonin Project. To be honest, didn’t have the first clue what I had just gotten myself into, and it’s been a learning journey the whole time. But now I get to host amazing back country retreats for people, and watch people connect and overcome in a place that means a lot to me. It’s maybe the most fulfilling thing I’ll ever experience to watch people’s confidence grow, and watch them learn strengths that they never knew they had. Each year we try and host more retreats, and our retreats are usually no more then 8 people, we like to keep them intimate so people can feel it’s a safe space to express themselves and open up. We will meditate in mountain meadows, climb different summits, we encourage journaling and we bring an art book if anyone likes to have some artistic release,
When I started this project, I also had this crazy idea to set my own goal of doing an explorers grand slam(the 7 summits and the north and south poles by foot). I guess I just have this urge to show people they can really do anything no matter who they are. Or they can at least try if they want to. You don’t have to be famous, sponsored, or living a perfect life to have big dreams and chase them down. You can just be some girl from Edmonton and do something amazing.
If you had to pick three qualities that are most important to develop, which three would you say matter most?
For me, I think it’s more just the things I acquired a long the road of this journey. If I wanted to make this dream happen I was going to have to put myself into the learning shoes, leave my ego at the door and be open to learning from other people. I wasn’t always a professional at what I am doing. My advice would be to not be afraid to be the beginner. If you want to learn something or do something, it’s okay to start at the bottom. I didn’t know everything about mountain safety, or the best way to pack my gear into a bag, or how to ice climb when I started. I took lessons, watched a lot of stuff on YouTube, talked with professionals and built a community of people who I am always learning from, and still continuing to learn to this day.
Any advice for folks feeling overwhelmed?
I feel overwhelmed all the time. I’m the queen of putting to much in my plate. When I am feeling overwhelmed, my natural instinct is to just hide in my shell. As I have grown though I have started to just think a bit more strategically, because if I hide from what’s making me overwhelmed it very rarely went away on its own. If I have a huge task list piling up. I stop, I sit down and I write everything out. Then I just do 1 thing on the list, usually the easiest one. But just that little bit of progress can help alleviate some of the stress the overwhelm is feeling. After that I just keep working through it until it’s more manageable again. Maybe one day I will start to just not overflow my plate so much, but I haven’t gotten that far into my own advice yet,
Contact Info:
- Website: https://Www.summitsforserotonin.org
- Instagram: Jackie.summits
- Youtube: Jackie.summits
so if you or someone you know deserves recognition please let us know here.
