Mental Health Blog, Day 1: Introduction to my Blog & Travels & Journey

Hey everyone,

For those of you that don't already know, we lost my brother James Ashley Nicholls and we decided to scatter his ashes from Trolltunga in Norway. We found out that he has Scandinavian heritage and we wanted to give him an epic resting place. I decided to write a mental health travel blog in the hope of providing some support, raising awareness, and hopefully helping people with their well-being.

I am so grateful for all the kind donations everyone shared to raise funds for me to hike Trolltunga, thank you so much. We made it! The whole journey and everyone’s kindness has really helped our family and me get through an awful time, we are blessed to have such kind friends and family to help us. Thank you.

Mental Health Blog, Day 1: Introduction to my Blog & Travels & Journey

Well I found it tough writing this, I’ve decided to write the top 10 things I’ve learnt that have helped me get through struggles with anxiety and grief, and to help produce more happiness in my own life. I want to share these thoughts in the hope that they can help you guys out there too 😊 Especially those of you that may also be struggling with negative feelings.

‘The only thing to do with good advice is to pass it on. It is never of any use to oneself.’

My own reality check is to realise that much of this ‘advice’ I’m posting is stuff I struggle to do myself! I guess the thing is, it’s essential to at least try, in life, trying is always the start to succeeding at anything. I just hope that this is a concise way to remember ‘the way’ for myself and might be of help to you guys.

It’s certainly not a ‘10-Step guide to happiness’ as I personally don’t believe it’s possible to ‘find happiness’ that easily. I’m starting to find that a deeper sense of fulfillment is found in such things as love, hope and kindness. I will speak of these and explain how they’ve helped me get through grief. This is also a blog written for 1st world people, with all basic needs for food, shelter etc. met. It’s for people who have what should be ‘a good life’ but are still unhappy.

This mental health blog is still personal to me, and it’s my own tailored advice that helps in my life, so I can’t guarantee that it’s universal or will work for everyone. It’s simply that I’m putting this out there because I simply hope it can help someone. I hope it can help you too 😊

Norway Quest Travel Blog, Day 1:

Me and my girlfriend Amy set off to Birmingham Airport, with a kind lift from my parents Gary and Lesley. We all waved and hugged goodbye and set off on what would become an amazing, exhausting, and emotional journey. Me and Amy arrived around 10:30pm in Bergen, Norway, and it was freezing as soon as we stepped off the plane! We checked in on this advanced computer screen without seeing a single person which I thought was really modern, and then got a good night’s sleep ready to start our Norway adventure.

I feel blessed to be here, and know that so many people kindly helped, in so many ways to get me here and support me on my way. The hike is planned for the end of this journey, so I can return home and rest once it’s done. My idea is to have some kind of holiday while I’m there, using my own savings, as doing Trolltunga alone seemed too intense as part of the grieving process, also it’s in the middle of nowhere and will take hours to get to. I’m hoping that seeing some nice sights whilst there and pacing this journey will make it more of an adventure, and something to be enjoyed and remembered.