Physical wellness put Nick Jonsson on the road to mental recovery

MODERN work culture encourages executives to project success and achievement when, in fact, thousands of us are suffering in silence and denial. This was true for me too, and it became a serious issue that I faced a few years ago. As a company executive, I was under a huge amount of pressure, both on a personal and at an organisational level, which led me to a mental crash. It took a tonne of courage to finally be honest with myself and to seek help.

I started by focusing on reviving my physical wellness. But I knew that to sustain doing so, I could not do it alone. The universe brought me Todd Gilmore, a fitness coach, who has become a good friend. It has been said that the first step is always the hardest, so to have my coach as an accountability partner really helped me a lot.

We started with the basics: walking, then easy jogging, and added light cycling. We then extended the distance and timing of the workouts. We tracked my workouts with a fitness tracker watch and a heart-rate tracker to monitor my progress.