Peter Demuynck combines his job as CCO and chief strategy & innovation at Montea with the non-profit organisation Kampenhoeve, a project for young people with mental problems. Mountain running helps keep his own mental and physical health in balance.
The non-profit organisation Kampenhoeve in Kampenhout was founded 13 years ago by Peter Demuynck and his wife. “That social is in my dna. We wanted to do something social and through friends we started therapy with animals in nature. Horses and donkeys help children with severe mental or physical disabilities or emotional problems,” Peter Demuynck said. “Here at the Kampenhoeve we are confronted with mental health and how important it is.”
“I myself have been running for some time and I do it mainly for my physical health. However, I find that physical and mental health are very much linked. You cannot have one without the other and mountain running is the ultimate combination in terms of running, which I have always done. I run 50 to 60 kilometres a week in nature and the forests here. I also regularly go to the mountains: the Alps, the Pyrenees, the Vosges or the Nordics. I do that all by myself and that gives mental satisfaction,” Peter Demuynck explains.
Learning
Deconnecting while running is something you have to learn, according to Demuynck. “Most people run with music to think of nothing else. When you walk for hours at a stretch, you forget about that music. It’s hard to explain but your senses are on edge, especially when you’re alone in nature. In time, that becomes an addiction and you are completely disconnected mentally. Actually, I need that to function and be sharp at work. So that is the mental aspect that is so important and which I face here at the Kampenhoeve.”
Balance
“At work, you come across more and more burnouts and boreouts. These are really becoming issues. I am not a specialist, but for me the right balance between work, private, physical and mental health is the magic word. If you want to keep all the plates spinning – and with me it’s maybe a bit more extreme than average – then it’s not hiking in the mountains but walking, because then you can just do a lot more things per day. For me, that is no longer a physical achievement, the mental is more important,” Peter stresses.
Exercise is healthy
He does not want to convince everyone to go mountain walking, but he does want to convince everyone that exercise is healthy to feel mentally healthy. “If you don’t feel mentally healthy, you don’t feel like moving much either. If you can overcome that, you have the key to good health and you can put everything into perspective. You can only tackle problems properly if you can put them into perspective first. That’s the basis of everything,” Demuynck says.
“We are all here only once and temporarily. You can’t redo your life and so you try to do the best you can in all areas. That works if you try to balance everything. That mountain running is a matter of training and habit, just like a top job is also very tiring somewhere. If you don’t have that drive, you shouldn’t do it because then it becomes a job you can’t sustain. When people start something that is not their thing at all, it leads to a crash”.
Walking to lose weight
Many people start walking to lose weight. “You have to start walking and say ‘I’m going to keep doing this all my life now because I like it and feel good about it’. You have to choose something that requires physical activity and say: my body says I’m tired, but my head says I have to keep going. The head has to win over the body. Eventually, the body will follow. You have to learn that.”
“We are only used to working with our head, but then sometimes you have to override your body. If you do it to lose weight physically – if at all – you are going to relapse anyway. It’s a cliché that walking breaks your knees, but that’s not true. We are born to walk and we stand up straight. If you overdo it and want to go too fast, then – as with everything – it ends up wrong.”
Number 1
For Peter Demuynck, walking comes first. “I said the same thing at Montea. The business comes number 2. If I were to reverse that, sooner or later I would run into a wall. You have to have the courage to say that. I need that as a person physically and mentally to perform at my employer. You are much more efficient for the company if it is all a bit more balanced”.
For Peter, walking is a kind of ‘mindfulness while moving’. “Walking in nature is a kind of mindfulness where you are not sitting down but moving. That’s how I see it for me. The pace does not play a role, but being alone and getting healthy”.
