The Dark Side of the Trails
This is part of us too.
Fogexhausted · ill
Hazeyou / the team grow weaker
Valleysafe · comfortable
Ascentyou / the team grow stronger
Summitat your peak
Mental health is not a place.It’s a path.
We all find ourselves in the fog sometimes. And sometimes on the summit.
Brave, hands-on, full of energy – and then exhausted, vulnerable, ill again. These are not two kinds of people. They are two stretches of the same path.
Every one of us is walking it. Sometimes it’s easy, sometimes steeply uphill, sometimes the path disappears into the fog. Nobody stays in one place for ever.
Even so, we like to talk about the summits and stay silent about the fog. Anyone standing there is quickly seen as weak, as a dropout, as a problem. Yet nobody stands there because they did something wrong. But because they are human.
There’s no reason for stigma. Only for paths.
The valley is safe. But then what are paths made for?
“A ship in harbour is safe – but that is not what ships are built for.”
after John A. Shedd
Down in the valley it’s sheltered. You rarely fall ill here. But you never climb a summit either – and never see what lies beyond the next ridge.
Both ways out of the valley take strength. One leads up into the fog, the other up into the light. Which one it turns out to be is not always our decision.
But what we can learn is to keep going. To dare the climb without fear of the fog. And to find our way back down out of the fog – into the valley, and at some point back up again.
Salutogenesis : What keeps us healthy?
Classical medicine asks: what makes us ill? The medical sociologist Aaron Antonovsky turned the question around: what keeps people healthy – despite everything that affects them?
His answer: healthy and ill are not two separate boxes. They are the two ends of a continuum. Everyone stands somewhere in between – and is constantly moving. Nobody is only healthy. Nobody is only ill.
Antonovsky compared life to a river: we are all swimming in it, nobody stands safely on the bank. The crucial question is not how we get out. But how we become good swimmers.
For us, the river is a trail.
What keeps us on the path
Antonovsky calls it the sense of coherence: the confidence that life can be managed. It has three parts. On the trail, you know them all.
Comprehensibility · “I know where I am.”
The map in your hand: what I encounter, I can make sense of. It fits together.
Manageability · “I have what I need.”
The backpack: strength, people and resources to manage the next stretch.
Meaningfulness · “The path is worth it.”
The goal in sight: it’s worth making the effort – even when it’s hard right now.
Five stations. One path.
We call this continuum the gauge . It measures nothing and judges nothing. It simply shows where you are on your way right now: in the valley today, on the ascent next month, perhaps in the fog in winter. All of this is normal.
Fog
exhausted · ill · in crisis
Up in the clouds, where visibility ends. Nobody climbs up here voluntarily – and nobody has to be ashamed of standing there. This is not about performance, but about catching your breath.
Haze
worn down · burdened · restless
The path gets steeper, the view murkier. It still works – but it takes more strength than usual. A good moment to turn back.
Valley
safe · comfortable · monotonous
Down below it’s sheltered and calm. You rarely fall ill here. But you also never see what lies beyond the next ridge.
Ascent
challenged · focused · growing
Leaving the valley means climbing. It gets strenuous, sometimes uncomfortable – and this is exactly where you grow. Alone or as a team.
Summit
at your peak · full of strength
Light, wide views, full strength. Not a place to live – but one that shows what you’re capable of.
The summit has a dark side too.
Anyone who runs at the limit for a long time often notices too late that the path has long been heading downhill again. Peak performance is not a permanent state – and recovery is not a sign of weakness. That’s why there is an offer for every station on the gauge. Including the summit. To reach it – and to stay up there for as long as possible.
Where are you today?
Every offer carries its gauge. Choose your station – or take a look at everything.
For you
Breathing space
A short, flat path at your own pace. No goal, no clock, no expectations. If you like, with someone who simply walks with you – and doesn’t ask.
Free of charge via gifted paths
Room to think
A path out and then time at the base camp: a quiet room, paper, tea. For everything that wants to be sorted out – and for thoughts that only become loud along the way.
Free of charge via gifted paths
Focus path
A path with small tasks that point your mind at one single thing. For decisions that are coming up, and questions that need clarity.
Free of charge via gifted paths
Mountain air
Active recovery for everyone who carries a lot, all the time. Running, sauna, sleep – and an honest look at what peak form costs. Before the path starts heading downhill on its own.
For executives, founders and everyone at the limit
For teams
Proven formats from project and product work, professionally facilitated and held in the Black Forest. Between the working sessions: a path. Because people who move think differently.
Rooms: the “Räuberschlössle” and “Kaiserschloss” meeting rooms at Villa Waldeck · Berghaus Walden for up to 20 people, with projection wall and presentation materials.
Project kick-off
A shared picture of the goal before the first work package starts.
- Content
- Project goals and success criteria, scope and boundaries, stakeholder analysis, roles and responsibilities (RACI), milestone plan, initial risk assessment, communication and working agreements.
- Outcome
- An agreed project charter and a team that knows what it’s in it for.
Backlog planning
Prioritise, estimate, plan – with everyone who delivers.
- Content
- Product backlog refinement, prioritisation by business value, risk and effort, estimation (e.g. story points), identification of dependencies, release or quarterly planning.
- Outcome
- A prioritised, estimated backlog and a robust plan for the next increments.
Retrospective
Learning from experience – systematically and regularly.
- Content
- Structured reflection on an iteration, a release or a project phase in five phases: set the stage, gather data, generate insights, decide what to do, close (after Derby/Larsen).
- Outcome
- Prioritised, actionable improvements with clear owners and deadlines.
Project post-mortem
After the project – or after the crash. Teams sometimes find themselves in the fog too.
- Content
- Blameless post-mortem: reconstruction of the timeline, root cause analysis (e.g. 5 Whys, Ishikawa diagram), assessment of goal achievement, budget, quality and collaboration.
- Outcome
- Documented lessons learned and concrete measures for future projects – without assigning blame.
Sometimes it takes someone to make the first step possible.
People in the fog often have neither the strength nor the money for a break. That’s why anyone can give paths away – to people who need them right now. For them, the paths in the Black Forest are free of charge.
For companies
You fund a quota of paths for your employees. They use it confidentially: you find out how many paths were walked – but never by whom. Because health begins where nobody has to explain themselves.
If you wish, part of your quota goes to people outside your company who need it right now.
For everyone
You give a path – or part of one – to a person you don’t know. Like a suspended coffee, only with forest air. Every amount helps, and together they add up to whole paths.
You won’t find out who walks it. But you will find out that it was walked.
Do you need a gifted path right now?
Write to us. No proof, no justification, no form. We’ll get in touch – discreetly and without questions you don’t want to answer.
When the fog is not just an image and becomes too thick
A path can do you good. But it is no substitute for medical or psychotherapeutic help.
Help in acute crises
If you don’t know how to go on, or are thinking of taking your own life: you are not alone, and help is available right away.
TelefonSeelsorge (Germany, in German) – free, anonymous, around the clock: 0800 111 0 111 · 0800 111 0 222 · 116 123 · also by chat and email at telefonseelsorge.de
In an emergency: 112 (Europe-wide)
Outside Germany, please contact your local crisis line or emergency number.
