Moving mountains with Johann Peiris

• Cinnamon Hotels Wellness Week comes to an end

Last weekend, in honour of World Wellness Week, Cinnamon Hotels took their patrons on a journey of healing in body, mind, and soul. “Wellness Month” at Cinnamon’s city properties featured a plethora of events, activities, conversations, and food and beverage offerings that will make staying fit and healthy both fun and easy to do.

The Morning Brunch had the pleasure of attending the opening event, Johann Peiris in conversation with Savithri Rodrigo, where Peiris shared the awe-inspiring tale on how he conquered Mount Everest.

Peiris highlighted how lessons from his journey, and the challenges he overcame to be able to conquer such heights, could be applied to our everyday lives, and shared a few wise words on his tactics to help stay physically and mentally fit.

Staying motivated

In today’s context, motivation – or the lack thereof – is a real problem. In fact, the question raised by many attendees was: “How do you stay motivated through trials and tribulations?” 

In response, Peiris highlighted the importance of ambition. “You must first find out your goals, ambitions, and aspirations in life. Make up your mind to pursue them, and then pave the road to reach your goal,” he stated, adding that once the first step is taken, the next few steps can follow at one’s own pace. 

He noted that this “first step”, especially in terms of staying fit, does not mean one must immediately enrol in the gym. 

“The gym does not work for everyone. You can try yoga, or meditation or even adjusting your unhealthy eating habits first, before you jump to vigorous physical exercising,” he explained, adding that once you find what works for you, the motivation will follow along.

Dealing with discouragement

Peiris shared that he too, has been discouraged at certain points in his life. He deals with it by looking at his life from an outside perspective. 

“When you get discouraged, you have to relook at everything. Go back to the drawing board as they say. Reprogram yourself and take it from there,” he stated. Recalling one such time that he felt so discouraged that his mind shut down entirely, he spoke of an incident that took place while he was climbing Mount Everest: “While climbing up, I saw something like a plastic bag fall down. A few seconds later, it hit me that it wasn’t a plastic bag, it was a man falling to their death.” 

At this point, all he could do was numbly climb up to the camp point for the night, enter his tent, zip it shut from the outside world and then recalibrate his life. “I was in shock, I went into my tent and had a breakdown. It took me ages to regain the mental strength to continue climbing, and I found myself unable to speak for a while,” he described, adding that he had to rethink why he was there, why he wanted to conquer this mountain, and allow that to push him forward in his journey, after he found his motivation.

What’s next?

Concluding the discussion, Savithri Rodrigo raised the question of what lies next for Peiris. 

“Ever since I came back after Everest, everyone has been asking me ‘what next?’ and what plans I have now after Everest,” he chuckled. “They’re right. I’m not a person that can sit around and wait. I’m always looking for what I can do next.” Peiris revealed that he has plans to partake in the Seven Summits Challenge – basically climbing the highest mountain in each continent. Right now, he added, he’s working his way into achieving this goal.

The evening came to a close followed by some refreshing drinks, delicious canapés, and riveting conversation following Johann’s past and future endeavours, with people even motivated to follow in his footsteps. It seems that Cinnamon’s Wellness Week achieved its goals in pushing people towards healthier lifestyles and aiding them to cope with the stress of everyday life.