Radboud University’s Wellbeing Week starts today. Activities, workshops, and lectures on (mental) health will take place throughout the entire week. Tomorrow, Sam Emons (33) and Elma Vriezekolk (45) will host a workshop on vegetable gardening, in which they will let participants look for 'the things that make them really happy'.

For Sam Emons and Elma Vriezekolk, mental health is an important topic; both of them experienced a burnout in the past. Still, that difficult period lead to something positive. They discovered that their passion lay elsewhere and made a career switch. Tomorrow the two of them will share their experiences during a workshop on vegetable gardening. The workshop is not just about mental health, Emons will also discuss how to promote soil life in your vegetable garden.

Vriezekolk has a background in communications consultancy and project management and founded Moeztuyn, an organisation that focuses on sustainability, greening, and social projects. ‘That burnout came as the greatest gift for me, it gave me a lot of insight. I learned how to set my limits much better, for example.’

Emons also ended up in greenery. He decided to quit his successful career as an account manager in the IT sector to, as he says himself, search for a sustainable and meaningful interpretation of his career. That search resulted in the company Gelukkige Groentes (Happy Vegetables, ed.), a picking garden where he, together with others, wants to make a positive contribution to a sustainable food system.

Hyperventilation

Vriezekolk studied business economics at Radboud University and, after graduating in 2000, immediately found a job at a communications bureau. A few years ago, after a vacation, she felt a lot of resistance to the thought of returning to work. ‘I started hyperventilating even thinking about it. I then realised that I had crossed a lot of boundaries to get to that point.’

She decided to take six months off. ‘During that time, I spent a lot of time out in nature and started a vegetable garden. The peace I experienced while gardening made me realise at the time that I had always been happy being outdoors but had lost sight of that during my office job.’

Anxiety disorder

Emons also ended up in the business world as an account manager after studying facility management at HAN University of Applied Sciences. In 2017 his father fell ill, a short while later he passed away. This loss, in combination with problems such as pressure at work, led to an anxiety disorder and panic attacks. ‘My fast life suddenly came to a halt, and I started opening my eyes to a side of our world I had not looked at before. I missed a sense of meaning in my work.’

He travelled the world with his girlfriend and worked as a volunteer at several farms. ‘I discovered that I like having my hands in the dirt. Until my father’s passing, I was a very naïve bon vivant who was not concerned with the way we have designed our world and the problems that arise as a result.’ After returning, he started Gelukkige Groentes.

Workshop

The duo hopes to share the insights they gained these last few years during their workshop tomorrow. ‘We are no educated psychologists, so we will mostly speak about our own experiences’,

Emons says. ‘If you encounter problems, you often cannot solve these yourself. Being open about your problems and finding help can be a part of the road to your recovery.’

‘Together, we will search for what makes participants happy as a person’, Vriezekolk adds. ‘Do not look at that like it is something you can only do when you have some spare time, but see it as a priority, the driving force of your life.’

Translated by Jan Scholten.