BELINDA KIRK is an explorer, mum and campaigner promoting the benefits of adventure on wellbeing and mental health.
In 2009, Belinda established Explorers Connect to spread the word about the life-changing impact of adventure. Through the network she has encouraged 30,000 ordinary people to engage in outdoor challenges. In 2019 she launched the Adventure Mind conference and network to explore and further promote the positive impact that adventurous activity has on our wellbeing.
She wrote Adventure Revolution: The life-changing power of choosing challenge, the first book to explain the psychology of why adventure is essential to our wellbeing. Drawing on lessons learnt from leading groups into the wilderness and the latest findings in neuroscience and psychology, Belinda shows how adventure has the power to transform the timid into the confident, the addicted into the recovering, and the lost into the intentionally wandering.
Over the last twenty-seven years Belinda has led dozens of international expeditions. She’s walked through Nicaragua, sailed across the Atlantic, searched for camels in China’s Desert of Death, discovered ancient rock paintings in Lesotho and gained a Guinness World Record for rowing unsupported around Britain. She has led numerous youth development challenges, pioneered inclusive expeditions for people with disabilities and managed scientific research missions in the Amazon, Sinai and Alaska.