DUBAI It took Julie Miles Lewis 40 years to step out of her comfort zone and climb her first mountain in 2003. However, it took her only what she calls a ‘light-bulb moment’ once atop the summit to conceive Mountain High, her company that has since led multi-national teams of women and men on more than 55 expeditions to 20 countries including the Arctic and Antarctica.
Jewels of Antarctica
One of those trips involved, a team of breast cancer survivors on an expedition to the uninhabited southernmost continent. That inspirational story of ‘Jewels of Antarctica’, as the team of 12 women called themselves during the December 2012 trip, will be one of the many stories of Moving Mountains, Lewis’ debut book being unveiled at the Emirates Airline Festival of Literature this year.
She says the book will help motivate one to explore and unlock one’s potential and push boundaries. “It’s going to be a massive moment for me as an author as it gets launched this week and I am hoping to encourage more women and men in the UAE to be inspired to step out of their comfort zones and get into action after reading this book,” said Lewis, ahead of the 12-day festival that began on March 1.
“For someone who loves to speak and share pictures, writing a book with no pictures was a challenge completed in the record time of 16 weeks,” said Lewis who also engages herself as a public speaker, author, sports scientist, adventurer, NLP master practitioner and coach besides regularly leading global expeditions and retreats.
In a bid to feed her ‘visual spirit’, she says, she has even created a Facebook page to reinforce the book’s message with images, quotes and snippets from the book.
She will be from the book with fellow authors Liz Keaney and Jo Simpson on March 10 at the InterContinental Hotel. Keaney is the author of Warrior Women, a book about self-nurture, self-worth and self-connection and Simpson is an authority in Values Based Leadership, that helps leaders and their teams achieve passion and excellence.
“It’s about making a habit of climbing mountains in our daily lives – at least metaphorically, and that is what the book is about,” added Lewis who is originally from Yorkshire, England but lives with her husband Calin in Abu Dhabi and has been a resident of the UAE since 1997.
