NO TAMING MATT MORRIS: The untamed world has the 
power to heal; hear one man’s story on Passport to Texas. 

This is Passport to Texas

Matt Morris grew up in the Chihuahuan Desert, exploring 
the Franklin Mountains.

05— I’ve been exploring the mountains since I was a child. It was just 
always a very calming experience for me.

Matt is standing up for the wild places of Texas; sharing his 
story through TPWF’s We Will Not Be Tamed Campaign. He 
says he found healing in nature.

60— At 25 years old, I was diagnosed with inflammatory bowel disease; I 
wasn’t able to keep any food in my system. Medication wasn’t really 
helping out. And around that time that I was diagnosed, the surgeons were 
recommending that I remove those infected portions of my intestines. And 
I refused to get the surgery. A friend of mine got me into the mountains, 
and we started doing some running. All of a sudden I started noticing the 
more I pushed myself, the next few days I was feeling a little bit better. 
And so I started putting two and two together, and just started really 
pushing my body.  The more I was pushing my body, the better I was 
feeling. Because it’s an autoimmune disease I felt like maybe I’m at this 
point where I’m suppressing the immune system to a point where my 
body’s saying, like, okay, we’re actually getting some time to calm down a 
little bit and to heal. And then I jumped into yoga. And the yoga was what 
really catapulted me to almost feeling 100%. Today I am off all my 
medications; I recently had a colonoscopy and there was no sign of the 
disease. So, it’s a possibility to heal yourself taking a natural approach to 
life.

Find more stories of outdoorsmen and women standing up for 
Texas wild places at tpwf.org.

For Texas Parks and Wildlife, I’m Cecilia Nasti









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