Hello from the field!
An audio introduction to Re-Wilding
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Hello! And welcome to Re-wilding—a space where we can get up close with nature and with our every-day, where we can find our truest selves: whatever that means for you, whatever that looks like.
The term rewilding actually refers to nature, reclaiming itself after being heavily cultivated. I laugh when I think of this, in terms of how that refers to myself; I feel like I've been pretty pretty heavily cultivated over the last couple of years running the Inklusion Guide. Both myself and my colleague and co-founder, Ever, and I, are quite stubborn about telling everybody that we're burnt out… and can you just take a step back and give us a moment to recalibrate, please? I think that this feeling is so human. I think it's a feeling that many of you will be able to relate to, if not all of you. I think all of us go through phases of rewilding in our life, where we looking at what doesn't serve us anymore, and we let it go.
That could be a relationship that's gone bad. It could be a friendship that's more one sided, it could be any kind of relationship. A professional relationship, where you're not feeling nurtured. I'll talk a lot about nurturing in this space. I'm somebody who definitely tries to find time for self-care. I have a connective tissue disorder and I’m neurodivergent, I can get quite quickly overwhelmed if I'm not taking care of myself. And I think that people who, for example, are not disabled, they still have issues and still have things that mean they really need to look after themselves, whether they’re a parent, or being parent to a disabled child, or a carer, or somebody who simply works what seems like every hour in the day.
We all go through these phases in our lives where we just need to stop and recalibrate.
It's also a space for cutting through the bullshit.
Being an activist, now quite openly with running Inklusion, it's kind of given me more of an impetus, I think, to, to just call it and say it like it is. I'm a truth-speaker. I've been writing for years about my internal quest for my own authenticity, and my own self actualization. Whether that's letting go of the traumas of my past, and of my present, or of a toxic environment that doesn't serve me. It's about all of these things, and I'm definitely—at 36—years old, at a time in my life where I'm really trying to tune back in to what I want to be aligned with, and to what really resonates deep in the core of me and to my soul.
I think you could ask, what is it that fulfils my inner child and gets that inner child excited? I'm definitely someone who feels very in touch with my inner child. I am a big child. I still read picture books. I love and admire many illustrators. I am obsessed and excited about Christmas. I genuinely am a very joyful person and I respond positively to things that make my heart sing. And I don't think that we should feel ashamed for that.
I'm a professional working in publishing, yes, but I am also a raw human who is existing in this incredible place, and I want to stop and deliberately take notice of it and what it gives to me. So I'm speaking to you at the moment from my favourite field. There’s s still snow on the grass, which is just the best sound ever, in my humble opinion. There are many good sounds to be honest but there's something particularly soothing about this one. There's that really gorgeous crackle and pop of solidified soil underneath it. And the ground feels really hard and lumpy. And I'm looking out over an expanse of green crops and blue sky and it's just my happy place. It’s so expansive, the sky stretching out above me, above these huge mature sycamores and oaks that lie on the edges. They just soothe me and they make me feel grounded and anchored.
I feel like I'm being cradled in the hands of Mother Earth. It's always been one of the reasons why I've loved being out in nature because it just makes me feel safe, and held. Historically, there have been times where that feeling hasn't been present in my life, for various reasons, and perhaps maybe more so now than before. I think it's really wonderful to know that there's this place, here, that you can just get out for a bit. Leave the emails in the inbox and the social media behind, and the headlines. You can just get out and ground yourself. I think that in our increasingly digitised age, we're all really suffering from feeling a pressure to have output, a pressure to be engaged, to be putting our voice out there; but sort of observing it as well and how it’s going to be perceived. We're very much in a culture where people are very, very, quick to kind of jump on opinions and in spaces that don't allow nuance.
That's really why I'm creating this Substack, I want to find like minded people, and I want to find community and connect with people that are interested in the same things as I am, and who are wanting to interrogate the same things that I am. We're all products of our own conditioning, aren't we? And I think we sometimes forget that we actually have an ability to interrogate those societal norms that are structured up around us. And we can actually say, you know, what, this doesn't apply to me or doesn't align with my truth. And that's very empowering, To be able to, to recognise that it's a bit of a radical act and itself.
If you're here, thank you so much for being here and for subscribing.
This is my first newsletter. I have not a single email to import from MailChimp, or my website—this is my first foray into it. And I don't know why that is. I thought it was maybe focus issues, and just feeling like it was never a priority, but I think in reality, it's probably much more about the fact that I have questioned whether I've got the right, and who's going to want to hear what I have to say? Sadly that's not unusual and I'm speaking to more and more writers and creators, now more than ever, who are feeling the exact same way—and this is people with multiple books and awards, you know, it's not just sort of emerging writers like me. And I figured, hey, why not take the plunge? Why not give it a go?
I knew that I wanted to take something back of my own personal growth and creativity. I've sacrificed my writing career and development for the last two years in order to run this project, get off the ground, deliver it, and get it into the hands of the people who need it most. And teach them how to use it as well. And it's been so rewarding and so unbelievably fulfilling, and we're so grateful for how well it's been received. But at the end of the day… we're artists. I'm an artist and it has to be about the creative self and the creative work. I've been really fortunate to be doing some personal work with Sara Tasker, who’s helping me to figure out exactly what it is that I want and where I want to go from here. I knew that I wanted to take back some power and a sense of ownership, creatively, after kind of being behind a message for the last couple of years.
And I thought that maybe you'd like to join me in my rewilding. And maybe you could tell tell me about your own.
The whole idea of this is to bring a community into a space that nurtures conversation and growth, when it's not got trauma and toxicity around it to inhibit it. In these posts I'll be asking some challenging questions and I'll be looking into the darkest corners of myself—but through all of it I'm really just looking for the joy, and the wonder. That's why I've chosen to bring you these conversations from my daily walks, because that's what gives me joy and wonder. That's where I feel it most. I think it's where my brain is most receptive, and open to looking at things objectively and being able to take a step back and see the bigger picture. I know that that's a privilege. I think many of us are so really stuck with our heads down at our desks, or our phones or whatever it may be, and it's really important to look up. But it's a hard thing to do.
Anyway, I wanted to create this post as a voice note, because I wanted to say hello, I'm the human behind these words that are coming into your inbox. And I'm really honestly so thrilled to be here. So thank you again for subscribing.
Please do share the posts as they resonate with you if you think there's anyone else who would benefit from reading them or enjoy them. And please comment, let me know what has resonated or if you disagree with something, this space is for being able to have dialogue, and being able to do that in a slightly more nuanced way than we could maybe do on Instagram or Twitter, or anywhere else.
Thank you for sticking with me and for listening (or reading) for nearly 14 minutes.
I hope you also managed to get out and say hello to nature. If not today, maybe tomorrow, at least at some point this week.
I really look forward to rewilding with you!
I’d love to hear what you’re doing to re-wild, big or small! It all matters, it’s all significant, it’s all growth. You deserve to be recognised for that! Please do comment below xx
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We sound like kindred spirits!