Podcasts for Finding Your Purpose | The Spring Edit
We've curated a selection of our favorite podcasts about how we can best connect with our working lives and how we can think better about our emotional health as we go about finding our purpose.
“I’ve chosen opportunities where I might fail rather than live in the shadow of my own potential.”
Finding purpose. Isn’t that our life’s goal? Identifying what it is that excites us, that gets us to flow within our days, that shapes our working lives? But how do we go about doing that?
And when we find whatever it is that uniquely drives us, how do we then deal with everything that working life brings: the inevitable questions around work-life balance, how to be more productive, how to deal with failure or burnout, or even the Sunday night Scaries?
In this month’s playlist, we’ve pulled together some recent listens on how we can better think about our working lives and show up with more purpose, and more presence (the two we’ve found are often connected).
“Productivity is a trap. Becoming more efficient just makes you more rushed, and trying to clear the decks simply makes them fill up again faster. Nobody in the history of humanity has ever achieved “work-life balance,” whatever that might be, and you certainly won’t get there by copying the “six things successful people do before 7:00 a.m.” The day will never arrive when you finally have everything under control—when the flood of emails has been contained; when your to-do lists have stopped getting longer; when you’re meeting all your obligations at work and in your home life; when nobody’s angry with you for missing a deadline or dropping the ball; and when the fully optimized person you’ve become can turn, at long last, to the things life is really supposed to be about. Let’s start by admitting defeat: none of this is ever going to happen. But you know what? That’s excellent news.”
All these selections can be found in our Spotify Playlist for Purpose. You can listen here:
Let us know what you’ve been listening to this month to help you think about your professional life. Which podcasts have helped you think about how you spend your working days?
To seek out more resources for finding your own purpose take a look at our guide.
Kelechnekoff Studio
A pole-dance studio that has diversity at its core that’s changing the shape of the wellness industry.
Nigerian-born Londoner Kelechi Okafor (recently named a Wellness Visionary to watch by Vogue) opened her pole-fitness and twerk studio space in 2016 to offer a more diverse space for women to get into their bodies and a more authentic approach to the dance styles that she teaches. Kelechnekoff Studio has since become a place of welcome to all, irrespective of body shape, ability, or background, restoring confidence to women who have been told one story of how they should look, and kindness in an industry that can seem anything but compassionate. Here the studio tells us more about their approach:
What is it? Kelechnekoff Studio is a pole dance studio in Peckham that offers classes of different levels, as well as classes in yoga, Wing Chun self defence, and handstands and flexibility.
Why do people need it? Kelechnekoff Studio is a place for all bodies to explore different types of fitness that have the power to make them feel sexy, powerful and confident. The space was started at a time when in the UK there were few fitness spaces that had inclusivity at their core and hardly any Black-owned pole dance studios.
What do you offer? The studio offers a range of pole dance classes — that include spinning pole, sexy pole, pole flow, pole dance inverts and climbs — from absolute beginners to intermediate levels. There are also sessions in Wing Chun self-defence, yoga flow, vinyasa yoga, and handstands and flexibility.
What makes it different? Our studio is based in the heart of Peckham and honours the origins of the dance styles we teach. Kindness and how people feel in their bodies are more important than appearance to us. We also strive to keep our classes as affordable as possible and create a caring community within our studio.
What do people need to know? We have classes every day of the week and even offer pole hire sessions for £5 during the week. In addition to this, you can buy a party package and have a pole dance or twerk party with us!
Tell us a little about your story: Our studio founder Kelechi Okafor is a trailblazer; she is an actress, personal trainer, pole instructor, director, author, and award-winning podcaster. Kelechi opened her studio in September 2016 to create a space for those who are often erased from mainstream fitness culture. These classes aim to nurture the relationship between mind and body and to be a safer space for people to enjoy fitness whilst exploring their sensuality with guidance and without judgment.
Kelechnekoff Studio Peckham
Sojourner Truth Centre
161 Sumner Road
London, SE15 6JL
Contact: info@kelechnekoff.com
Podcasts for Spirituality & Meaning | March Edit
Modern Wisdom for bringing more Spirituality & Meaning into our days. We’ve curated a selection of recent Podcasts that can help you think differently about faith, belief and ritual.
“Many of us come to astrology in search of ourselves. In search of the meaning of our lives. In search of some clues about what it is we are here to do and whether or not we are on the right track.”
When we think of this pathway, Spirituality & Meaning, we think of anything that can bring wisdom into our lives, orientate us in our days, and find our way forward in ways that make sense for us. These podcasts share this open approach to what belief, ritual and faith can look like. They cover how to use the Enneagram, Tarot, and Astrology as tools of understanding. How the practice of prayer or the modern church can show up in our current lives. And how to locate joy and healing even when faced with the darkest times.
“Our future-focused, technology-obsessed world seems to be hurtling down a bad path. People are turning to ancestral practices for a sense of enduring longevity, and comfort. To help stay sane and grounded in the midst of so much cultural insanity. To source a different kind of power in hopes of making changes both personal and political. From learning meditation to fighting off a cold with some homemade fire cider; from indigo-dyeing your curtains to strengthening your intuition with the aid of the Tarot, such old-world practices are capturing our imaginations and providing us with meaningful ways to impact our world.”
All these selections can be found in our Spotify playlist for Spirituality and Meaning. You can listen here:
Let us know what you’ve been listening to this month to help you think about your own approach to Spirituality & Meaning. Which podcasts have inspired you to think more about meditation and manifesting, Tarot and Astrology, ritual and faith?
To seek out more resources for how to bring more Spirituality and Meaning into your life take a look at our guide.
Main Image: Photo by Ashley Inguanta on Unsplash
New Thinking on the Mind & Body Connection
Our favorite reads for helping us think more widely about what wellbeing for our minds and bodies means, how the two are connected and what we can do about it.
It’s not just yoga or running. Wild swimming or nordic walking. All the different ways that we can move our bodies to move our minds. We’re now learning that our mind-body connection brings in so many different areas: sexual wellness, sensory integration, the impacts on our brain of long COVID, even technology and AI.
Here are a selection of the articles, essays, research, and interviews that recently caught our attention and are helping us think more widely about what wellbeing for our minds and bodies means, how the two are connected and what we can do about it.
Exercise as a tool against depression
Why we need to move for the sake of our minds as well as our bodies
Clinical trials often overlook eating disorders in men
“I had a really frightening loneliness that felt fundamental to who I was, like it had maybe been in my body for as long as I’d been alive.” How getting sober in a pandemic saved this writer’s life
The impacts we’re now learning COVID has on brain health
Burnout is showing up in your body
What does the future look like for our bodies when technology has its impacts?
“It may seem simple, but there’s a fine art to creating the perfect bedtime story for grown-ups.” — A new tool for sleep hygiene - adult bedtime stories
How to have a better lie-in.
“Even now, there’s limited education on menopause for trainee and practicing doctors, unless they seek it out or are particularly interested. This is really sad, because it can lead to women suffering unnecessarily.” — Niki Bezzant on what we've been getting wrong about the menopause
Some good things to pay attention to right now
Your cues are contagious and say more about you than you think
New habit: taking a midday walk
We’re excited about this new dance festival in London
More wisdom from Lizzo on body-positivity
And a Tedx Talk on why sensory health matters. What does sensory health mean for you? What are your preferences and how do you actually feel?
Lead image: Photo by Arek Adeoye on Unsplash
Pages of Hackney
A bright blue beacon on Lower Clapton Road, Pages of Hackney is one of our favourite bookstores for reading advice. Founder Eleonor Lowenthal talks to us about what makes Pages of Hackney so unique and why independent bookstores matter so much to our neighborhoods.
A bright blue beacon on Lower Clapton Road, Pages of Hackney is one of our favourite bookstores for reading advice. It’s welcoming not just in how customers are greeted and the bookstore arranged (no intimidating, fusty-ness here), but also in terms of which books get to sit on its shelves and whose stories get to be told. Founder Eleonor Lowenthal talks to us about what makes Pages of Hackney so unique and why independent bookstores matter so much to our neighborhoods.
What is it? Pages of Hackney is a small award-winning bookshop on the Lower Clapton Road selling an eclectic mix of books. Our priority is to be a friendly, community bookshop that is accessible and inclusive, supporting the issues we believe in and giving a platform to marginalised voices in publishing.
Why do people need it? Everyone should have the opportunity to have books in their lives. When I started the bookshop in 2008, there hadn't been one in the local area for 30 years and we had both children and adults coming in who weren't sure what a bookshop even was. We do our best to reflect the local community in our diverse stock choices and through our Pay it Forward scheme to also make it affordable for everyone.
What do you offer? We sell books in the areas of literary fiction, politics, feminism, essays and life writing as well as philosophy, psychology, nature writing, music and children’s books. Our priority is for each customer to feel that the bookshop is for them, and we do our best to give our customers individually as much time and thought as we can. We put on lots of events, both in-person and online, addressing issues including gender, sexuality, race and current events as well as platforming novels from established and debut authors.
What makes it different? The space is designed to feel like a sanctuary from the busy life of the High Street. Once you step inside, you're free to browse in a quiet space, talk to us and ask for specific recommendations, or simply sit in our cosy basement. What makes us different is that we aren't simply invested in selling a book to every customer, but in making everyone feel welcome and as if the shop belongs to them and is a part of their community.
What do people need to know? We are open every day for in-person browsing, but you can also order all our books online, or request anything you don't see there. We can get most books we don't have in stock in 1-2 days and can also post books and gift wrap if required.
Tell us a little about your story: Books are an excellent way to unwind, escape into, and learn about how to cope with anything people might be struggling with. Our books reflect this and the bookshop itself is a safe space in which people can reconnect with themselves and consider what is important to them.
How can people be inspired by your space wherever they are? Simply browsing our shelves, online or in person, should be inspirational, connecting people to authors and ideas that they haven't heard of, or that they might want to explore more deeply. In addition to the usual categories, we have shelves dedicated to specific subjects that might be of interest (including the Black Britain series, both Japanese and Korean writing shelves, Afrofuturism) and authors we're currently inspired by (like Joan Didion and Toni Morrison).
Where inspires you? I get inspired by talking to new people every day in the shop and exchanging thoughts, ideas and feelings.
Podcasts for Mind & Body | February Edit
Our selections of this month’s podcasts on the Mind & Body Connection cover everything from sexual wellness to what self-care means today. These episodes gave us some helpful ways of thinking about our mind and our body that we hope you can take into your own life too.
“I used to think healing meant ridding the body and the heart of anything that hurt. It meant putting your pain behind you, leaving it in the past. But I’m learning that’s not how it works. Healing is figuring out how to coexist with the pain that will always live inside of you, without pretending it isn’t there or allowing it to hijack your day. It is learning to confront ghosts and to carry what lingers.”
We recently heard the term ‘serendipitous curation’ and that reflects our process of discovering this month’s Podcasts for the Mind & Body Connection. Our selections below cover everything from sexual wellness to what self-care means today, from some of our favorite listens (we’d really press play on anything from Pandora Sykes) to some new-to-us series like New York Magazine’s Cover Story: Power Trip. We hope you find some helpful new ways of thinking about your mind and your body and how they might relate to each other in your life.
“In the moments when we can offer suggestions to improve something in another or in the world, we can make those suggestions with kindness, tenderness, and affection, knowing that everyone is fighting their own battles and knowing that the hardest and most important things we’ll ever change for the better are our own hearts and minds. ”
All of our February selections can be found in our Spotify playlist for Mind & Body Connection. You can listen here:
Let us know what you’ve been listening to this month to help you think about your own Mind/Body Connection. What are your go-to’s on exercise, health, nutrition, self-care and healing?
To seek out more resources for your mind-body take a look at our guide.
Main image attribution: Photo by Jozsef Hocza on Unsplash
Our Favorite Advice Shows for Modern Times
Six of our recent Podcasts listens for when we’re stuck and looking for a reassuring voice and a fresh perspective.
Where do you turn to for advice? You have a problem, something niggling, something is keeping you up at night and you’re not finding the solution in a Youtube video or your Instagram feed?
We've been discovering some great voices and content in Podcast listens, some that offer actionable things to do when we’re stuck, others just a reassuring voice and something new to think about. Here are some of our recent go-tos, the ones we turn to when we need a fresh perspective, some empathy and just a little bit of support.
Like a daily vitamin, a tiny bite of a podcast that gives advice from a different person to start each day. Roaming across the quirky — shower belly creations — to the inspirational with words that stick – “you are not a throwaway girl”, the episodes are definitely not the usual subjects, the self-help platitudes that we’ve come to grow tired of. Hosted by curiosity seeker Zak Rosen, The Best Advice Show illustrates just the degree to which we can make our worlds make sense to us and find ways to be ok within them.
“You can think of the show as a reminder that there are weird, delightful and effective ways to survive and thrive in this world.” — Zak Rosen
The winner of the BBC’S World Service Competition was inspired by host (and Nigerian development worker) Namulanta Kombo’s letters to her daughter Koko. In these episodes, she invites her friends to do the same for their daughters, and then extends that ask into the world. These are moving, powerful, funny testimonies of mothers saying what they need to their daughters when they can. The first episode has someone who lost her mother to breast cancer writing to her two daughters throughout their childhood and even as she goes through the same diagnosis that took her mother.
What would you write to your own daughter? What experiences would you capture, what memories would you share, what life lessons would you make known? Pair with Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s Dear Ijeawele.
Looking for a new morning routine? Have a listen to this podcast by host and productivity expert Laura Vanderkam. Each episode covers small bites of advice on such things as finding your moonshot (ambitious life-changing goals), realizing that most things can be changed (and how you can identify what doesn’t need to be permanent) and how to share the good that other people are doing (and how that can help you too). We find these less than 10-minute listens a more soothing and inspirational way to start the day than scrolling the news or checking social media. Try and habit stack with brushing your teeth, making that morning coffee, or walking/driving back from the school run.
“Time is elastic. It stretches to accommodate what we need or want to do with it.” — Laura Vanderkam
Life Kit, from NPR, covers a huge range of subjects but dives deep into each with actionable advice from different experts. Whether health or parenting, finance or professional lives, these short episodes (around 20 minutes) offer takeaways framed within expertise.
Recent standouts include how to get into tarot (and how it’s more about reflection than seeing the future) with Michelle Tea, how to deal with and understand Seasonal Affective Disorder and how to talk to your Latinx parents about mental health. But we recommend scrolling the feed for the areas in your life that you need some wisdom on.
OK, this is technically not an advice show but these tender conversations with anonymous callers often reveal something we hadn’t thought about on a subject. The premise of ‘1 phone call. 1 hour. No names. No holds barred’, and the lead of host comedian Chris Gethard, means talks go in ways often unexpected, and sometimes uncomfortable, but we found ourselves drawn into these episodes.
These are some recent episodes: Engaged, but in Love with Someone Else, on what do you do when you’ve met someone new but your about to marry the father of your baby, I’m a Sugar Baby on how a PhD engineering student is financing her studies through sugar daddy work and Crisis Hotline Worker, on what it’s really like talking to people who are suffering and how to experience all of humanity without damaging yourself. But host Chris Gethard has polled his community and here are their favourites from the over 160 episodes.
One inspirational woman talks through their six pieces of good advice, and one piece of bad advice. Like Huma Abedin talking about having a Both/And perspective, and writer Lizzie Damilola Blackburn on seeking progression not perfection.
These weekly podcasts show us how we all have something we struggle with and strive for, and we may have very different ways of navigating our lives as we do. These conversations also reveal the real stories behind some public figures - musicians, writers, artists, actors - who we think we know but only really do on one level. Always intimate, thoughtful and revealing.
Which Podcasts are you listening to for some good advice? Let us know and we’ll try and include these in our next round-up.
Typewronger Bookshop & Typewriter Repair Shop
An indie bookstore, that offers typewriters repairs, origami animals and soup on Christmas Day. Founder Tom Hodges tells us whyTypewronger is far more than just a place to buy books.
“You can’t be lonely with a book - books transport you to other worlds, other places, they make you other people. Whilst immersed in a book you can only feel what’s in the pages.”
We knew we’d discovered somewhere special on a recent trip to Edinburgh when we stumbled into Typewronger on Christmas Eve and received the warmest welcome, an origami elephant, and a recommendation to read Insomniac City (subsequently stamped with their distinctive red logo and now one of our most cherished reads). Here founder Tom Hodges tells us about what makes Typewronger so distinct:
What is it? Typewronger Books is Edinburgh's smallest indie bookshop and Scotland's only typewriter repair shop! It's home to a community of readers, writers, artists & musicians and strongly advocates the written word in our daily lives.
Why do people need it? Typewronger is far more than just a place to buy books. Regulars stop in for a chat, people have built creative connections, made friends, been inspired, switched careers, written zines & started publishing companies all as a result of hanging out in this shop.
Advice & Assistance Obtainable Immediately, and there's even a Public Typewriter for those who want to just sit down and write - and don't worry about mistakes, this is TypeWRONGer where we embrace our flaws.
What do you offer? Book signings, author events, open mic nights, a YouTube channel, we flex on the 'gram & have a 1984 electric typewriter wired directly into our Twitter (yes, it types out your Tweets!)
We send books all over the world in our characteristic wrapping with hand-typed notes of your dictation, so we're perfect if you want to send a book as a gift - just drop us an email and we'll wrangle it.
We also organise the Edinburgh Zine Fair and advise new publishers on the nitty-gritty of the trade.
What makes it different? The energy is anarchic, the books hand-picked, and we're always ready and willing to engage with you on any topic. We stamp all the books with our shop stamp and give a little origami animal with each purchase. Even though we're a tiny wee store we stay open until 9 pm, we even open on Christmas Day with soup for those with nowhere else to be, and New Years Day handing out recovery Bloody Marys.
What do people need to know? Due to Covid we have a traffic light system to limit numbers and have paused our events program. We are hoping to change both of these in the coming months as cases dwindle.
Tell us a little about your story: Typewronger started when I moved back to Edinburgh in 2017 and began selling books in the street from The Leith Walk Police Box. Every Sunday a band of friends would humph all the bookshop stuff down from my flat - books, bookcases, a carpet, an armchair - the lot! In 2018 Typewronger moved into the old gallery space beside McNaughtan's, Scotland's oldest Antiquarian bookshop. In 2019 Elsa joined the team, and the shop opened 7 days a week, and in 2021 we were joined by Viv who works the day shift on a Saturday. Since opening, we've had thousands of conversations with people from all over the world.
How can people be inspired by your space wherever they are? We send books worldwide, so you can always get a bit of Typewronger sent to your doorstep. Also, we believe in physical correspondence - if you write us a letter and include your return address we will always write back to you on one of the shop's trusty typewriters.
Where inspires you? There's a wine bar upstairs.
You can't be lonely with a book - books transport you to other worlds, other places, they make you other people. Whilst immersed in a book you can only feel what's in the pages. And the feelings can be hard, but they're cathartic, and the feelings can be good, and there's all sorts of books perfect to all sorts of moods.
Anything we're missing? It's a matter of public record that the store's founder is Tom Hanks' "hero."
Discover more places for life in our Guidebook
Podcasts for Connection | February Edit
Our February Edit of Podcasts for Connection from therapy with our friends to how to deal with loneliness. Inspiring conversations and stories for finding your people.
“Loneliness does not come from having no people about one, but from being unable to communicate the things that seem important to oneself, or from holding views which others find inadmissible.”
Our February Edit of Podcasts for Connection covers everything from therapy with our friends to why we’re all so lonely. Some of our favourite podcasts — Invisibilia and Doing it Right — have recently talked about why connection is so important to our mental wellbeing and covered strategies for how to be in relationship with others in ways that feel good to us. We also recommend checking out the new series, This is Dating, and Wild.
“These are human beings with unbelievable emotional and social capacity. And we as a culture just completely try to zip it out of them.”
All of our February selections can be found in our Spotify playlist for Connection. Listen here:
Let us know what you’ve been listening to this month to help you deal with feeling lonely, finding community, figuring out your close relationships, or just finding connection in ways that feel good to you.
And seek out more resources for more connection and community in our guide.
“Part of it is a kind of a bias that commitment, love and intimacy belong in the realm of family and belong in the romantic sphere, that they don’t necessarily apply to friendships. ”
Some of Our Favorite Books for Discovering Nature
For when the world out there seems too much, we reveal the books that can connect us back to it. In our latest Culture Therapy Prescription, here are some recent reads that have brought nature indoors and back in our minds again.
If the thought of leaving your house, going for a walk, maybe even trying wild swimming, is all too much for you, reach for the bookshelves. Our green and blue spaces have taken root in memoirs and non-fiction that reveal again and again the well-being benefits of our natural world.
We’ve listed a handful of our favorite reads (you can find more over in our Nature Edit on Bookshop): We’ve recommended Wintering to countless friends and family members for whom this may not be their favorite season, while H is for Hawk was the book everyone got to years ago that we got to last year and then understood why. We’ve played around with more tricks to rewild ourselves with ideas from Simon Barnes and Sarah Stirling. And we’ve followed the transformative story of Raynor Winn who walked a coastal path and changed her life and that of her partner.
So curl up indoors with one of these books and discover the power of nature to reconnect you with the world out there and the world in you.
As our understanding of the importance of nature increases, so too do the number of great books on the subject, particularly in terms of its effects on our mental and emotional wellbeing. We’ve included just a handful here, but there are others that we’re hoping to get to in the coming weeks that we’ve included in our Bookshop. Our Nature Edit includes books that we’ll talk about here soon, as well as others recommended to us that are on our reading lists. We hope browsing these shelves you’ll find one or two to help bring more nature into your own life.
We’re always on the lookout for more Culture Therapy ideas, those books, podcasts, TV shows, films, artists, music, and magazines to seek out when we’re searching for something to inspire, support, and soothe. Let us know what you love and help us find more ways to navigate this complicated world of ours.
The Soul Spa | A conversation with founder Madeline Blackburn
How do you make time to pause? We talked to Madeline Blackburn, founder of Bath’s The Soul Spa, about how we can rethink how we treat our modern-day ailments and create better spaces to hold us on our high streets.
A center dedicated to the mind-body-soul connection, The Soul Spa was founded on a site of healing — legend has it that King Bladud was cured of leprosy from the hot springs that the building, one of the oldest in Bath, is situated on. For years people have come to this location to get well (the energy of Sulis Minerva has even been felt in its rooms).
We talk to founder Madeline Blackburn about how The Soul Spa is providing ways to treat our modern-day ailments and creating the space for people to just pause.
The Soul Spa feels like a new model for the mind/body/spiritual in our communities.
When I was thinking about how to create this space, I knew I didn’t want to be the church hall, because the environment matters so much to me. I was in a flotation tank in Colorado, and I literally sat up in the dark and the idea of “soul centers” came into my head. I went home and wrote and wrote and wrote. I noticed that there were workshops in spaces, nice retreats, and meditation and mindfulness classes. But what’s unique to The Soul Spa is that we’re in one building and have a permanent offering. Though workshops and courses might change, our practitioners and team of people are here all the time and here for you if you need them.
Often practitioners can be quite siloed but maybe, for instance, a client who comes in for psychotherapy finds it won’t work for them and that they would do better with a reiki healer. You offer a more client-led model, giving possibilities for accessing healing in different ways.
Absolutely. From a holistic physiotherapist and an astrologer to a shamanic healer and nutritionist, we try to foster a collaborative nature between us. We know what each other does. All the therapists say how refreshing it is to feel part of something, rather than just renting a room. That’s quite unique about us. Also what I understand of the human brain is where your beliefs are, if you believe in something, that’s probably going to work for you better than something that you don’t believe in. I’m here, not to make any comment or judgment about what anyone’s beliefs are, but to give them the smorgasbord of choices that will fit in with their view of the world. And then maybe even open people up to new ways that they haven’t thought of.
We don’t want to make people feel like it’s going to be work or difficult though but approach from a place of relaxation and calm, peace, and time out. We have a Quantum Field room, so people can just drop in and tune in to one of our guided meditations or bring their own.
There’s a shift in wellness now: it felt like before it was something you did over there, there was a certain audience for it and that audience looked a certain way. But with The Soul Spa and the other places we cover in this guide, we’re finding that where we locate wellness is more fluid. It’s shifting in how people are bringing it more into their everyday lives.
We’ve also noticed how people in the UK now talk about wild swimming or forest bathing, or other activities that are right there in their communities, and actively reach for something locally. It feels like people want to be doing these things and your space, and the others that we feature, give us permission to bring more of what we need into our lives.
Because you don’t do it. Most of us don’t do it at home. It’s hard to do it at your desks. Summertime yes you might sit in a park. But where is there to go in winter? I was brought up Catholic and the other week I just sat in a church for a bit, just to defrag for a few moments and calm my head down. We do need spaces that give you that permission to hang whatever is happening in life up in the cloakroom and just come and be for a bit. For The Soul Spa, I want people — whether they are shopping or a tourist or a local worker — to know there’s a space they can go for twenty minutes or half an hour where they don’t need to think about anything else.
I think we all need that space.
So many people say that they wish they had something like this in our town. Every High Street needs one.
If there was intentionality about it, the High Street would look so different, and serve us as people. What we’re really craving are these spaces that hold us differently and not on our own but together. Somehow to be around one another in positive, more human-minded ways.
I think The Soul Spa is that. I’m not a shopper but I love the energy of the High Street. That’s why it was important to be situated in a quiet place near the center of the city. I would love to think we could prove this as a model and then bring it into other places, just like how the idea of gyms developed before when they’d never existed previously.
I also like that we’d be for everyone, children and old men, fat and thin, every color and creed. Everybody. What we do here is a human thing. It’s fantastic that it appeals to people who already do yoga or meditation: they are intrinsically very interested in their health and more likely to do this, but I want other people who have never done anything like this to know it’s for then too
Why do you think wellness can be associated with being aspirational, a commodity, an appearance, and not for everybody? Is that cynicism, money, equity? Why do you think it has that weight to it?
I think it’s partly cultural because I don’t think it’s in every culture like that. There are cultures that do see it as intrinsic. But here, before the 80s, everyone was just trying to survive. My mum was born at the beginning of the war, and for her generation there was nothing. It really felt like a luxury to even consider looking after yourself. As we were growing up that was still in the mix. Then we had the 80s which just became uber materialistic and we’re still in the back end of that somehow.
It’s very natural for people to try and make themselves feel better. It’s just where you look for the thing that’s going to make you feel better that’s shifts so much. In our culture now it’s getting lots of likes, social media shaping our self-perception, and that’s not working so well.
I really think that people are going to want places like The Soul Spa more. It’s all life though. And I absolutely love life so even the bumps are kind of interesting when you can view them from that perspective.
Our model for mental wellness has been one around crisis management. For a long time, when we’ve thought about accessing therapy and medication, it’s about quickly reaching out, finding resources in the moment of high need. But what I’m seeing from you and your work at The Soul Spa is that there’s a different way of navigating our wellbeing, by developing a practice that people can build and access every day before they get to that stage. That means that when a crisis happens there’s that foundational piece, tools that people know work for them and they can use. It’s the other way around.
Most of us know now how to look after ourselves physically, and most do a bit of the right thing. We know how we should eat, and about exercise. We do all of that so that we don’t get ill and if we do, our bodies are stronger to cope with that. It’s the same thing for the mind. But I think that’s what puts so many people off, is that they think they can’t do it. Like with meditation, people often worry that they will think about what to have for tea and getting the shopping…
… they worry about getting it wrong. For many people meditation comes with the perception that their mind needs to be empty to get it right…
…and they say but my mind is too busy. But welcome to being human beings. That’s not that special, it’s not unique to them. Everybody has this experience and it’s learning that’s ok that might get someone to try it.
I come from a hypnotherapy background, and it’s all about your deep-down beliefs, where they’ve come from, and how they drive all your automatic behaviors, reactions, and thoughts. When I’m helping people relax, I’m thinking about the brain state, and about getting them into an alpha state, and potentially into the theta state because I know that in that state the rest of their body can go off the sympathetic into the parasympathetic nervous system. It can rejuvenate, it can heal. That’s the state you need to be in for your body to be well, for your mind to take a minute, to take a break.
For people who find it harder, my method is much more spoken and guided. I’ll use little hacks from hypnotherapy like a countdown or an eye-roll, or something for people to get into the alpha state a bit faster so that their neurons then fire together. The more they do that, the more they practice it, it becomes automatic, like a habit. Instead of responding when someone cuts you up on the road with adrenaline and anger, you can be more chilled out about it, understanding that maybe they are having a bad day and need a bit of love.
Just a bit of compassion
I just feel like positive things could happen if we can get more people responding like that or at least seeing or understanding why they are responding the way they do, looking at it, and being willing to shift. Instead of looking at the external world and blaming it for everything but wondering actually how can I change because I’m probably not going to change that external thing. Though in reality the more we can all change the more that can change too.
Need more mind-body connection in your life, visit our guide for more places, prompts and ideas for how and where to find it.
Let us know where you go when you are looking for more spirituality and more mind/body connection in your life.
The London Lonely Girls Club
Looking for connection in one of the world’s busiest cities? Holly Cooke talks to us about why she started The London Lonely Girls Club and how it can inspire you wherever you are.
“Stepping outside of your comfort zone, saying yes to every opportunity to meet others, being bold.”
We talk to Holly Cooke, founder of The London Lonely Girls Club about why she started these IRL meet-ups for women looking for connection and how this idea can inspire you wherever you are.
What is it? The London Lonely Girls Club is a community in London, created to help women in the city meet up, hang out, build friendships and make London life a little less lonely.
Why do people need it? As an adult, it can be really difficult to meet new people, make new friends or simply find others with similar interests or hobbies. And so The London Lonely Girls Club was created to meet this need and help women across one of the busiest cities in the world connect with each other!
What do you offer? We are both an online and physical community. We have an active Facebook group of over 10.5k women. Within this forum our members can post, engage and get to know each other at their own pace. Alongside this, we run meet-ups multiple times a month where our members can get to know each other IRL whilst visiting some of London’s loveliest places or doing fun activities together.
What makes it different? The London Lonely Girls Club was specifically created to help women connect, make friends and beat loneliness. It’s as simple as that, no strings attached!
What do people need to know? LLGC, as we call it, is an inclusive, supportive, fun community that any woman in London can engage with in their own way. Whether they’re just looking to find someone to go on weekend walks or theatre trips with, advice on the best place to get their hair done in a specific part of northwest London, or to build lifelong friendships, everyone is welcome!
What’s your story? Before founding The London Lonely Girls Club, I was a very lonely girl living in London. I’d moved to the city for work and to fulfill a lifelong dream of living in the best city in the world. But very quickly moving to a city where you know absolutely no one can be both isolating and terrifying. From this The London Lonely Girls Club was born, a community created to bring the women of this incredible city together under the flag of unity, connection, and friendship. With meet-ups each month that allow people to connect in person, rather than just via a screen.
How can people be inspired by your initiative wherever they are? Every day the members of LLGC teach me about bravery and courage, whether it is sharing their story in our group’s main feed and looking for others who share a similar struggle or journey, stepping outside their comfort zone by coming along alone to our monthly IRL meet-ups and connecting with others in person over a coffee, burger or glass of wine, or simply revealing themselves by joining a community with lonely in the name.
I think this is something that can inspire everyone, no matter where you live, how you identify, or what your social situation is. Stepping outside of your comfort zone, saying yes to every opportunity to meet others, being bold. Just one small decision of courage really can change your life, I should know, it did mine!
Where inspires you? The women of our community and the incredible city that we live in. They’re both so inclusive and diverse and vibrant and loud and unapologetic, but also kind and supportive and beautiful. It is inspiring to get to be just a small part of these things.
Anything we’re missing? If a woman in London is reading this, then we’d love to have you be part of our community! Whether you’ve lived here your whole life or you moved a day ago, feeling lonely is the worst. As humans, we’re built to be in community, surrounded by others who can lift us and love us and support us during both our triumphs and challenges and that is what The London Lonely Girls Club aims to do.
To find out more visit: Our website | The LLGC FB community | Our social media
Discover more places to feel connected
Podcasts for Better Mental Wellbeing | January Edit
Our January Edit of podcasts for better mental wellbeing from Fearne Cotton to an Anxiety Bar.
“Think of it as a chemical reaction to an event or situation. Without trustworthy resources, training, and timing, that chemical reaction can get out of hand—but it can also be controlled and used for valuable good.”
Our January Edit of podcasts for better mental wellbeing from Fearne Cotton to an Anxiety Bar. We’ve included some new ways of thinking about how our brain works, some advice for talking to our families about our mental health, and ideas for ‘behavioral antidepressants’. Play on your commute, your morning walk, while making dinner, any moment when you can fold listening into your days.
“It’s a bar for people who are internally freaking out, a safe space for stress heads in extremis. It’s a place that allows you to get out of your apartment and stop staring at your own wall…Most crucially the anxiety bar is a place that requires no excuses or explanations. At the anxiety bar everyone already understands… ”
All of our January selections can be found in our Spotify playlist for Mental Wellbeing. Listen here:
Let us know what you’ve been listening to this month to help you deal with anxiety, depression or just feeling that little bit lost.
And seek out more resources for better mental wellbeing in our guide.
A Culture Therapy Comfort Package
For when the long January days need brightening, we’ve compiled a Culture Comfort Package. These are the books, podcasts, and TV shows currently offering hope, joy and solace.
“Curiosity and passion are the enemies of anxiety. Even when I fall deeply into anxiety, if I get curious enough about something outside of me it can help pull me out. Music, art, film, nature, conversation, words.
Find a passion as large as your fear.
The way out of your mind is via the world. ”
We’re having the kind of week where we want to sink into a bubble bath on waking up, turn off the world, and reset our lives and that’s just not possible. We’re tired of apps suggesting that we move, COVID blazing through our communities, and our days not quite aligning with our to-do list. So we compiled this Comfort Care Package, because we need it and thought that there might be moments when you do too.
There’s Matt Haig and Ted Lasso, Unsung Heros and Daily Smiles, poetry and advice columns. Just a range of things that shift our emotions and thoughts, and make our days just that little bit easier even when they don’t appear so.
It starts with Matt Haig’s, The Comfort Book. This is the book we now turn to when in need of reassurance, something shared with many, many readers who made this such a bestseller. Read first, then flick open whenever you need it. We keep this on our bedside table for those moments when we need something and we’re not quite sure what that is.
As with all his books, Haig here is just a human figuring it out too, sharing his wisdom and his lived experience (even his recipes) through compassion and kindness, as he helps others figure it out too. Contained within its pages, is hope - for the day, for something better, for our lives and minds.
Pair with The Midnight Library (we recommend the Audible edition read by Carey Mulligan), or Reasons to Stay Alive, or Notes on a Nervous Planet.
If even Brene Brown gets it, then we feel pretty confident in recommending this show for the courage to be vulnerable (she even interviewed series creators Jason Sudeikis and Brendan Hunt).
We admit to avoiding this one for a while - football??? - but once we did we realized that it had very little to do with the beautiful game and so much more to do with finding our people, our purpose, and our way through, on our own terms.
Coach Ted Lasso’s optimism is often the thing cited as the heart of the series, but for us, it’s the way he reacts in unexpected, read kind, ways with everyone around him again and again that we want to tell you about it, but would spoil the series for you if we did.
"I promise you there is something worse out there than being sad, and that's being alone and being sad. Ain't no one in this room alone." - Ted Lasso
The podcast My Unsung Hero is brought to us by the people behind Culture Therapy favorite The Hidden Brain. Each short episode is designed to be an antidote to the despair of a daily news cycle which shows us the worst of humanity and not our capacity for kindness, generosity, and love. These are the stories we don’t get to hear but the ones we need to. Like the one about an 8-year-old alone at an airport who is helped by a stranger, and a colleague offering comfort unasked.
Can you think back to a time in your life ‘when you were feeling low and a stranger noticed it and helped you’ or when someone ‘reached out when no one else was watching with no expectation of a thank you?’ That is an Unsung Hero.
We love this podcast for reassuring us that people are good (and we all probably need reminders of that). From May 2020 to February 2021 when the news cycle became particularly bleak, Wondery put daily positive messages out there as a different way to start the day. Each episode hosted by Nikki Boyer features a story to make you feel good. And they do, they warm your heart without being too saccharine or without us becoming too cynical. People do amazing, beautiful, smile-inducing, things, and here’s where you get to hear about them. Listen to this to be reminded of the humanity of those around us. Maybe be the person bringing a daily smile into someone’s life in other ways too.
“Sometimes the way you start your day really does affect how the rest of your day goes. If you’re listening to the news right off the bat, you absorb that stuff like a sponge, it gets into you. This is just a nice alternative to that.”
— Nikki Boyer
““Good poems are sharp, bright, and brilliant things that cut right through you. There is something so potent about a poem, these condensed, distilled moments that can take our breath away.””
This book of ‘Poems for when you really need them’ was selected by Cecilia Knapp, poet, playwright, novelist and the Young People’s Laureate for London 2020/2021 (and ambassador for mental health charity CALM). Compiled during the lockdown months of COVID, Everything is going to be alright is a collection of poems designed to bring joy, hope, and solace.
Poems like Kim Addonizio’s To the Woman Crying Uncontrollably in the Next Stall (“Listen I love you joy is coming”), Danusha Lameris’ Small Kindnesses (“We have so little of each other, now. So far/ from tribe and fire”) and Travis Alabanza’s For when my body does not feel right (“I wonder all the things I can learn if I try to meet you with love?”)
In situations that cover loss and heartbreak, aging and childhood, love and acceptance, these words might offer a way to get you to a place of understanding.
We first discovered Cheryl Strayed in this compilation of her Dear Sugar columns for The Rumpus (though her voice was anonymous when these were first published). Included with previously unpublished letters and responses, Strayed doesn’t just answer her readers, but she offers compassion and courage in the advice that she gives. Though published in 2012 we still dip into this one when we’re looking for some of Strayed’s ‘radical empathy’ - read very wise words (we aspire to have an emotional vocabulary as dense and nuanced as Strayed’s).
Pair this with Strayed’s NYT’s podcast Sugar Calling - recorded with writer friends during the first lockdown - and past episodes of Dear Sugars with Steve Almond. And of course, there is always Wild for how Strayed approached her own life.
“I'll never know, and neither will you, of the life you don't choose. We'll only know that whatever that sister life was, it was important and beautiful and not ours. It was the ghost ship that didn't carry us. There's nothing to do but salute it from the shore.” — Cheryl Strayed
Looking for more resources to turn to when you’re in need of something? Take a look at the rest of our Culture Therapy recommendations for books, podcasts, TV shows, films, magazines, and music to turn to when you’re lost, lonely, anxious, or just curious.
Let us know what you’d include in a Cultural Care Package. Whose voices reassure you? Which books have your back? What words help your days?
A Handful of Books for Seeking Connection
For when you need more people in your life, sometimes the imaginary ones work the best. In our latest Culture Therapy Prescription, here are the books we’re recently looked to for more connection, though here of the at-home kind.
Maybe it’s a contradiction to look to books when we’re looking for more connection in our lives. But as introverts, we’ve found that sometimes the books we turn to provide exactly the kind of company that we need.
We’ve pulled together some recent reads that have helped shape our perspective on this idea of connection. We’ve included non-fiction by Vivek Murthy, Priya Parker, and Johann Hari that explore the science of relationships, helping us realize why people matter as much as they do, how why we gather has impacts beyond the moment of coming together, and why who shows up in our lives can shape our experience of it.
And there’s fiction too by Sally Rooney and Bernardine Evaristo that reveal the breadth and nuance of different kinds of relationships as well as allowing us an intimacy with the characters playing out their imaginary worlds. Others are memoirs like those by Michelle Obama and Bill Hayes that give us glimpses of lives that have prioritized service to and curiosity about the people with whom we share our neighborhoods.
We hope you’ll discover some new finds, some new ways to friendship, and maybe even some new relationships, imaginary or real.
As our understanding of the importance of connection increases, so too do the number of great books on the subject, particularly in terms of its effects on our mental and emotional wellbeing. We’ve included just a handful here, but there are others that we’re hoping to get to in the coming weeks that we’ve included in our Bookshop. Our Connection Edit includes books that we’ll talk about here soon, as well as others recommended to us that are on our reading lists. We hope browsing these shelves you’ll find one or two to help bring more connection and locate more community in your own life.
We’re always on the lookout for more Culture Therapy ideas, those books, podcasts, TV shows, films, artists, music, and magazines to seek out when we’re searching for something to inspire, support, and soothe. Let us know what you love and help us find more ways to navigate this complicated world of ours.
Our Selection of Books for Uncertain Days
When the world outside isn’t appealing (cold, COVID, conflict), sometimes we turn inwards, to books. In our latest Culture Therapy Prescription, here are the books we’ve been turning to during these uncertain days.
When we’re struggling through our days (and not leaving the house), we often find ourselves turning to books. What we’re searching for is more understanding — why are we feeling what we’re feeling, what is that feeling even, and what do we do about it — and some reassurance that we’re ok and it’s all going to be ok.
Below are a handful of the books that we’ve read recently that have helped us orient ourselves. From blockbuster fiction with Meg Mason, to memoir and advice from Matt Haig, Glennon Doyle, and Bryony Gordon (actually seek out anything from these writers and sometimes podcasters), to non-fiction with Dr. Camilla Pang and poetry with Cheryl Cox. Across all genres, we’re finding writers, journalists, therapists, poets, and researchers who are sharing their stories and helping us understand our worlds. Through their words, we’re able to find better ways of navigating our lives and we hope you do too.
In the last few years, we’ve been finding so many great books that touch on mental wellbeing, many of which are now featured in our Bookshop store (one day we hope to make this into a real entity but for now having even an online bookstore feels like a kind of wish fulfillment). Our Mental Wellbeing Edit includes many of the books we’ve read and would recommend, those we want to get to, and those that friends have suggested. Browse our online shelves for more of what you need.
What we turn to shifts, so we’ll keep you up to date on our new discoveries. This year, we have a goal to build out our Culture Therapy series, so do tell us which books, podcasts, TV shows, films, artists, music, and magazines you look to when you are searching for that something to inspire, support, and soothe.
FOLDE: A Conversation with Co-founder Karen Brazier
We spoke with Karen Brazier about how Dorset’s FOLDE is connecting more people with nature and how this contributes to their, as well her own, wellbeing.
Let’s start with, what FOLDE is. It feels like a bookstore that goes beyond just books. One for curiosity seekers and nature lovers.
That’s a pretty good description. FOLDE doesn’t really fit neatly into your typical shop categories, e.g. bookstore or gallery. Our starting point is our theme - the nature and landscape of our home county of Dorset - and everything else tends to follow from that. In addition to our core collection of nature-writing books, we sell art and traditional craft from local artists and makers that in some way celebrate our county’s nature, lore or landscape. That could be through subject matter or the use of locally sourced materials. We also sell a carefully curated range of items that enhance your experience of being outdoors, from field kettles for making a fresh cup of tea when you’re out on a walk, to quick-dry towels for use after wild swimming.
What led you to start FOLDE and create a space in your community?
We jokingly call FOLDE our pandemic-induced midlife crisis but its origins began long before the first lockdown. We met over the garden fence (quite literally, our gardens back onto each other) and, as our friendship developed, we discovered that we had both reached a point in our corporate careers where we wanted to make a change. It wasn’t just work-life balance; our jobs were taking us away from Shaftesbury, our beautiful hilltop town, physically and mentally, just as we were waking up to the fact that regularly spending time outdoors in the Dorset countryside was vital to our wellbeing. We wanted to find a way of rooting ourselves in the heart of the place that had given us so much, of celebrating it and protecting it, whilst also giving ourselves more time just to be here.
All Photos: Matt Austin
Tell us about your three themes: Land. Sea. Self.
Quite simply, these are the things that make us tick, from swimming in salty waters to striding across the Dorset hills. The products we sell are broadly grouped around the ‘land’ and ‘sea’ themes, while ‘self’ addresses our central aim of helping more people to discover how a greater connection with nature can contribute significantly to their own wellbeing.
What has been your own experience of the therapeutic value of nature?
It’s fair to say that we had both experienced a degree of burnout in our previous careers, which had taken its toll on our mental and physical health. For me (Karen), it took some years to discover that there was a sanctuary to be found in getting outside; in my twenties and early thirties, I used to think the answers I sought were waiting in a shopping mall. My partner has always been an outdoorsy sort of person and when I was at my lowest ebb, he knew that it would help me to get outside, even on those days when all I wanted was to stay under the duvet. His persistence paid off and gradually, over a period of years, I grew to truly love walking, on the Dorset coast in particular, and I became better at managing my stress levels. I found that being outside gave me the tools I needed to recalibrate as well as a deeper connection with nature that helped me to make sense of my place in the world. Regular walks are now essential to my wellbeing, supplemented by year-round sea-swimming, and I border on the evangelical about the therapeutic benefits of both.
As for Amber, she had spent her childhood growing up in various small villages in West Dorset, and found that the sense of community, nature and belonging had become something of a beacon to her through her adult years. Travel was a big part of her previous working life and, while she enjoyed the experiences, she found she always yearned for the green hills and vales of Dorset. It keeps her grounded and connected to the earth, and it’s home to the footpaths she treads when she needs time to think. It also helps her to appreciate the seasons, and the changes that come with them.
During the pandemic many of us turned to nature for our mental wellbeing? Were you surprised by that? Do you think this is sustainable as something in people’s lives now?
No, we weren’t entirely surprised. Over the past decade or two, we had both found great comfort in noticing the rhythms of nature. No matter what else is going on, the sun always rises and sets, the seasons come and go; these rhythms are a constant among the more chaotic aspects of life. But in order to notice these things, you have to allow yourself to experience nature, and this can sometimes push people out of their comfort zones.
In recent generations, so many of us have come to live and work in a context that is entirely separate from nature. It doesn’t help that until relatively recently, the outdoor recreation industry was heavily geared towards white men dressed in Gore-Tex and if you didn’t look like that, it was easy to think, ‘well, that’s not for me.’ However, when our options for entertainment, exercise and socialising were suddenly and so dramatically curtailed by lockdown, it was not surprising that the simple act of taking a daily walk outside brought nature into closer focus for so many of us and, in so doing, allowed us to discover our fundamental human need to connect with it.
Whether it is sustainable is a good question. We like to think it is, and if the burgeoning number of nature-writing titles being published is anything to go by, we don’t think people’s interest in the subject shows any signs of waning, whether that’s wild swimming or planting a bee-friendly garden. That said, we are acutely aware that it is largely dependent on people’s access to green space, and the pandemic highlighted that there are significant societal inequalities in this regard.
On returning to the UK after 14 years away, we’ve been struck by how outdoorsy it’s become here, from wild swimming and camping to coastal hikes and paddleboarding. What do you think has accounted for this shift and where do you see it going next?
There’s definitely a much greater awareness in the UK of the physical and mental health benefits of outdoor pursuits and, to a certain extent, social media has glamorised the appeal of these activities: we can’t be the only ones to have looked at a photo of a dreamy coastal clifftop at sunset and thought ‘I want to be there’. Instagram in particular has effectively become a wanderlust travel brochure in terms of its ability to present aspirational images of beautiful outdoor experiences, and it is often said that Millennials prefer to collect experiences rather than tangible goods. It’s more than that, though. We think it also has much to do with the speed and relentless distractions of the digital age; spending time actively engaged with the outdoors is a brilliant antidote to that.
In terms of where it’s going, we hope that there will be a greater focus on diversity and inclusivity, as well as sustainability, although the sector still has some way to go in these areas.
What’s been your experience of starting a space in your community? What have been your joys and challenges? Anything unexpected?
It has been almost entirely a complete and utter joy. Shaftesbury is a close-knit town of largely independent businesses, which are greatly valued by the people who live here, particularly since the pandemic when they pivoted overnight to provide for the community at a time of great uncertainty. Support for local businesses has never been greater, and recognising this helped us to take the leap of faith and open FOLDE. We had tested the proposition online first and, when a space became available right here on the iconic Gold Hill, we took it as a sign that we should go for it. True to Shaftesbury form, we were met with a very warm reception by our community and, although we are in a good spot for tourists, it is our local customers who keep us going.
There are so many joys to doing what we do, from building relationships with the many talented artists and makers right here on our doorstep to having a presence at the heart of the town we love. The biggest joy, undoubtedly, has been growing our FOLDE community, both online and in-person, i.e. the people who share our love for this beautiful part of the world and want to swap stories about the places they’ve been and the outdoor experiences they’ve had. We’re aware that we don’t look like your typical outdoor action women and we think that this might sometimes help our customers to try something they haven’t done before, such as cold water swimming; very much a case of ‘if they can do it, so can I.’
As far as the challenges are concerned, sometimes it can be hard to find certain products that fit with our ethos without compromising on our sustainability standards. And given that it’s just the two of us, we’ve had to learn quickly about many different aspects of running a clicks-and-mortar business, from till systems to packaging to payroll. Perhaps the biggest challenge is knowing when to leave it alone; we’re having a lot of fun and we’re brimming with ideas about where we can take FOLDE but we have to remind ourselves that we don’t have to do everything in year one. Luckily, our other halves are good at reining us in.
We have a series called Culture Therapy, where we list the podcasts, books, TV shows, films, etc. that people can seek out in our different pathways. Which books probably (though if you have other media that relate let us know) would you recommend for people wanting to bring more nature into their lives?
Almost every book we sell helps people to find a closer connection with nature in one way or another but the ones we would specifically recommend are:
The Salt Path and its follow-up The Wild Silence by Raynor Winn. These are obviously very well-known titles but we recommend them because they speak volumes for the power of nature to heal and restore, and they remain among our bestselling books.
The Forager’s Calendar by John Wright. There’s no shortage of interest in foraging among our customers but John Wright’s often humorous book is by far our most popular title on the subject. Foraging is a great way to reconnect with the natural world: it makes you slow down, notice and engage with everything that’s going on in the hedgerows, all year round.
Grounded: How Connection with Nature Can Improve Our Mental and Physical Wellbeing by Ruth Allen. We are both avid followers of outdoor psychotherapist Ruth Allen’s Instagram account (@whitepeak_ruth) and were delighted when she published her first book. She is wise beyond measure, and the book is a visually appealing, soul-nourishing mix of practical exercises and mindful activities interspersed with personal stories and thought-provoking questions. You will often find yourself nodding in agreement.
In music, we are huge fans of British folk singer and conservationist Sam Lee. His most recent album, Old Wow, is a spellbinding love letter to nature but one that contains stark warnings about all that we stand to lose. Earlier this year, we took part in Sam’s ‘Singing With Nightingales’, an unforgettable, immersive and profoundly moving experience that highlights through music the threat to the nightingale and other endangered species.
We would also recommend Lost in the Cedar Wood, a collaborative, lockdown project between folk singer Johnny Flynn and nature writer Robert Macfarlane that brilliantly melds myth, poetry, landscape and music. The opening track, Ten Degrees of Strange, is a rambunctious song about trying to outrun anxiety by seeking joy and strength in landscape and movement.
What are your favorite places to reconnect with nature?
We both love to explore Dorset’s Jurassic Coast, which offers an embarrassment of riches for anyone who likes walking or swimming against some breathtaking backdrops. There’s something about walking through fields to a clifftop or beach that can make you feel as if you’re the first person to discover it. While the honeypot attractions such as Durdle Door and Old Harry Rocks can be unbearably busy in high season, there are still plenty of other lesser known places, particularly if you’re prepared to walk a little, or go earlier or later in the day.
For our daily fix, we are fortunate that our commute to the shop takes us along a wooded path known as Pine Walk, which is lined with soaring beech and pine trees, punctuated with views across to Melbury Beacon. This is the hill that features in the wood engraving that we commissioned from Dorset printmaker Robin Mackenzie to use as our logo.
How can people engage with FOLDE from wherever they are?
Our website offers an edited selection of our products for purchase online as well as journal articles about our favourite artists, books, walks and outdoor experiences. On Instagram, we share the daily goings-on in the shop as well as many of our outdoor adventures when we’re not behind the counter.
Anything we’ve missed? Anything that you’re excited to share?
FOLDE will be appearing as a pop-up at Planted Cities at King’s Cross from 23 to 26 September, which is an event that aims to bring people and spaces closer to nature. We’re also working on a series of readings and workshops with some of our authors and makers, such as basket-making with local willow weaver Yanina Stockings. In spring 2022, we plan to launch FOLDE Out, a series of walking retreats for people who are looking to explore Dorset whilst widening their outdoor experiences as part of a small and supportive group.
Ready to bring more nature into your life, wherever you are?
Self-Help for Real Lives
How we’re reframing self-help as the collective together and how you can get involved.
We’re used to thinking about our bodies, of seeking out gyms, personal trainers and diets. It’s on us to find the thing that will give us more energy, a sleek bum or hair, a fitter body. We’re used to that responsibility and autonomy when we make decisions about what we look like and how our body functions. Plus, we know there are such things as gyms. We know we can join a running club. We know that we can pick up any magazine or newspaper and get advice on diet and fitness.
But do we draw the same parallels with our emotional and psychological life? Put us in the same situation, with the aim to feel less foggy, glum, confused, and let’s play that out. Who do you call? Where do you go? What’s in town that might actually appeal? Then we’re at more of a loss.
Alongside all this talk of mental health (which really is what it is, if we’re going to have to name it) we’re now grappling with ideas of mental wellbeing. Just as we’ve been taught to value our bodies with exercise and good nutrition, we’re now being taught to be proactive and curious in how we value our minds, our emotional health, ourselves. We’re not talking GOOP attainability and being our best possible selves we ever could be, we’re talking about getting our mental health on our own agendas. Of having a conversation with an actual human being as we buy that kale. Of picking up a good book, rather than just chasing down the To-Do List. Of volunteering for a Disaster Relief effort and not just shaking our heads at the news. Of being active participants in our lives and communities, and not just passive consumers.
That might mean learning the five-a-day’s to getting mentally and emotionally savvy as defined by the New Economics Foundation: connection, being active, paying attention, life-long learning, and helping others. Or figuring out how to get more of something into your life, whether that’s community, creativity, or curiosity. Or looking at how to untether from our tech and get away from our screens and into nature. Or learning like our kids about such things as emotional intelligence, resilience, and mindfulness, and, yup, Happiness (with that capital ‘H’). Even looking to figure out what spirituality or meaning or purpose might be in the context of our own lives.
Sometimes it might even mean specific help with a life situation: always work, maybe aging, illness, death, urgh? There’s also relationships, and love, sexuality and divorce, to contend with; parenting and the teenage years. The universals we all go through on an individual level for which there are now avenues of support and advice so you don’t have to go it alone. Others are going through this too, and we can negotiate it together.
We’re getting beyond self-help. As everyone (let’s face it this applies to you too) contends with major life issues, what this emerging sector is saying is you are not alone. That’s a huge shift from that hard-faced individualism, with its focus on sucking it up; to recognizing that there are other people who share those same trials, and that can come together around the personal issues that we must all contend with.
Over are the days of navigating life alone.
We’re building a guidebook to life that can help us navigate our world from wherever we are. You can help us by:
A Magazine Prescription from Danielle Mustarde at London's magCulture
Award-bagging writer Danielle Mustarde writes her prescription for the independent magazines to seek out in uncertain times.
For the second in our Culture Therapy Series, we invited award-bagging writer and shop manager at London's magCulture, Danielle Mustarde to write a prescription for independent magazines to seek out in these uncertain times.
Looking for more suggestions, magCulture now offers a quarterly boxset.
We hope you find many new discoveries amongst these selections for whatever ails you.
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The push and pull of the sea
The sea contains multitudes and it is exactly this complexity that keeps calling designer Sarah Robertson to it in moments of loss and need.
Wild and calm. Chaotic and beautiful. Bold and soft.
The sea has its contradictions. And, for as long as I can remember, I have been drawn to the push and pull of it.
From embracing the joys of wild swimming and overcoming panic while scuba diving to my rehabilitation through water therapy and evenings spent watching sunsets over the ocean, blue spaces have helped me heal and grow.
In many ways, the sea is a metaphor for our own life experiences; the ups and downs and ebbs and flows. At its most tranquil, it can relax and restore us. At its most violent, we can lose ourselves in its grip.
What I love most about water is its capacity to shift us into a more mindful state. It can lower stress, decrease anxiety and relieve depression. And as well as settling our thoughts and lifting our moods, it can bring us back to the here and now — help us feel grounded and present — and sharpen our senses.
The sea has always been a kind of therapy for me, and I have felt the emotional, mental and physical benefits first-hand. My mind can be elsewhere — ruminating over the past, worrying about the future — but as soon as my feet touch the wet sand and the waves reach my bare toes, I am right where I need to be. At these points, I feel alone in the most reassuringly positive way, and the solitude it brings allows curiosity and creativity to thrive. It is almost elevating.
Above: Luskentyre Beach at Sunset, Isle of Harris, Scotland by Nils Leonhardt | Top: Golden Hour at Luskentyre Beach, Isle of Harris, Scotland by Nils Leonhardt
In his book, Blue Mind: How Water Makes You Happier, More Connected and Better at What You Do, Wallace. J. Nichols, a marine biologist, investigates how water — literally and metaphorically — helps us move into a flow state. He coined this the "blue mind". Nichols examines why we are attracted to lakes, rivers, oceans and pools and why being near water sets our minds and bodies at ease. He illustrates the importance of our water connection — its almost magical quality — with the science behind it and the ways in which it allows our thoughts to wander freely. Is it any wonder then that some of the greatest artists, musicians and writers have been moved by the sea? Or why so many of us are called there to explore ideas or seize inspiration? If you’re looking for an a-ha moment, maybe the coast is calling you too.
Something else I cherish is that feeling of awe. The sense that we are a part of something vast, far bigger than ourselves, that connects all of us. So perhaps it is no coincidence, then, that we are also drawn to the sea to celebrate death as well as life.
My dad, who passed 30 years ago, was from Stornoway on the Isle of Lewis. Throughout my life, I had always felt this tug to travel to the Outer Hebrides, and when I first visited almost 10 years ago, it was the beginning of my love affair with the islands. We camped by beaches most nights and I don't think I've ever felt so wild and free. We were at one with the elements and upon visiting the Isle of Harris, which is connected to Lewis, I felt so at home. The coast captured my heart; I have never been anywhere else quite like it. The trip brought me a feeling of togetherness, even with someone who was no longer with me.
I believe this sense of connection is why, in the months following the loss of my son during pregnancy in June 2016, I found my visits to the sea so comforting. When we travelled that year, some days I would swim out into the ocean and edge as far out as I could go, always a little further than was comfortable, because at my most empty I could feel exactly what I needed to feel and be wholly and fully me. I could give every thought its turn to surface and release. It was painful but it was freeing, in a way. And while I couldn't bring my son back, I could somehow bring him closer to me.
Luskentyre Beach, Isle of Harris, Scotland by Nils Leonhardt
Water, in this sense, has been essential for my healing. It shifts and shapes the land, and I believe in its ability to shift and shape us too. It certainly gave me the time and space to evaluate how I live my life and do my work. And it hit the reset button on my relationship and my business and truly started the healing process. It's what encouraged me to make some radical changes.
Being by the sea makes me feel small — in the best possible way — as though I am a part of something bigger. It’s where my troubles drift away and I find connection again. This awareness draws me back to the sea most weeks. On the bad days, when my anxiety and depression have the upper hand, it brings me solace and stillness. I can sit with my emotions, filter out the noise, and bring my awareness back to what supports me. On the good days, I can cultivate more of that good stuff, which I sometimes feel inspired to share, a lot like these words.
Water has been the antidote to my messy middle. And it has brought me closer to those I love, to those I miss and, perhaps most importantly, to myself. It is why I will always return to the sea; my safe place, where I can remember and celebrate, and where I can feel at my most alive.
Salt Marches, Isle of Harris, Scotland by Nils Leonhardt