My story

Hi,

My name is Kirstin and I’m a quirky, quiet natured, neuro-divergent who finds an outlet in creative writing inspired by the natural world.

As a child I looked forward to summer holidays spent with my gran, hiking around different beauty spots in the UK. My gran really was a big inspiration to me, she was a free spirit, so independent and full of adventure. I never had that in me, although I secretly wished I was more adventurous, I was always a bit more anxious and sensitive. As an adult I got caught up in the rat race of the corporate world and never questioned if that life was authentic to me and whether I was happy or not. In reality, I was going through the motions and I had no idea who I was.

I think 2020 and Covid was a catalyst for change for so many people and it was like that for me. At the time, I was living in a big city, recently diagnosed with social anxiety and I realised my lifestyle and routines were not serving me. I felt drawn to an online aromatherapy course and loved every part of it. For the first time I felt some passion and excitement stir within my apathetic self. Add to that my very good friend (she knows who she is!) who was an inspiration to me, and I started to imagine a different life for myself, full of new possibilities. I ended up hatching a plan to move to the countryside.

Fast forward three years and I’m living in the beautiful Lake District. You would think at that point all my dreams were starting to come true, but in reality, depression started to sink in and I had a lot of work to do on my mental health. That will be an ongoing journey for me, but what I found the most healing (still do!) were regular solo walks in nature, especially in the early mornings. I found my true self reflected back at me in nature, and it felt safe, grounding, with the dependable ways of nature soothing my anxiety. Through those regular walks and hikes I found the inspiration to write. I started taking a notebook with me on my walks so that I could stop and write.

I always thought I would like to create a blog one day and this is a big step towards living my dream life. I want to share things I have written during the first few years that I moved to the Lake District and add to those stories, my experiences now with foraging herbs, creating herb infused oils and essential oil blends. Most of all this blog is meant to be authentic and it is important to me that I record my imperfect journey with mental health, sustainability, aromatherapy and my journal entries inspired by nature. I stress ‘imperfect’ because I often feel overwhelmed when I want to make changes in my life, whether that’s trying to live more sustainably, authentically or when my knowledge is limited on something. But I tell myself that I have to start somewhere and it’s ok to not live the perfect sustainable or authentic life or to be where others are at. I hope you enjoy reading these posts and they inspire you to live your own authentic life.