Prompted by Nature

In this meditation and writing prompt, I guide you into stillness and then ask the following prompt questions to help you to create that creative space for yourself.

1.  Cast your mind back to a time in which you felt at your most creative.  See it in your mind vividly.

2.  What was the setting?  What were the circumstance?

3.  How did you feel in your mind?

4.  How did you feel in your body?

5.  What did you create as a result OR what were you in the process of creating?

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6.  What do you now need to do in order to recreate those circumstances?  NB.  If you were pregnant at the time, this doesn't mean you have to get pregnant again!  This is just in terms of the state of creativity you were in ;-)

7.  What needs to be released within you that would help you to move towards this space of creativity?

8.  What can you let go of or minimise in order fro you to create time for that creativity to arise?  e.g. Less time on social media/watching TV etc.

9.  If you had a daily creative practice, what would that realistically look like?   What do you need to do to create and commit to this?

10.  What about a weekly practice?  A time for you to spend longer on your creativity.  What would that realistically look like for you?  What do you need to do to create and commit to this?

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Once you have answered the questions, my only advice to you is to create!  Don't question your creativity or place judgement or expectation on it before you've even started.  Just create!

Remember I'm always over @prompted.by.nature on Instagram and on my website www.promptedbynature.co.uk

Sending you love.  Speak soon, Helen x

In this interview, I speak with nature documentary-maker, Nina Constable.

Nina is an award winning self-shooting director based in Cornwall, UK. Her films have screened in festivals globally and her work has featured in a number of broadcasts including BBC Springwatch, BBC Countryfile, ITV, Channel 4, Channel 5, CNN,The Guardian Online & WWF UK and her photography has featured in BBC Wildlife Magazine, WWF Action Magazine, BBC News Online, ITV News online and in a number of other publications.  Journey to the Sea, a 6 part series directed, filmed and edited by Nina for WWF UK now sits on Sky NATURE and another short film produced for WWF on Basking sharks was shortlisted for the Global Sustainability Film awards. Nina was the Winner of Cornwall Film Festival's Golden Chough Film Award 2015 & was named as one of Cornwall's 30 under 30 businesses to watch class of 2018 by Cornwall's Chamber of Commerce.  From conservation filmmaking to social documentary, Nina has a keen eye for filming and a talent for storytelling. Often working completely independently Nina's work offers an intimacy and honestly that underpins her unique style.  Dedicated to capturing and exploring the world we live in Nina believes in the power of film and photography to educate and inspire and, ultimately, to protect.

This was one of those interviews that just flowed. Nina is naturally as keen to talk as I am and her experience, expertise and enthusiasm for her work shines through everything she talks about.

You can find more about Nina as well as view her freely-available series, Wild World, which we discussed in the interview, on her website www.ninaconstablemedia.co.uk and on her Instagram @ninaconstablemedia.

As always I’m over at www.promptedbynature.co.uk and on Instagram @prompted.by.nature and on facebook @promptedbynature and on my personal page on Insta @pbn_helen All being well I have a few spaces left for my October day retreats for women. Pop over to the events page on my website for more information about those.

Remember to stay around until the end of the interview to hear about the follow-up meditation and writing prompt I’ve created for you inspired by my chat with Nina. Enjoy the conversation and I’ll speak to you after.

Welcome to this meditation and writing prompt for my interview with Avni Trivedi.  In this meditation you will re-engaging with your sense of touch in a simple lying down meditation using the hands to ignite your creativity.

As with all prompts, place no judgment on your creativity - just start! :-)

Happy writing, Helen x

www.promptedbynature.co.uk

@prompted.by.nature

Re-connecting with the Wisdom of your Body

Hello and welcome to a new series of Prompted by Nature! It’s so good to be back! I have some amazing interviews with some incredible, inspiring souls for you and I’m very excited about getting starting up again! I hope you had a wonderful, if slightly different summer. We stayed in the UK and visited family in Somerset and London.

Onto episode one!

In this episode, I speak with Avni Trivedi. Avni is an experienced and intuitive practitioner using touch and movement to help people to connect with their bodily wisdom. She is a Women’s Health and Paediatric Osteopath, Birth Doula, Zero Balancer and Non-Linear Movement Teacher. Her podcast, Speak From the Body’ explores themes such as embodiment, stress, trauma, hormones and pleasure.

In this episode we discuss:

Avni has a regular gentle and online workshop called ‘Moving Through Loss’, which uses touch, breath and movement to connect with where loss is held in the body. It’s a safe space in which you can work privately. She also has a longer course based on the workshop, which she’ll be announcing soon. https://www.avni-touch.com/moving-through-loss

You can find Avni on her website avni-touch.com and on her beautiful podcast, Speak From the Body, which is available on Apple podcasts. She is also @avnitouch on IG and Twitter

As always, you can find me on my website www.promptedbynature.co.uk where you can find my new outdoor-inspired blog, a few extracts of my own writing and all information about my events if you are a local and need to get out into the woods and re-connect with your creativity. There are a few spots left for my autumn day retreats and weekly writing classes so do pop over there if you’re local to East Sussex and need some forest time! I’m also on IG @prompted.by.nature where you can find my nature-inspired writing prompts and on my personal page @pbn_helen.

Remember to stick around after the interview to hear about the meditation that follows this episode inspired by my interview with Avni.

Enjoy the conversation and I’ll speak to you after!

Welcome to series two of the Prompted by Nature podcast.

In this episode I talk about:

Please go to www.promptedbynature.co.uk for all information or you can find me on Instagram @prompted.by.nature and Facebook @promptedbynature and for all information and updates about the Benfield Valley Project, you can go to @the.benfield.valley.project on Instagram or @benfieldvalleyproject on Facebook.

For my personal page in Insta, you can find me at @pbn_helen

Enjoy!

Helen

A little solo episode reflecting on the wonderful people you’ve heard from over the past few months.

I speak about:

As always, find me at www.promptedbynature.co.uk and on Facebook and Instagram @prompted.by.nature

Have a wonderful summer and I’ll speak to you soon!

Helen x

In this visualisation, we take a journey into the Merlin's Cave of your creativity, collecting objects to inspire your writing.  

You are guided into the cave and then there is a three minute silence for you to explore the space.  We finish with a grounding practice and you are invited to start writing, using the objects you found to create a piece of imaginative writing.

Enjoy!

Helen x

www.promptedbynature.co.uk

Hello and welcome to episode 14 of Prompted by Nature. And today is the final episode of this series. I’m now in the process of interviewing new voices and am so excited about what’s to come this year. Next week will be a solo episode from me summing up everything I’ve learnt from this series’ guests, where things are now and a hint at what’s to come. But that’s for next week!

So back to today’s episode. Today you’ll be hearing from he lovely Karen Collins of Scotland-based weaving and natural arts company, Naturally Useful. Naturally Useful is based at the Pole Barn, Marcassie Farm, a family-owned organic small holding nestled in the fertile plains of the Laich of Moray in north-east Scotland.

Karen’s has a passion for using materials that are locally-sourced or grown by herself using her own willow, which she grows on her own acre of land. Karen grows 25 different varities or willow and grows plants for plant dying. She also sources wool from local farmers which she uses in her non-skin rugs and tapestries. Karen is inspired by the land and gathering and sourcing her materials from the space around her, to then transform into beautiful, useful products that enrich people’s homes and enliven their souls. Karen uses her skills to teach and empower others through her gap year program and ongoing courses, which she runs at her workshop. She says that all anything takes is practice, practice, practice. For Karen, making is a meditation and as she says in the episode, when her hands are busy, her mind is still. She believes firmly that ‘learning by doing’ is a fundamental path to self expression and that through creative engagement in a task, we both connect to oneself, the natural world and the finished product developing confidence in ourselves.

In this episode, we discuss:

I first found Karen on Etsy, when I was looking to treat myself to a handmade wicker basket for my bike (I have my son behind me so it’s easier than trying not to hit him in the face with my bag constantly). I was enamoured by the fact that Karen grows all the willow she uses just outside her own front door and hand-weaves them herself and so was thrilled when she agreed to be on the podcast.

You can find Karen on her website www.naturallyuseful.co.uk. The shop link there will take you through to her beautiful Etsy shop, which you can also find by searching ‘Naturally Useful’ on etsy.com and is full of hand-woven treasures like the hanging baskets Karen speaks about, urns, hand baskets (for all your foraging needs!), bike baskets like mine and lots more! You can also find her on Instagram and Facebook @naturallyuseful

As always, you can find me over on Instagram @prompted.by.nature or on my website www.promptedbynature.co.uk And if you enjoy this or any of my other episodes, please do give it a five-star review and leave a comment if you have time.

Remember to stick around until the end, when I’ll give you a little insight into the meditation and writing prompt that follows this episode.

Enjoy the conversation and I’ll speak to you after.

The prompt for this episode is a little different to what I usually do.  Dawn kindly told two stories, and this prompt is based on the second of those stories, Banorie.

My suggestions for this prompt are as follows:

Listen to the story lying down with your eyes closed and allow Dawn’s voice to guide you through the story.  Then stay for a while and begin writing whatever comes through inspired by the themes, characters, motifs, conversations

Take notes as she speaks

Write a conversation between different characters, develop a plot line, create you own story or poem based on one or the characters - perhaps a back story of bring them into the modern day

Write a song based on the story…

There are so many ways you could engage with this piece and the only limit is your creativity! ;-)

Enjoy!  Helen x

www.promptedbynature.co.uk

www.instagram.com/prompted.by.nature

Hello and welcome to episode 13 of Prompted by Nature. How are you? It’s been a little while, hasn’t it! I admit I wasn’t expecting to take a break but I gave myself a moment to take a breath and now it’s over a week since I released an episode - perhaps I needed it! With lockdown beginning to ease, I’ve re-started my outdoor writing and meditation sessions in Brighton and Uckfield in East Sussex. My writing classes for women take place in the beautiful forest at Stanmer Park every Wednesday 10.15am-11.15am and I have a summer day retreat at the always magical Wilderness Woods in Uckfield, not too far from Tunbridge Well. My next one is Thursday 20th August 10am-4pm. All details for all of my events can be found on the events page of my website.

This week we’re in for another treat as I speak to the lovely Dawn Nelson.

Dawn Nelson, also known as DD Storyteller, lives in a village on the beautiful South Downs and has had a passion for stories all her life, from the epic sagas of the old worlds to the anecdotes shared between friends at the dinner table.

As a storyteller she writes and performs both interactive stories and traditional tales, as well as creating story-based events and workshops for all ages. The nature that surrounds her has influenced many of her stories and she loves to incorporate the outside world and ancestral wisdom into her performances for young and old.

She believes that one of the ways we can reconnect with the Earth is through story. Our ancestors left the answers right there, coded into their tales: be kind to each other, do not take your fellow animals for granted, create strong bonds and respect the earth.

She believes that, like nature, stories have a rhythm and once we have relearned the rhythms and patterns present in our ancestor’s tales, we will be able to hear when nature tells us its own stories, through its rhythms and patterns. What’s more, we’ll want to listen.'

In this episode we discuss:

Dawn finished off our conversation with a beautiful telling of the story of ‘The Green Woman of the Hill’ (I recommend closing your eyes to listen - it’s so evocative!) and you’ll also find a little bonus story form Dawn in the writing prompt episode that follows this.

You can find Dawn at www.ddstoryteller.co.uk On her Patreon www.patreon.com/ddstoryteller On Instagram: @dd_storyteller on Facebook: @ddstoryteller and on Twitter: @dawnstoryteller

As always, I’m at www.promptedbynature.co.uk (remember to check the for my events if you’re a local) and over on Instagram and Facebook @prompted.by.nature.

Remember to stick around after when I’ll give you a little insight into the meditation and writing prompt that follows. In the meantime, enjoy the conversation and I’ll speak to you after.