All posts

You are the world’s leading expert on being you – but only partially. Unfortunately, you are also standing in the worst possible place from which to see yourself entirely clearly. Self-understanding, to know yourself, is an inward focused activity. Maybe you reflect, journal, take personality tests and do the work of inward processing. Most of this is genuinely effective, but (aside from our internal biases, positive and negative) there is a problem. In her book Insight, orga

“Sabbath rest is not slamming on the brakes until you screech to a stop for a single day of pause before revving up again but to set your tempo of being to the lapping of the waves upon the patient shore so the rhythm of nature matches the rhythm of your life remembering that you are nature as well.” David Gate Three years ago, a friend gave me a card with this quote from a poem by David Gate. They knew I aspired, and perhaps deeply desired, to live from a steadier, more grou

When Nature isn’t There for You At the end of The Reset gathering this month, someone asked a great question – What do you do when nature isn’t there for you anymore? They were referring to the way that the recent hot and dry weather in central and southern UK has left much of the landscape looking tired and dried out – not providing the lush, green expanse that we might retreat into to feel refreshed and connected. It was a question that resonated with me, as nature is often

I should be on a walking pilgrimage right now. However, the plans I had made to walk from Glasgow to Iona, via Kilmartin Glen, had to be postponed. My pilgrimage companion, my dog Wallace, is too poorly to walk 15 miles a day for two weeks just now. As I look out at the heavy August rain here on the Isle of Mull, on one level I’m quite relieved that I’m not going. The level that enjoys being dry and warm and cosy. But on a deeper level I’m disappointed. The level that apprec

The Wheel Turns Even Through a Screen: Nature Based Spiritual Direction in the Age of Zoom Earlier this spring I found myself mid-sentence telling my spiritual director about a deep longing I couldn't quite find the words for. My heart was aching and I was circling around a question of whether God was present in the midst of my grief, when two crows landed on the fence outside my window. I stopped talking. She noticed, paused, and asked what had caught my eye. Crows have arri

A practical, research-grounded alternative to personality typing If you work one-to-one with others sooner or later you might reach for a map. Spiritual directors, counsellors, and coaches often find themselves wondering – who is this person? What is shaping their choices? What are they avoiding? What gives them life? What might help them grow? For years, personality typing systems such as MBTI, the Enneagram and similar tools have been used to open up those questions. MBTI w

In my earlier posts on breathwork, we looked at how the simple act of noticing your breath can help you discover the Divine right under your nose. We also explored how coherent breathing offers a simple reset for calm and resilience by soothing the nervous system. Once we know how to use the breath to slow down and create a sense of internal safety, we can explore more active breathwork. While gentle practices like coherent breathing focus on balancing the autonomic nervous s

Can you remember a moment when you felt truly heard? How did you feel? Maybe seen and accepted, connected, known or loved…maybe it led to laughter or tears…maybe there was joy, maybe there was sorrow. Maybe some or all of the above. At its heart Spiritual Direction is about deep listening – listening deeply to another person, listening to what is said and what is left unsaid…listening out for echoes of the deeper desires and longings that lie beyond words. Crucially it is als

The Fractal Dimension of Stress Reduction Imagine you have an hour to recover after a stressful week. Which of these four places would you choose? Vote below. Please choose before reading on. There is no correct answer, although there are some interesting reasons why one landscape might appeal more than another. Nature is not one kind of place I doubt we think of nature as if it were a single type of environment – of course it's not. It might mean sitting beside a river, walk

Made to Wonder: Spiritual Direction for the Neurodivergent Soul There is a particular kind of exhaustion that comes from spending years trying to think in shapes that don’t fit you. Many neurodivergent people know it well. The constant effort required to translate your inner world into something legible, linear, and neatly packaged. This invisible labour never quite stops. The fatigue and loneliness that comes with never quite feeling seen, known or fully understood is very r

We might assume that character strengths are a result of our spiritual practice but I think the loop runs both ways. In this post, I want to introduce (probably) the most scientifically rigorous personality test, useful in the world of spiritual direction: the VIA Character Strengths Survey and get you started with some ideas about how you might find it useful. Spiritual practice can become strangely vague. We may know we want more depth, more steadiness, more connection, mor

Last week I was lucky to be in Assisi, a place I love. I identify with Francis of Assisi - his deep care for nature and creation, his appreciation of quiet spaces, and his love of community and life. Because running in nature is one of the ways I connect with God and myself, I usually like to explore new places on foot. This time, I climbed Mount Subasio, the mountain where Francis would go to pray above the city. Although I’d set off early in the morning, it was already warm

Building on from my previous post on the breath I want to share a breathing practice that you can use day to day to help bring, and build, calm. Coherent Breathing, sometimes called resonance breathing, is where you intentionally regulate your breathing rate to about five to six breaths per minute, which is achieved by slowing your breath cycle down to around 12 seconds per breath. The fundamental practice of slow, rhythmic breathing has roots in ancient traditions like Yogic

A pilgrimage is traditionally understood as a journey undertaken to a sacred or spiritually significant place, often for religious devotion, personal transformation, or spiritual growth. That definition carries centuries of history: long roads, holy sites, and days or weeks spent walking with intention. But recently, I discovered something quietly transformative. Even a short walk of, say, ten minutes, twenty minutes or the length of a lunch break can become a pilgrimage when

There are moments when words become a kind of interference. Perhaps you know this feeling. You arrive somewhere carrying something enormous, something that does not yet have a shape, and the last thing you need is someone trying to give it one: A faith that has shifted beyond recognition. A relationship that has broken. A loss that is still too close and too raw to be spoken about coherently. Someone, with the best of intentions, reaches for words. Explanations. Encouragement

A few days ago, I walked from a spectacular viewpoint down into a valley alive with signs of spring, and used the walk as a simple nature prayer practice. The path wove through woodland, old mine workings and quarry ground, then back up towards the start. It was one of those walks where spring was delightful and hard to miss. Wood sorrel was flowering in the shade. New birch leaves were almost impossibly fresh, soft and vulnerable. Ferns were beginning to unfurl, honeysuckle

Sometimes we can find ourselves thinking about something over and over again, with a sense that something isn’t quite right or needs to change. It can be hard to know if we’re overthinking as we go round the same mental loops, or whether our intuition is trying to tell us something important. We ask ourselves, ‘Is this my anxiety, or is this something I need to listen to?’ but it can be hard to find an answer as our thoughts feel unsettled and we lack peace. Perhaps there’s a

Let's begin by noticing the very thing that you may have been missing. That which literally takes place under your nose. Your breath. Take a moment now to notice how you’re breathing. Are you breathing through your nose or through the mouth? Where are you breathing – into your chest or down to your belly area? How does your body move as you breathe? How long are you breathing in for – short or long inhales? What happens at the top of your in-breath – do you pause or go straig

Does nature have value? Of course it does. But how do we measure that value? And what happens when the way we measure something changes the way we see it? One dominant way of measuring nature’s value has been as a material resource for humans to use. Land is valuable if it produces crops, timber, grazing, minerals, housing, profit. That measure has shaped much of the modern world, not always beautifully or kindly. Another way of valuing nature emerged through the protection a

What holds you in place amidst the swirling currents of life? Do you have a shape to your day or your week? Are there activities or practices that keep you heading in the right direction? Are there things you do that give you energy, life and meaning, or bring you joy? If so, you already have a spiritual rhythm, or what the Christian tradition has long called a Rule of Life. At its heart, a Rule of Life is about discovering what holds you steady amidst the ever-changing natur