HeadRightOut

Arry Cain set off in March 2012 to run the equivalent of 40 marathons in 40 days along a brand new trail, the Wales Coast Path. She would become the first person to run around the perimeter of Wales, including the Wales Coast Path. and officially launched the opening of the Path in Cardiff Bay, as she ran her last mile of a gruelling 1027 miles on 5th May. Ten years on, Arry shares her determination, her difficulties and more about the doubters that she could even achieve such an immense challenge. The impact of some of those messages left a deep scar that was hard to heal, but here she talks to Zoe about how she feels ready to reconnect with her running mojo. Arry also retells with enthusiasm and an element of terror, some of the experiences of her other adventures, particularly cycling. Arry really knows the meaning of what it is to HeadRightOut.   SHOW LINKS: Arry Cain - Website: Website: https://dragonrun1027.wordpress.com/ (This is currently being updated to reflect on the run, upcoming adventures and everything in between!) Instagram: @arrycain Twitter:  @arrycain Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Dragonrun1027     Illustration - Website: www.arrycainillustration.com       Where to find HeadRightOut and Zoe on social media: https://www.facebook.com/HeadRightOut/ https://www.instagram.com/headrightout/ https://twitter.com/HeadRightOut https://www.linkedin.com/in/zoe-langley-wathen/ zoe@headrightout.com Music used in this episode: Intro, outro and transitions - ‘Stay Strong’ by Caffeine Creek Band SHOW NOTES: To follow FULL TRANSCRIPTION: To follow The stretch that should be known as 'Arry's Cliff', Llantwit Major (taken in March 2012).

Hannah Engelkamp talks about walking Wales with a spirited donkey, children, adventures and the pandemic. Her current passion is inspiring others to walk Slow Ways routes, a new network of direct paths, from settlement to settlement, across Great Britain.   Hannah is a writer and editor with a background in adventure magazines and websites. In 2013 she travelled waywardly around the circumference of Wales, 1000 miles, with a characterful donkey called Chico as her companion. In 2015 she published ‘Seaside Donkey’, a book and a feature-length film of the same, detailing her unusual adventure.   In this episode, Zoe talks with Hannah about her adventures with her young children, taking on the position of wardens on Bardsey Island for six months with her partner, and her experience of the pandemic, with no garden and two children to occupy. There are surprising similarities between donkey and toddler, Hannah reveals.   More recently, Hannah was appointed as the Culture, Imagination and Story Lead for Slow Ways, a project working towards creating a trusted network of walking routes that connect settlements and encourage people to walk and engage with the land for their everyday routines in addition to leisure walking. There will be a later episode of HeadRightOut in which full attention is given to Seaside Donkey, as Chico would naturally expect...   SHOW LINKS: Hannah Engelkamp - Website: www.seasidedonkey.co.uk (http://seasidedonkey.co.uk/shop-2/ for the book and film)  Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/seasidedonkey/ Twitter:  https://twitter.com/hannahengelkamp Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/SeasideDonkey   Slow Ways - Website: www.slowways.org Swarm including the link to the Google doc for submitting film clips from your walk. https://beta.slowways.org/Page/the-swarm-how-far-can-we-walk-in-a-weekend   Map to use for searching for routes needing verification or choosing new walks to pioneer: https://slowways.maps.arcgis.com/apps/instant/interactivelegend/index.html?appid=7a48a682d41d450b99772f2e25d15d29   Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/slowwaysuk/ Twitter:  https://twitter.com/SlowWaysUK Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/SlowWaysUK     Where to find HeadRightOut and Zoe on social media: https://www.facebook.com/HeadRightOut/ https://www.instagram.com/headrightout/ https://twitter.com/HeadRightOut https://www.linkedin.com/in/zoe-langley-wathen/ zoe@headrightout.com   Music used in this episode: Intro, outro and transitions - ‘Stay Strong’ by Caffeine Creek Band   SHOW NOTES: To follow   FULL TRANSCRIPTION: To follow

Ruth shares her passion for the mountains, becoming an international fell running champion, fast marathons and how mountain bike orienteering has captured her interest aged 60. She is the founder of Element, offering active courses for women in Wales. In 2012, Ruth Pickvance, an adventurous, retired international fell running champion and super-fast marathon runner, left her well-paid head of faculty role at a Sixth Form College, to set up Element. The business offers women the opportunity to find confidence in outdoor pursuits such as Yoga for Runners, Beginning Fell Running and Mountain Biking for Beginners. At sixty years old, Ruth herself has discovered that she enjoys mountain bike orienteering, which marries her love of the outdoors with the joy of moving her body with less impact on her joints than perhaps those marathons of her forties had created. Living in the beautiful Brecon Beacons, Ruth shares more about her involvement in local environmental projects and conservation, as well as offering some first-hand wisdom regarding facing our fears and stretching those comfort zones.   SHOW LINKS for RUTH PICKVANCE: Website: https://element-active.co.uk/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/elementactive/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/RuthPickvance   Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/elementactiveuk   ***PLEASE VOTE FOR HEADRIGHTOUT IN THE SPORTS PODCAST AWARDS:*** In the Best Urban and Adventure Category https://www.sportspodcastawards.com/categories/18   Where to find HeadRightOut and Zoe on social media: https://www.facebook.com/HeadRightOut/ https://www.instagram.com/headrightout/ https://twitter.com/HeadRightOut https://www.linkedin.com/in/zoe-langley-wathen/ zoe@headrightout.com   Music used in this episode: This Minimal Technology by Coma-Media from Pixabay Morning Garden - Acoustic Chill by Olexy from Pixabay The Cradle of Your Soul by lemonmusicstudio from Pixabay - Simple Piano Melody by ZakharValaha from Pixabay Intro, outro and transitions - ‘Stay Strong’ by Caffeine Creek Band SHOW NOTES: Welcome to the episode 00:51 Request for votes in the Sports Podcast Awards - Best Urban and Adventure Category - currently ranked in third place - this is likely to change 01:17 Different format for episode due to mic problems when recording. Please let me know if you like the format or preferred HeadRightOut’s original style 02:27 What to expect in our conversation. 03:23 Where Zoe and Ruth first met and Ruth’s bio: International Mountain Runner, Former British Fell Champion, fast marathon runner, exploring nature and founder of Element 04:06 How Ruth came into racing, visiting the Lake District one Christmas around 1985 and making a spontaneous decision 06:20 How quickly Ruth became good at the sport and why it touched a chord with her 08:42 How old Ruth was when she started racing and where her deep-rooted love of the mountains stemmed from 09:33 Zoe talks about the Gold Hill 10 race in Shaftesbury, Dorset - the strength needed running uphill vs the fear of running downhill 10:41 Where the fear comes from and how it affects us when running downhill 11:42 How to let go and deal with the fear head on 13:10 Understanding resilience both personally for Ruth and in general 15:13 What is fear, to Ruth? Recognising negative cycles and what we need 18:36 About perimenopause symptoms for Zoe 21:19 When menopause kicked in for Ruth and how she handled it 22:44 Ruth’s love for swimming and other activities - cycling, running, strength work, land management, walking 24:35 Zoe hearing about positive impact of exercise from other women in perimenopause including Jo Moseley 26:05 Ruth’s recommendations to see a GP or specialist doctor in menopause and HRT if symptoms are debilitating 26:42 Zoe’s experience with some of the perimenopause symptoms 27:27 Ruth talks about bringing curiosity to fear in order to see fear differently 29:09 Digging deep when the doubts and thoughts of being hopeless creep in 31:32 Mountain biking for beginners with Element - Ruth shares what some of the participants have said about the two-day course 35:28 What Element offers to women coming on the workshops and courses 38:14 Ruth’s volunteer work with Stump Up for Trees, planting a million trees 42:50 Guardian articles and reviews, Antonia Bolingbroke-Kent and Kate Rawles 44:42 Talking about Ruth’s days racing and fell running in the UK and Europe 46:08 Types of sponsorship available and the preference to not be fully professional as an athlete 48:32 Ruth’s HeadRightOut Moment 50:40 Running marathons and choosing fell running over the Olympics 51:57 Where to find Ruth on her website and on social media 53:50 Laughing about talking for fifty minutes. Thanks from Zoe to Ruth 54:40 Zoe shares Ruth’s PB for her fast marathon. Subscribe to Ruth’s newsletter for Element 55:08 Lou Lloyd’s HeadRightOut Moment - wild camping solo in the Brecon Beacons and WWOOFING on a smallholding 57:00 Zoe taking a short break to deal with family things 59:44 Please let Zoe know what you thought of the episode format 1:00:10 Please vote for HeadRightOut in the Sports Podcast Awards 1:00:43 Thanks to the listeners, thanks to the guests and an invitation to plan and then step out of your comfort zone 1:00:55 HeadRightOut Hugs to all 1:01:39  

After the sudden death of her husband, Sue Plastow and her family left their Italian truffle orchard to return to the UK. Less than 12 months later, she is finding her feet again with exciting plans ahead that involves outdoor adventures, good food and a space for women to walk and talk. Her children experienced a wonderfully feral upbringing of travel and freedom. Now it’s Sue’s turn to find adventures to honour her late husband’s memory. Her positivity and zest for life is infectious. While she is aware that she is still grieving, Sue knows that the only way forward is to reach back to old skills, reach out for support, and reach up towards the future. SHOW LINKS: Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/nakedtartufi/ https://www.instagram.com/englishlanguagefoodschool/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/nakedtartufi Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/nakedtartufi/ ***PLEASE VOTE FOR HEADRIGHTOUT IN THE SPORTS PODCAST AWARDS:*** In the Best Urban and Adventure Category https://www.sportspodcastawards.com/categories/18   https://www.facebook.com/HeadRightOut/ https://www.instagram.com/headrightout/ https://twitter.com/HeadRightOut https://www.linkedin.com/in/zoe-langley-wathen/ You can email Zoe: zoe@headrightout.com SHOW NOTES: An audio clip from Sue’s conversation [00:00] Zoe’s introduction to the guest [00:45] Thank you for voting and news about HeadRightOut being a finalist in the Podcasting for Business Awards in the Best Health & Wellbeing category. Request to vote in the Sports Podcast Awards [02:33] Sue Plastow’s bio across thirty years of family travelling and living abroad [03:58] Sue’s fears and reservations about adventuring with a young family of four children under the age of five [07:37] How Sue’s children, now young adults, have benefitted from a childhood of freedom and away from the conventional education system [08:52] Children barefoot and feral, roaming anywhere; living in the mountains, and near the Med, snowboarding, skiing and sailing [09:52] What her children are doing now and about their healthy emotional wellbeing [11:12] Why Sue thinks she’s always been resilient [12:24] Sue’s study/travel timeline, into a relationship, marriage and children, normal life attempt and then campervan adventures with the family in Canada [13:09] What you learn to live without - living simply on the road [14:36] Getting cold in Canada so moving to Dubai, doing desert drumming and sandboarding [15:27] Talking through the personal circumstances that’s brought Sue and family back to UK [17:23] Global Financial Crisis (GFC), Australia, Malaysia, South of France, Switzerland, Italy and Sue’s husband’s death [17:41] Quick thinking prior to travel corridors closing due to the pandemic - rapid move back to UK and how everyone is coping [18:32] Not wanting others to think they have to just crack on because Sue did [19:45] How Sue and the family have found the things they need to survive and move on; honouring her husband’s life [20:32] Sue looking back through her arsenal for skills to draw upon - what could she do? Cookery, social/communication, teaching English, gaining TEFL qualification [21:56] The importance of connection with other midlife women [23:57] Zoe’s similar experience of grief/loss [24:36] A lurching horror vs a transformation - not wanting to be prescriptive about grief [26:44] Message to all: You’re not alone and there are glimmers of hope [28:27] Zoe’s old saying from someone years ago ‘Out of every adversity…’ [28:42] The importance of food and travelling, cookery classes and a bridge between cultures [29:50] Travel adventures with food, outside and a podcast about it [30:36] New events kitchen - called Naked Tartufi [31:35] New concept of outdoor adventure, food and walking along the South West Coast Path - a Moveable Feast [32:23] A therapy, communication, tribe, group of women coming full circle from the bonding experiences of bringing up the family tribe [34:38] The magic of walking and talking [35:24] The impact of travelling so much on Sue and her children. Seeing a million ways to live a life [37:10] Sue’s HeadRightOut Moment facing her fears and driving her children in the snowy, icy mountains to their activities [38:02] Sue’s message that anyone can do it - if she can, they can [39:59] Discussing Sue’s presence on social media - Instagram, Twitter and Facebook, including both the Naked Tartufi account and English Language Cookery School and her podcast, Eat Yourself Alive [40:23] Zoe’s reflection on the episode [42:09] Zoe’s own HeadRightOut Moment from exactly two years ago - Mount Tremper, upstate New York, 100ScaryDays [43:26] Invitation to listen in next week - Ruth Pickvance next week’s guest - international champion fell runner, now running Element Active business - women in the outdoors [47:01] Grateful reminder for listeners to vote for HeadRightOut on Sports Podcast Awards in the Best Urban and Adventure category [47:42] HeadRightOut Hugs [47:56]

This is a compelling conversation between Zoe and Maria Roberts about transitioning from size 26 to size 10. Self-loathing and lacking in confidence, her family needed her. She knew that she would have to make changes. She had to start moving her body and change her lifestyle, despite attempting many unsuccessful diets from the age of ten. After her amazing 8 stone weight loss in her late forties, Maria has now discovered a new-found love for staying fit, being in the outdoors, cycling, canoeing and particularly going on mountain walks and challenges. Her most recent challenge, Ten-y-Fan was gruelling and took every ounce of determination, as she aimed for ten ascents of the highest peak in the Brecon Beacons, Pen-y-Fan. Maria continues to push her comfort zone limits to keep her fit and healthy, both physically, mentally and emotionally and feels she has finally gained her life, and her family back. SHOW LINKS: Maria's Instagram Maria's Twitter ***PLEASE VOTE FOR HEADRIGHTOUT ON THE SPORTS PODCAST AWARDS:*** In the Best Urban and Adventure Category https://www.sportspodcastawards.com/categories/18 Connect with Zoe: HeadRightOut on Facebook HeadRightOut on Instagram HeadRightOut on Twitter Zoe Langley-Wathen on LinkedIn Email Zoe directly HeadRightOut website  

  As a business advisor who feared heights, Jo Bradshaw never would have dreamed that just a few years later she would summit Mount Everest and lead expeditions across the world. Having now reached six out of the seven highest peak summits, on each of the seven continents, Jo shares how her biggest challenge found her learning to manage the blended symptoms of grief, menopause and lockdown, and how new adventures have since been born. In her conversation with Zoe, she is so incredibly honest about how severely her perimenopause symptoms affected her and how HRT has been a total gamechanger, giving back her life. While her last mountain is still on hold, Jo talks about her return to physical training: from the endurance walking and cycling events she designed last year, to the miles she needs to cover in her newest challenge, coming up in March 2022; a race in Lapland. SHOW LINKS: Jo’s website - www.jobradshaw.co.uk Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/_jobradshaw/ Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/jobradshawadventurer LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/jo-bradshaw-keynotespeaker/  ***PLEASE VOTE FOR HEADRIGHTOUT IN THE SPORTS PODCAST AWARDS:*** In the Best Urban and Adventure Category https://www.sportspodcastawards.com/categories/18 https://www.facebook.com/HeadRightOut/ https://www.instagram.com/headrightout/ https://twitter.com/HeadRightOut https://www.linkedin.com/in/zoe-langley-wathen/ zoe@headrightout.com SHOW NOTES:  

Siobhan Daniels inspires young and old alike. As a woman who has endured a variety of pains life had to throw at her, she is now not only living her best life into retirement, she's on a mission to encourage others to do that too, and to promote the enjoyment of growing older. Siobhan retired from the BBC, two years ago, after a thirty-year career working as a reporter, presenter, and producer in local news. Her life's rollercoaster involved being a single mum, taking a gap year from work to backpack solo around the world, suffering burn-out, ageism, and workplace bullying, all whilst dealing with grief, and multiple symptoms associated with peri-menopause. Knowing how much she had learned and grown from her back-packing adventure at forty-nine, after years of planning, Siobhan retired to travel the UK in her motorhome, championing and campaigning for companies, products and the public to see the good in ageing. In her words, ‘you are never too old for an adventure’. SHOW LINKS: Siobhan Daniels' website and blog: https://www.shuvonshuvoff.co.uk/blog Rachel Peru's podcast: https://www.rachelperu.co.uk/out-of-the-bubble-podcast HeadRightOut Moment from Charlotte Boenigk Personal training links: www.moreyou.online www.facebook.com/moreyoufitness www.instagram.com/moreyoufitness Free Your Instinct: www.freeyourinstinct.org www.facebook.com/freeyourinstinct www.instagram.com/freeyourinstinct   ***PLEASE VOTE FOR HEADRIGHTOUT ON THE SPORTS PODCAST AWARDS:*** In the Best Urban and Adventure Category) https://www.sportspodcastawards.com/ SHOW NOTES:  

Only the 10th person in history (the 4th woman and first swimmer from the Czech Republic), Abhejali Bernardová has completed the coveted ‘Oceans Seven’ - a physically gruelling and mentally demanding open-water swim across seven channels around the world. Zoe talks with Abhejali about her more recent challenge; an Extreme Ultra-Triathlon, crossing 1111kms from Dover to Prague. This conversation is definitely not just about swimming, running and cycling, however, as the deep and powerful methods of self-talk and managing the mind during endurance challenges are shared. With such a positive, thought-provoking and calm approach to this episode, it is an ideal opportunity to consider the condition of your own headspace prior to event preparation. SHOW LINKS: https://www.instagram.com/abhejali/ https://www.facebook.com/AbhejaliB https://twitter.com/abhejali?lang=en-GB https://abhejali.cz/ (Czech website - English site being built)   SHOW NOTES: *Please note error in the introduction - the date of editing the show is 2nd January 2022, not 2021 as stated. Zoe's introduction to the guest - Abhejali Bernardová [01:39] Abhejali's bio: from Czech Republic, 44yrs old, runner, open-water swimmer, extreme ultra-triathlete, member of Sri Chinmoy marathon team. She is the 10th person in history, 4th woman and first swimmer from Czech Republic to complete Oceans Seven. She has completed a 6-day run and is a multiple national champion at 100kms and 24 hours. She was nominated for both 2018 and 2019 world Open Water Swimming Woman of the Year. [02:15] Why 1111kms? [04:33] What is the Oceans Seven? [05:55] Self-transcendence and meditation to assist the mental side of physical challenges. [08.31] A choice of choosing challenge in order to learn more about self. [11:05] Meditation techniques used. [12:17] Dealing with the difficult mind stuff with meditation, mantras and music. [14:20] The Oceans Seven criteria. [17:56] The support crew on boat and land. [19:14] Characterising an ocean - describing its personality. [21:41] Witnessing the bioluminescence. [24:42] About the training and commitment. [25:48] Logistics of organising the Extreme Ultra-Triathlon. [30:17] Funding challenges. [32:10] What's next? [33:03] Abhejali's HeadRightOut Moment. [35:08] How Abhejali's life has been changed. [38:17] Wrapping up the conversation and her book (to come). [40:41] Zoe's reflection on her conversation with Abhejali. [43:56] A HeadRightOut Moment from Iain. [45:12] Gained weight - up to 16st. Lost weight through walking, running and then cycling- specifically, time-trialling. In two years, gained a certificate in the Best British All-Rounder Competition in cycling for averaging 23mph. How this moment has changed Iain's life. Brief introduction to next week's guest - Siobhan Daniels. Motorhome living, retired, positive and pro-aging campaigner. Request for listeners to follow, rate and review HeadRightOut. Ratings can also be left on Spotify now. Thanks, good wishes for 2022 and HeadRightOut Hugs. PHOTOS OF ABHEJALI: PHOTOS OF IAIN - THIS WEEK'S LISTENER HEADRIGHTOUT MOMENT:

  In this Solopisode, Zoe shares in more detail about the three pillars of HeadRightOut, EXPLORE, CHALLENGE, and OBSERVE. She talks about what they mean for her, for the podcast, and HeadRightOut as a business, and ultimately, what they mean for YOU. They have, after all been written with you in mind. Zoe knows she’s not alone in the way her brain operates and that there are billions of people, women in particular, who share the same fears, and the same pain points as her. Zoe believes these pillars will speak to you, as they have spoken to her, and she’s so excited to share them with you.   Why not take some time to EXPLORE what opportunities are open to you in your life? How you can make the CHALLENGES work for you with a little planning and belief in yourself. And with a daily or weekly journal, you could OBSERVE the impact it has on your routine, and open up further doors for you to adapt and grow. E.C.O. = EXPLORE, CHALLENGE and OBSERVE. Enjoy making magical inroads into your best life, making time and space to feel uncomfortable. Take risks and challenge yourself to HeadRightOut using Zoe’s EXPLORE, CHALLENGE and OBSERVE method. Make it part of your own ECO-system, and before you know it, it'll become habit. SHOW LINKS: https://www.facebook.com/HeadRightOut/ https://www.instagram.com/headrightout/ https://twitter.com/HeadRightOut https://www.linkedin.com/in/zoe-langley-wathen/ zoe@headrightout.com Belinda Kirk - Episode 11 on HeadRightOut talking about the benefit of adventure on wellbeing. Nahla Summers - Episode 9 and Stephie Boon - Episode 7 on HeadRightOut talking about how they avoid planning, preferring to fly-by-the-seat-of-their-pants. Nahla talks also about having 'blind optimism'. Julia Goodfellow-Smith - Episode 2 talking about planning for a bucket list and how to go about achieving these goals in her book, 'Live Your Bucket List'. Joanna Penn - Author and Creative Entrepreneur : Joanna Penn can be found on her website The Creative Penn Joanna also hosts both The Creative Penn Podcast and the Books and Travel Podcast. SHOW NOTES: Zoe introduces the outline and intention of this episode with the main focus being the three pillars of HeadRightOut. [00.23] Starting with request to hit 'follow' in your podcast app. Rate, review and share with a friend. Show them how to listen to a podcast if they've never done it before. [02:51] Monetisation - considerations for the future of sustaining the show. Feedback received along with unprompted requests to financially support the show and thanks. [03.50] Fresh new year approaching. Changes Zoe has made to her routine, including rising super-early and use of Google Calendar. [05:59] Potential for more Solopisodes than originally intended, if the listeners want them? Please let Zoe know - message on socials or zoe@headrightout.com. Can be on a variety of topics including perimenopause, caring for elderly parents, planning or packing for an adventure. [09:01] The Three Pillars of HeadRightOut - main focus of today's episode. General introduction to them. [10:40] About the first pillar - EXPLORE. The idea stage. Something has to change. You may not know where to start. It's a fallow time, like the autumn/winter time of preparing the land (for you - paving the way). [13.23] About the second pillar - CHALLENGE. The hardest stage and often the stage at which many cannot move past. The organisation of the adventure happens in this stage. Trust and self-belief feature heavily in this stage. [20:31] About the third and final pillar - OBSERVE. The best bit means experiencing and debriefing yourself. The importance of keeping a journal and/or a video/audio diary. Figuring out what has worked well and where you could improve for next time. Learning to accept that not everything goes to plan. Ask yourself a variety of questions during and after the challenge. You may have experienced Type Two Fun... [30:08] Zoe's reflection and summing-up of The Three Pillars of HeadRightOut. EXPLORE, CHALLENGE and OBSERVE. [36:45]

  Zoe chats with Belinda Kirk, who has over 26 years of experience in leading expeditions. She has witnessed the positive impact of undertaking outdoor challenges on mental health and wellbeing and believes that now, more than ever, adventure should be the go-to for ALL age-groups. She shares the foundations of her ground-breaking book, Adventure Revolution and the importance of having a mindset that includes comfort zone stretching in order to grow in confidence, developing long-lasting self-efficacy, self-esteem and resilience. Welcome back to Season Two Thank you for returning if you have listened before. About Zoe and about HeadRightOut. [00:37] Belinda Kirk introduction. [02:04] What is the difference between being outside and 'adventure'? 'Nature Effect' vs 'Adventure Effect'. [04:09] Choosing not just challenge, but uncertainty and adversity. Choosing to be uncomfortable and the benefits. Finding out what we're capable of and building resilience. [06:14] Belinda's personal take on the research around the impact of adventure on women in particular. [08:17] The importance of taking adventures at key turning points in our lives - not just as a teenager. [10:54] The 'invisibility' of midlife women and how they are the backbone of Britain. [14:06] Adventure Revolution - the book. Praise from Zoe and where it started. [15:50] How adventure is powerful for well-being and positive psychology. [16:47] Writing the book during lockdown. [19:25] How the book has been received. Feedback at Kendal Mountain Festival. [20:51] Does the Adventure Effect need maintaining? How? [22:14] What Zoe calls 'Microbravery'. [23:53] What's in Belinda's resilience toolkit? [26:26] Using the word 'failure' - a correction to reframe the definition and use it more positively. [29:03] If adversity and risk is good for us, how do we effect change? [31:47] Belinda's HeadRightOut Moment [37:01] About the Adventure Mind Conference. [38:55] Where to find Belinda. [40:41] Zoe's reflection on her conversation with Belinda. [42:01] Karen Wood's HeadRightOut Moment. [44:23] Next episodes coming up. Solopisode, Abhejali Bernardova, Siobhan Daniels and Jo Bradshaw. [50:38] Update on the Out-Out episodes. [52:16] Request to follow, rate and review the podcast. Request for listener's HeadRightOut Moments. [53:29] Belinda's Links: @explorerbelinda @explorersconnect belindakirk.com explorersconnect.com Click to book for the Adventure Mind Conference and find out more information (26th - 27th March 2022). To read my write-up of the 2020 Adventure Mind event, click here.   Karen Wood - a 'Cold Water Bobbing' HeadRightOut Moment in the sea at Sidmouth. Follow Karen on Instagram here. Cold Water Success on Sidmouth Beach Karen Feeling Happy After Her Cold Water Bobbing

Zoe talks to the inspiring Ursula Martin, who has built resilience and confidence over the years simply by realising she has to get on and do it - whatever that 'IT' is. She shares many powerful messages and despite the enormity of her challenges, Ursula is humble and profoundly honest to the end. She talks about how she doesn't want to be treated as a hero just because she walked over 3000 miles around Wales, following a cancer diagnosis, or over 5000 miles across Europe. Zoe struggles to comprehend the stories of the absence of visible pilgrims on the Camino, while Ursula shares her experience of reaching an empty Santiago, solo. Her retelling of the way her body handled her primal emotions on returning to Wales after two years and nine months, walking and surviving, is utterly gripping, animated and so full of joy, you could almost have been there. Ursula is candid and shares practical advice about how to apply lessons learned on the trail to simply get on and face difficult tasks, undertake an adventure, or stand your ground with fear, head-on. Zoe Langley-Wathen  00:15 Hello, and welcome to this the tenth episode of HeadRightOut, and the last episode of the season, I can't believe it. Zoe Langley-Wathen  00:25 My name is Zoe Langley-Wathen, and today I'll be talking to Ursula Martin, who has built resilience and confidence over the years simply by realising she has to get on and do it. Now while it's a longer than usual episode, it's also INCREDIBLE. Do listen to the end, because she shares powerful words, right to the very last. "Trust your strength of will." She talks about how she doesn't want you to treat her as a hero just because she walked over 3000 miles around Wales, or over 5000 miles across Europe. We all have an adventure in us, and no matter how big or small it is, it's probably more about confidence and self-belief than it is about ability. I'm also going to reveal news about multiple giveaways that I have in store for you to mark the end of this amazing first season. So, let's get into the conversation! Zoe Langley-Wathen  01:36 Today I am with the inimitable, Ursula Martin. Ursula Martin   01:41 Hello. Zoe Langley-Wathen  01:42 Hello, Ursula! Well, Ursula, I am going to have to just dive straight in and read your very brief bio, because this is such a snapshot of who you are and what you've been up to for the last few years. It in no way describes what you've REALLY been through, and that's what we're going to dig into, once we get into our conversation. Zoe Langley-Wathen  02:06 In 2011, at the age of 31 Ursula was diagnosed with ovarian cancer. She later spent 17 months walking 3700 miles around Wales, raising money and awareness of ovarian cancer. Since the walk Ursula went on to write a book about her experience, and it was called One Woman Walks Wales. Fast forward to 2018, and she set off to walk 5500+ miles across Europe, from Ukraine to UK, via Spain. Ursula completed her epic, EPIC solo journey on June 6th 2021 In Llanidloes, mid-Wales. Zoe Langley-Wathen  02:51 Just take a deep breath there, my goodness. Every time I hear something about One Woman Walks, or Ursula Martin, there are all of these words, these adjectives that come into my head... and I'm sure they're probably not the adjectives that you would use to describe you, Ursula? So one word, one word just straight off there - how would you describe yourself? I'm just interested to know. Ursula Martin   03:18 I don't know, one word is just 'stubborn', I guess. Zoe Langley-Wathen  03:23 Oh, I'm so pleased, you said that. I'm so pleased. Ursula Martin   03:26 I mean, that can summarise all the activities in one. It's not adventurous, it's stubborn. Zoe Langley-Wathen  03:26 you said. Zoe Langley-Wathen  03:36 Brilliant. I just threw that in there, I hadn't planned that one at all. When I was looking over your website, and just reading up a little bit more about you, obviously, I've been following you for quite a few years, but I just wanted to make sure that I had all of the information that I needed. I read on there that you described yourself as being 'confused and disorganised', and I'm thinking that just doesn't come across, at all. And you say you might feel that, but for me, I just see somebody who has such a lot of perseverance and tenacity, and strength, that you just inspire me. And I know you inspire huge amount of other people out there. Ursula Martin   04:19 I think part of that is my problem with writing bios about myself. I just really hate it. I don't like saying good things about myself, and so I usually try and be a bit kind of subversive and just say, 'Hi, I'm really crap, this is what I've done'. And then and let it speak for itself. 04:36 You know, Zoe Langley-Wathen  04:37 A lot of us struggle with that, and I know, some of the guests that I've had on have had an issue with that as well. It's just like how do we 'big up' ourselves and it's not really about bigging up ourselves. It's just about being honest, isn't it? Ursula Martin   04:49 It's marketing isn't it. It's sales and marketing. You can do anything, just go off and do it and you can describe that in one way. But when you're also trying to tell people about it, that's a different kind of skill altogether, and actually, not everybody who can go and climb a mountain can also tell a good story about it and get people interested in it. You know, it's lots of different skills all at once. Zoe Langley-Wathen  05:11 Yeah, masses of skills in there. So let's go back to, was it 2011, you had your cancer diagnosis? Ursula Martin   05:21 Yeah. Was it 2011? No, it was 2012. Zoe Langley-Wathen  05:25 Was it, okay? Ursula Martin   05:26 Yeah Zoe Langley-Wathen  05:27 Okay, Ursula Martin   05:27 Sorry. Zoe Langley-Wathen  05:28 No that's okay. The year of the Olympics. And so, which came first? The challenge that you used in the face of that cancer diagnosis, so that challenge that you decided to head off and walk? Or did you already have that Ursula-style adventure mindset? I'm kind of using 'adventure' loosely, but is it that doggedness that I want to do something I want to be outside? Yeah, what came first? Ursula Martin   05:55 Definitely, the mindset came first. I mean, in a way, what I've done since the cancer has just been a continuation of a path that I was already on, except that it just got much bigger, much more public, and much broader challenges. I think there are lots of ways to end up in a place where you are doing physical, you know, let's use the word adventure, even though I don't really like it. To be an adventurer, you can be a very physical person who loves sports, and loves physical challenges, and goes into ways that are an exploration of your physical capability, or different ways that I have actually come about it are more kind of... countercultural is not the right way to describe it. But in this way of seeing the way that life was supposed to be, as in, you're supposed to go to university, you're supposed to succeed, you're supposed to get a nice job and a mortgage and whatever and not wanting to do that. A rejecting of that, and pushing boundaries in all kinds of different ways, like behaviourally, and you know, there are all kinds of different ways in which you can push yourself and open yourself. And so I have a lot of friends who are heavily involved in festivals and parties, and there's a lot of exploration of boundaries and sense of opening yourself up to questioning your ideas about the way the world should be. Ursula Martin   07:23 So there I think adventuring is also a way to do that by saying, 'I'm going to go and sleep on the ground, outside'. And so all these people are going 'no, we're humans, we have houses and blankets and comfortable things. We don't give up our structured, safe way of life'. And then you go, 'but no, I can go and sleep on the ground. And I can not know where I'm going to sleep that night. And look at that I'm still okay, and safe and comfortable in the world'. And that's an exploration for me. That's an exploration of behaviour, expectations, and boundaries. Through that, which is something that I question and like to do in my life, I've come to physical adventure, as a way of doing that. Zoe Langley-Wathen  08:09 So you've actively sought out not conforming to what those expectations are? Ursula Martin   08:15 I was unhappy that I had to let go of things, and really I started doing that when I was about twenty-seven or so, twenty-five or twenty-seven. Just letting go of stuff. And the thing that was my first adventure was in 2007, or so, and I've done all kinds of things like hitching across Europe in 2007, or taking six weeks off work and just hitchhiking into Europe and doing this big circle into... I went to a couple of festivals in Germany. I went to Berlin for a week, and then went down into the Balkans. I went to stay on a farm in Croatia and then hitchhiked home, and that was six weeks, and that was this exploration of letting go of control of the future. Actually, the way that I kind of came to this was by the time I was twenty-eight, I was working in homeless hostel in Aberystwyth. This is 2008. I didn't enjoy the job, it was getting to me was getting me down a bit. I started to do a counselling training course, but I'd always been involved in social care, like as a care provider, not as a higher level social care stuff. I started to do this counselling course, as a move-on option. I realised how messed up I was, because that's what you have to do when you do basic counselling, is you have to look at yourself and I realised that I just needed to go travelling. In this real cliched kind of way, like 'what even is travelling?' What I started to do was explore spontaneity and letting go. I think that when you try and control the future, a lot, you're not trusting yourself that yo

Self-described as a ‘blind optimist’, Nahla cycled 3000 miles across America, despite not having owned a bike in twenty years and walked 500 miles the length of England, relying only on the kindness of strangers. In 2020, she made a world record by travelling 5007 miles on an ElliptiGO bike, through every UK city, in the middle of a pandemic. At the same time she was creating the biggest Strava art in England that spelled out the word, ‘KINDNESS’. Nahla's unique selling point is that she completes these challenges, asking for people to pledge an act of kindness for a stranger, rather than sponsoring money to a charity. Founder of the Sunshine People and a Culture of Kindness, Nahla has built up a strong following, inspiring others to use kindness to effect change, worldwide. Her profound experience of kindness during a period of deep grief led her to build her resolve to ensure others, at both a corporate and social level would benefit from kindness too. She has learned how to face fear and difficulties positively, by changing her mindset and encourages everyone to work on their self-belief by telling themselves, ‘I am enough’. Her new book, The Accidental Adventurer launched on November 1st 2021.   Zoe Langley-Wathen  00:14 Hello, and welcome back to HeadRightOut, the podcast that is here to encourage you to step out of your comfort zone and do things that scare you on a regular basis.   Zoe Langley-Wathen  00:26 My name is Zoe Langley-Wathen. I'm a writer, speaker, midlife adventure seeker - ooh, that rhymes. I'm a teacher, an artist, long-distance walker, plus a daughter, a mother and a wife. There are so many things that we all know we are, and there's so many more things that we could be. I wonder how many things you've wanted to do, but have never quite managed to get your head round doing them. Because they all feel a bit daunting or a bit big. Perhaps you think a bit TOO big for you? But believe me... they're not.   Zoe Langley-Wathen  01:08 Today, I have an amazing woman that's come to chat to us. Obviously, this is all about inspiring you to head out of your comfort zone, do something that scares you, and I think that this person is the most ideal person this week to talk to us. Nahla Summers is just an incredible woman that I've been following for years now and we actually had the pleasure of meeting up about eighteen months ago, and we had a great conversation. She is going to talk to us about her adventures that she's been on and what she does.   Zoe Langley-Wathen  01:45 Hello Nahla!   Nahla Summers  01:50 Well what an introduction and oh, I hope I meet the criteria of that. But thank you so much. That's ever so kind of you.   Zoe Langley-Wathen  01:59 I am just delighted that you agreed to come on the pod. So I'm going to read a bio for you Nahla. This is something that I think just encapsulates who you are, what you do in a nutshell, and then we'll kind of dig down into that a little bit more and just tease out some of the things that we both think are going to be of particular interest to our listeners.   Zoe Langley-Wathen  02:19 Nahla Summers is a cultural change consultant, award winner, author, public speaker, podcaster and the driving force behind a culture of kindness and '44 Rays of Sunshine'; it won the most inspirational book in 2017. Her story and how she overcame adversity has been inspiring businesses and people around the world. Nahla is the founder of Sunshine People, the social movement that inspired her to carry out yearly adventures to highlight the power that kindness has to transform societies. She was awarded a Point of Light Award from the Prime Minister for transforming the concept of sponsorship. Nahla cycled 3000 miles across America having not owned a bike in 20 years, she walked 500 miles from South to North England, relying only on the kindness of strangers. And in 2020, she made a world record by going 5007 miles on an ElliptiGO bike through every city in the UK, in the middle of a pandemic whilst also producing the biggest Strava art in England by writing kindness across it. Nahla's unique selling point is that she completes these challenges and asks people to show their support by doing an act of kindness for a stranger, rather than sponsoring money to a charity.   Zoe Langley-Wathen  03:36 As the founder of the CIC, Sunshine People, every year, she takes on a new challenge, and every year, she discovers something new about the power that kindness has on people. As an author of several books, including an award winning book in 2017, Nahla is an inspiring and established speaker. Among the many messages that she delivers, she shares how we can change the chatter in our minds to allow us to achieve anything we dream of how resilience is built, and when the world gives us lemons, how we can in fact, make lemonade. How the actions of one can change the world and therefore what we each do, really does matter. Nahla gives every leader, and every person that listens to her, the knowledge that they too can do anything they wish to. If SHE can, they most definitely can.   Zoe Langley-Wathen  04:29 Wow, that to me Nahla is what HeadRightOut is all about. It's all about resilience. It's all about facing those fears and saying but if they can do it, so can I. So, where did this start? Are you happy to share some of your background to tell us how Sunshine People and how this facing fears and resilience building started, and the Culture of Kindness. You know, that's Sunshine People.   Nahla Summers  04:57 Yeah, it was really around understanding, and this is not meant to sound depressing in any way, but it was really understanding my own mortality and the death of my partner who I was living with at the time. When he died very suddenly of a heart attack, while he was on a charity cycle ride, he wasn't much of a cyclist, and he hadn't done loads of training, but he had gone out, on this work thing. He didn't know if he'd finish it, but he was going to go out and have a go. You know, I was dropping him off for a cycle ride and two hours later, he was calling me, telling me he thought he was having a heart attack. I think there'll be listeners here that fully understand that that grief, whether it's a parent or best friend, or somebody, you know, impacts you all very differently. But for me, it impacted me in this understanding that life can change in a moment. And while we think that we are living our lives, to all the things that we want to do, you know, I would say, Oh, I'm going to do this, at some point, you know, I wanted to foster children. And I would say, I'm going to do that at some point, and I'm going to quit this corporate job that I'm completely tied into, that I've been doing for 15 years, I could do it standing on my head. I don't really get that much enjoyment, and I don't feel it, it's my purpose in life, but I'm kind of doing it now, and I'm just gonna keep on doing it. After Paul died, that changed significantly. I'm not advocating wait until somebody dies, I'm definitely advocating taking a look at 'am I living the life that I really want to live?' There is this old, saying, if you only had one day to live...? Well, if I only had one day to live, I go to the pub with all my mates, you know, that's what I would do.   Nahla Summers  07:00 But if somebody said you have a year to live, would you be happy in the life that you were in right now? It's asking yourself the question, if you had a year to live that if you were in your current place, would you stay doing that work? Would you stay in the environment and the place that you are? Or would you make a change, and if you would make a change, then you need to make that change right now. Because we just don't know what is around the corner.   Zoe Langley-Wathen  07:31 That's a powerful message straight out there isn't it? I think there's a lot of people that DO get that - there's a lot of people that have experienced that moment of questioning their own mortality, because of the loss of a loved one. And I'm so sorry that you went through that with your partner.   Nahla Summers  07:47 But you know,this is the life that I'm in now, and I wouldn't have raised 250,000 acts of kindness, I wouldn't have met these incredible people, I wouldn't have travelled as much as I had. I would have done some travelling, but I mean, I've travelled the world three times over, researching about kindness. So while there are so many times that I think I'd just love to have him back, because it was just easy. It was easy to be loved unconditionally by him at the same time to do that means that you take away the last ten years, and the purpose that I now have from that side of things. So yeah, it's a hard one.   Zoe Langley-Wathen  08:34 You can see the joy and the benefit that you have from both sides of the story. So you know, having Paul and having the life you have now and to actually say, well, sorry, you can have one or the other, to say you can only have one or the other is so hard. But to know that a huge benefit has come from that loss, actually must be very reassuring.   Nahla Summers  08:59 Yeah, because it's bigger than me. See, when me and Paul were together, we lived in a little bubble. That was just me and him. There was this unconditional love between us. We didn't do a whole load of things, we just didn't. We just enjoyed each other's company, and it was very easy. And life is not easy now, but now I have a much bigger purpose that's really nothing to do with me. There's a key to happiness from that. When we make our lives about other people. There's a purpose that drives us forward as we talk about mental health challenges and all the challenges that go on for human development. When we actually realise that our lives are really meant to support each other. And whether that's going out to the community and doing things whether that's helping somebody across the road, somebody with their shopping, you know, just

Zoe chats to Anna Huthmaker, host of the Trail Dames Podcast. They discuss discovering hiking as a curvy woman, and the lack of representation that Anna felt while she was out on the trails. They also talk about the empowerment of organising, yes, organising and attending a hiking and backpacking summit, exclusively for women. Anna had NEVER organised anything like this before. The way she tells her story is so engaging. Anna hiked 700 miles of the Appalachian Trail, in her words ‘looking like a little watermelon in a tube sock’, broke her foot in two places and still returned to walk more. She has the ability to put a positive spin on so many situations. Anna very eloquently shares her experiences of Merry Penomause, and points out that HeadRightOut should not just be for midlife women. Okay - it’s perimenopause but as Anna and Zoe discover, there's nothing like a little spoonerism to lighten your day! Zoe Langley-Wathen  00:24 I talk today to Anna Huthmaker, host of the Trail Dames Podcast. We discuss discovering hiking as a curvy woman, and the lack of representation that Anna felt while she was out on the trails. We also talk about the empowerment of organising, yes, organising and attending a summit for women, all about backpacking and hiking, and I should add, Anna had NEVER organised anything like this before. The way she tells this story is just amazing. Anna was also able to very eloquently tell us her experiences of Merry Penomause too, and flags up that this show should not just be for midlife women. Yes, I did just say perimenopause the wrong way round! It was actually a funny thing that happened between Anna and I in our pre-recording discussion, and I think in my head, it's always going to be that now. There's nothing like a little spoonerism to lighten your day!   Zoe Langley-Wathen  01:24 Now, as Anna said, no one talked about menopause to her when she was younger and no one talked to me about menopause when I was younger. So get your daughters listening to this early on. She is an absolute scream. She is SUCH a bundle of joy. I love Anna to bits and I think you are going to love this episode too. So get your earbuds in, get listening and enjoy the episode with Anna Huthmaker.   Zoe Langley-Wathen  02:01 Okay, and welcome back to yet another episode of the HeadRightOut Podcast. Yes, this is just so exciting. We're still going and today I am just thrilled to bits because I have a wonderful lady who I've had three conversations with I think now, I forget But anyway, we just feel like we are connected and we were perhaps separated at birth! Her name is Anna Huthmaker. Welcome Anna.   Anna Huthmaker  02:30 Thank you so much. It can I just jump in and just say how impressed I am with your podcast. The first time we talked, you said you know I'm really thinking about doing this. I should do this. And that was not very long ago. And here you are, just crossing it.   Zoe Langley-Wathen  02:45 Thank you so much. Thank you, thank you. Well, I'm gonna start off Anna, just by telling people a little bit about you, just to kind of wrap it up into a little parcel about who you are, just so people have a good idea of your background where you've come from.   Zoe Langley-Wathen  02:59 Anna Huthmaker grew up immersed in the world of classical music, studying cello and double bass, and spending weekends playing with symphonies and chamber ensembles. She used to joke that she had a practice room tan and rarely got outside, much less went hiking. However while spending a summer in the Brevard Music Center in North Carolina, she got invited to go on a hike. Being slow and insecure, she was soon left behind and over the next few hours found herself falling in love with the smell of the trees around her. As the years went by, she started hiking more and more, always by herself before finally scraping up the courage to try a thru hike of the Appalachian Trail. She spent four months backpacking, broke her foot in two places, walked seven hundred miles and found herself completely changed. Along the way she realised that there was no one on the trail that looked like her. At all. So several years later, she started Trail Dames: a hiking club for women of a curvy nature. Anna was determined to take over the trails of the United States, and what once started with nine women in the basement of her family violin shop has now grown over 10,000 women, with chapters across the United States. Trail Dames also has its own Charitable Foundation, a bi-yearly summit, which is a women's hiking and backpacking conference, and its own podcast, the Trail Dames Podcast. Anna continues to play with symphonies and runs the family violin shop, but she's still moving forward with the idea of having women on trails, everywhere. I love that.   Anna Huthmaker  04:42 Oh my gosh, I have to tell you, does everyone feel this way? Like, when you hear your story repeated back to you... you go "oh, wow", you forget as you're on the journey, you know.   Zoe Langley-Wathen  04:55 You do. I've just been chatting with another guest and we had a very similar conversation, in that it's not just the listening back to your story, but it's actually that deep thinking that you have to suddenly do when you're in this podcast conversation situation, where you're remembering things that you'd forgotten about that happened ten or fifteen years ago, and you're thinking, wow, did I? Yes, I did that, I did do that. And it's really uplifting, isn't it to go back into that?   Anna Huthmaker  05:21 Oh, completely. And it reminds us that even the smallest of things can change your life. Honestly, it sounds kind of cliche, but it's true. And it reminds you that something that is maybe small to you can speak to another woman and inspire them. And so yeah, that was kind of great. Thank you.   Zoe Langley-Wathen  05:42 Yes, well, you are so creative as well.  I loved reading through that. I've got to say, I should add here, this was really funny. When I read through it the first time I didn't have my glasses on, and I think I was tired - it was last night and I didn't quite read it properly, and I read it as 'Anna is determined to take over the United States'. Haha! And soon the world!!   Anna Huthmaker  06:07 I can't do one of those laughs but it is funny cuz I always say we're going to take over the trails, you know, one day at a time, one woman at a time, and to this day, when I look out and see not just Trail Dames, but women's hiking and outdoor things has exploded and I look at it go... ha ha ha, we're taking over the world.   Zoe Langley-Wathen  06:27 Yeah. You know, how long ago did Trail Dames begin, because I feel very much like you are one of the forerunners in this?   Anna Huthmaker  06:36 You know, I feel like it too. So we are fourteen and a half years old or so. And when we started I did a lot of research and I said that we were the first National Women's hiking organisation, because I could not find anything else. We're not cutting the Girl Scouts, they're huge and giant and lovely. And it was very interesting, because someone told me once and I'm going to tell you this too, with with HeadRightOut, they said you will not be the first for long, because people will copy you and come along and they'll do their own thing. And they told me, they said Anna, when that happens, it's a great compliment, because it means you had a great idea. And I've always seen it that way when when other people say, 'you know, Trail Dames is great, but it's not our thing. We're going to start our own thing'. And I'm always, 'yes', because we can't have too many of them. So because HeadRightOut, you're the first one that to my knowledge is doing what you're doing. But yeah, it's a great idea. So there'll be others   Zoe Langley-Wathen  07:30 That's it, and actually the more voices, the more women's voices that we have, the more curvy women's voices you have, the more midlife women voices we have, actually the stronger our message. So therefore actually it shouldn't be a competition. It's just about singing and speaking and walking and adventuring together.   Anna Huthmaker  07:52 As you said, You know, I grew up my whole life as a classical musician, which is lovely, but I get plenty of competition in that area of my life. Yeah, yeah. Oh, no, I'm all about holding hands and singing 'Kumbaya' that is my thing.   Zoe Langley-Wathen  08:08 Around a campfire.   Anna Huthmaker  08:09 Absolutely. Absolutely.   Zoe Langley-Wathen  08:11 So with Trail Dames then, tVhat's all about taking women out onto the trail that perhaps are not confident about approaching a trail themselves on their own is that is that where...?   Anna Huthmaker  08:24 You know, it's so interesting, because when I started Trail Dames, I was very single-minded. And when I say I didn't see women that looked like me, I really was focused on weight, and size. And you know, I went on the Appalachian Trail, and I'm five feet two and at that point I weighed 262 pounds, I have no clue what that is in metric. (118kg/18.7stone)   Zoe Langley-Wathen  08:43 Oh, I know, I can't either, you know,   Anna Huthmaker  08:45 Whatever that is, I was like a little watermelon in a tube sock, you know, hiking, the Appalachian Trail. And so my thing at that point was, I want to give women who carried the same kind of fears and insecurities that I did in regarding their weight. That was really what I was focused on. But I have to tell you, like, even from the first meeting, all kinds of women showed up all shapes, all sizes, and pretty early on, like I would have these thin, fit women and they look at me and they'd be like, 'do you think I'm not curvy?' And I'm like, 'okay, I got it. You're curvy. ok!' And what I very quickly learned is that yes, we do provide a space for women that have never been outdoors before, that are insecure or nervous or not sure what to do. But really, it's about connection. You know, and you know this with HeadRigh

    Zoe Langley-Wathen  00:17 Hello, and welcome back to the HeadRightOut Podcast. This is the show that hopefully will launch you into doing something that is way beyond your comfort zone. Something that you never believed you were capable of doing. Perhaps there's just a little seed of an idea growing and hopefully this is going to be the show that will spur you on that will give you the encouragement that you need to HeadRightOut. Now today, I have a lovely, lovely guest, somebody who I've been friends with online for many years. Her name is Stephie Boon, and I have to say she is so honest in her conversation with me, particularly about her experiences with mental health. I should add here that we do talk about the darker side of depression, anxiety, and feelings of suicide. So if you are not in the right frame of mind to listen, please feel free to skip this episode for another day when you're feeling in a better place. That said, Stephie is still very keen for women who suffer with depression to hear her story and understand that there's a light at the end of the tunnel. There ARE ways of coping and learning to manage this debilitating illness. We also touch on early menopause and living with a son with Aspergers and how above everything else, hiking just fuels our souls... and challenges... well, they help us to push us out of our comfort zone and they help to give us focus. There's a lot of things that Stephie and I have in common, and in addition to we both love hiking, we both feel the same about challenges, and funnily enough, we both have a degree in Fine Art in fact, Steffi has got post-grad in Fine Art. So we just have very similar viewpoints. It's a wonderful conversation, go and have a listen. Enjoy.   Zoe Langley-Wathen  02:21 Okay, and welcome everybody, back to the HeadRightOut Podcast. My name is Zoe Langley-Wathen and I am here today with another wonderful guest. Today I am going to be chatting to Stephie Boon and I have a wee bio here to read out for you so Stephie lives in Cornwall, she spends a lot of time on the coast path. A woman after my own heart. She's been a walker and backpacker for as long as she can remember. One of her most significant past challenges was to hike the Inca Trail, before her fortieth birthday. She made it at thirty-eight! It was a charity track and the biggest part of the challenge was the fundraising.   Zoe Langley-Wathen  03:00 Nowadays she solo hikes and wild camps in the UK. At the moment her goal is to backpack all the national trails before she reaches sixty. So far she's completed the South West Coast Path, Offa's Dyke Path, the Cotswold Way, the South Downs Way, the Pedders Way and Norfolk Coast Path, and she says she's gradually working her way south to north. Stephie has an MA in Fine Art and always takes a sketchbook with her on her hikes. She plans to make a series of national trail paintings and possibly sell or publish them. Stephie shares her expertise and guides over on her website and on her blog, 10MileHike. She also suffers with serious episodes of depression, which was first treated for her in her early twenties. She's very open about this on her social media and within her blog, and she hopes that by sharing her experiences, she may inspire others to overcome personal difficulties and step out of their comfort zones. After all, life is just too precious not to do the things you've always wanted to do. There's also an article over on the 10MileHike blog called 'Fears Laid Bare' and I'll put the link to that in the show notes. It really does bear all, particularly about the biggest challenge that Stephie  is facing at the moment, that she says is literally scaring the living daylights out of her. And that's something we'll come to in a moment.  Stephie, welcome to HeadRightOut.   Stephie Boon  04:23 Hi Zoe, and thank you so much for having me. It's a real pleasure.   Zoe Langley-Wathen  04:29 It is an absolute pleasure and delight for me too and I should let the listeners know that we have been friends on social media for how long? Probably four or five years maybe?   Stephie Boon  04:39 Yeah, long time.   Zoe Langley-Wathen  04:41 Feels like a long time and we feel like we know each other so well. We've had lots of conversations back and forth, and lots of support for one another and lots of Insta love. And now this is the first time that we've actually spoken... I want to say face-to-face.Well, this is as close as face-to-face as we're gonna get at the moment - it's Zoom-to-Zoom.   Stephie Boon  05:04 Live, I think is what we can call it.   Zoe Langley-Wathen  05:08 Yes.   Stephie Boon  05:08 In real time.   Zoe Langley-Wathen  05:10 So, Stephie, where did it all start with your love for hiking? You know you're setting out to cover all of these trails, but have you been hiking from a really early age?   Stephie Boon  05:20 Actually, this is quite interesting. I was sixteen when I went on my first backpacking trip with a couple of school friends, and we went to the South Downs Way. It was just a few days and we were just wandering around, as teenagers do completely clueless, just having as much fun as possible. But then, earlier this year, I realised it was forty years since my first backpacking trip, and I decided to celebrate that by going back to the South Downs. And I walked the South Downs Way, which is part of what I walked when I was a teenager. So I decided I'd stay at one of the youth hostels that we'd stayed at when I was young, as it was a bit of an anniversary. An anniversary hike.   Zoe Langley-Wathen  06:17 And a trip down memory lane too.   Stephie Boon  06:20 Yes, yeah. It was really funny actually, because my memories of that trip was bright sunshine, and hot and beautiful scenery. And this time it just rained. And storms, big winds, forty-fifty mile an hour winds. So a very different experience.   Zoe Langley-Wathen  06:42 It's interesting, isn't it? Because very often, when people are recounting their stories from their teenage hiking experiences or camping experiences, very often it's the other way around. You know, they had an awful time and their feet hurt, they had blisters and it rained like the devil, and they swore they would never, ever do it again. And "how dare they" whoever 'they' were, you know, perhaps it was parents or school, "how dare they make me do this"? So you had an amazing experience by the sounds of it.   Stephie Boon  07:15 It was. I always have really good memories of it. Just getting out into the countryside, just seeing these amazing views, that I'd never experienced before. And just feeling completely at home really. That was realising I think that I was most at home in the outdoors, and walking, cycling, whatever it might be.   Zoe Langley-Wathen  07:40 Yeah, I can relate to that. At home in the outdoors. Definitely. So how long was it before you then went off and did another hike?   Stephie Boon  07:48 Oh, probably quite a long time. Years, I would think. I did a cycling/bike-packing trip afterwards, which again wasn't particularly far. I think it was about a week, something like that, again along the south coast, all along the Seven Sisters. Then I went to art school, and most of the walks that I was doing then really were around the coast path and still cycling, but no major goals, I suppose. Everything else seemed to be... my focus was very much art at the time. That was just my absolute passion, I think was art. But I was still drawing the landscape walking in and drawing. You know, taking everything with me and drawing outside. Then we did the usual holidays. Walking holidays just in this country - Lake District mostly.   Stephie Boon  08:50 Then I had my son and it became family camping holidays on Exmoor, wild camping on Dartmoor. I think the first time I went solo wild camping was probably twelve years ago now and haven't looked back since. That's when hiking became a thing I felt I needed to do.   Zoe Langley-Wathen  09:16 So in some ways, then although you had met and identified with hiking a long time ago, would it be correct to say that you didn't really feel the need for it - you didn't identify with it as something that made you feel better in your life until midlife?   Stephie Boon  09:33 I think I did realise that, but I don't think I realised that it could give me the challenges that it does. And it's the challenge that I thrive on now. I think previously it was mainly enjoyment, you know about being outside and just loving nature and knowing that when I was feeling ill that was where most people might think you retreat inside, but I retreated outside. It's just where I felt the need to be. And I've always escaped to the outdoors. on my own.   Stephie Boon  10:12 It was my way of just being - allowing myself to just be. It wasn't, I think, until I started really wild camping on my own, that I saw that I could create these challenges, which is what excites me now. And how you can overcome personal difficulties, it's a wonderful place to step outside your comfort zone, and to show it's a really odd phrase, but to prove to yourself, what you're made of, really, and what you can do. And it's funny, I'd never thought of myself as a resilient person at all. I've never felt that I bounced back from things particularly quickly. But I realised over the years, I'm actually a very tenacious person, and I will hang on and push myself through when things are very difficult, whether that's hiking or life in general, I feel the need to just grip hard onto things. And just a sheer determination will get me through difficult things.   Zoe Langley-Wathen  10:20 It's so wonderful to hear you talking like that Stephie, because I, actually in hearing a lot of what you're saying, I feel it could be me talking, there are so many things there that I connect with, and in particular, the needing a challenge. I mean, I didn't discover until I was forty, that it was actually the challenge that I thrive

Jo Moseley promotes positivity to a midlife audience as a writer, speaker, mid-life adventurer, and award-winning film-maker. Jo says that joy is simply knowing there is a blue sky above the clouds, which many women will relate to. After losing her sense of self, Jo realised that she desperately needed to do something to help herself and to rediscover that joy. She talks with Zoe, sharing honestly about her experience with the menopause and how the grief of miscarriages, divorce and the death of her mother washed over her like waves. Jo offers golden advice for dealing with the many pivotal stages in our lives as women, often through exercise and adventure. She talks about how she dealt with her own grief through movement using rowing, and 'not fighting the grief but just recognising the grief'. While heading right out on a huge challenge to stand-up paddleboard from coast to coast, 162 miles from Liverpool to Goole, Jo realises that the success is not in the completion of the journey, but that 'the triumph is in the trying'. Although she finds some days hard, she knows that the slog bit in the middle is where the magic happens. Jo is such an inspirational individual and exudes empathy, joy, care and a ‘Yes I Can’ attitude from every pore.   Zoe Langley-Wathen  00:24 Hello, and welcome back to the HeadRightOut Podcast. My name is Zoe Langley-Wathen, and I am here to help encourage you to step out of your comfort zone, doing things that scare you, building your resilience in the outdoors. We have conversations with resilient women, and particularly today, I am so excited to bring you an interview with Jo Moseley. Now although I recorded this episode with Jo back in August, I'm only just publishing it now. Jo promotes positivity to a midlife audience. Her Instagram account is @healthyhappy50, and obviously that speaks volumes. Jo says that joy is knowing there is a blue sky above the clouds. For some women I know that is really going to make sense to them.   Zoe Langley-Wathen  01:14 After losing her sense of self, Jo realised that she needed to do something to help herself, for herself, and to rediscover joy. Now I was so moved by Jo's story, I cried when I watched her film 'Brave Enough'. Her authenticity touched my very core. I loved her honesty about her experience with the menopause and how grief came to her in waves. While it was tough at times, it's perhaps a reassurance to other women that there is hope, and if they're feeling similar things, it means you're actually not going crazy. So enjoy the episode. It's a real treat, and a total honour for me to be able to call Jo a friend.   Zoe Langley-Wathen  02:05 Okay, well welcome everybody. I am really excited because we have a very special lady here today, to speak to us. I have Jo Moseley. I chatted with Joe a couple of times and I feel like I've built up such a relationship with her already, even though it's only over the telephone or over social media. But I am so excited to actually speak to her, almost face-to-face. So this is not quite in person but it as close in person as we've got yet. So Jo is a mum of two sons. They are aged 24 and 20, and they live on the edge of the Yorkshire Dales. Now she describes herself as a beach cleaner, joy encourager, and a midlife adventurer. In August 2019. Jo became the first woman to SUP, that's stand up paddleboard, coast-to-coast, 162 miles along the Leeds and Liverpool canal, picking up litter, fundraising, and raising awareness of the problems of single-use plastic.   Zoe Langley-Wathen  03:04 Now Jo loves writing and speaking about adventure and wellbeing. She also makes tiny films about the joy of the outdoors for our mental health, particularly after losing her mum and experiencing a difficult menopause. Her films 'Finding Joy' and 'Found at Sea' have both won awards. Jo's recently launched a podcast called The Joy of SUP - The Paddleboarding Sunshine Podcast and if you'd like to listen to the podcast, there will be a link in the show notes. A documentary film about her coast-to-coast adventure has also just been released to great reception and four, sell-out online screenings which I was at the second one I believe, and it's called 'Brave Enough - A Journey Home To Joy'. There will be a link to the trailer, also in the show notes.   Zoe Langley-Wathen  03:52 In addition, Jo has a newsletter called 'Postcards of Joy - Stories To Lift The Soul', and there will be a link to the Postcards of Joy also in the show notes. You know, this is amazing because all the way through this, I just sense and feel that there's this element of joy and positivity, and thoughtfulness, care and kindness about not just Jo Moseley but about Jo's brand. And so yes, Joe, welcome to the podcast!   Jo Moseley  04:25 That's really kind. That's everything. Yeah, kindness, joy, encouragement. That's exactly what I try and promote really, and to a midlife audience in particular, although I get a lot of younger women as well saying, oh, watching you and the people that you share means it encourages me to know that it doesn't all end at thirty or forty or fifty.   Zoe Langley-Wathen  04:47 I think that's important as well, isn't it because our younger women are at some point going to become older women, and they need to have that message that there isn't an end to adventures, there isn't an end to the fun, there isn't an end and they've got lots to look forward to, and I think that's such a wonderful message that you impart to them.   Zoe Langley-Wathen  05:08 So you have got that great list of achievements all wrapped up in the word 'joy'. But where did it all start? Because I know there's quite a lot of experiences that you've been through this got you to this point.   Jo Moseley  05:20 Yeah. So I think the joy is really important to me, because joy for me is knowing that there is blue skies above the clouds. It's that sort of sunshine, whatever the weather is, and it's finding that internal sunshine and it comes really from a very personal experience, in that I lost that understanding that there was sunshine within. That joy was there, whatever I was particularly going through at the time. It wasn't like just a one moment, it was over a few years, I really lost my sense of self, my sense of joy. I lost what made me happy outside of my roles as a daughter, mother, sister, friend. Those roles always bring me joy, that's a given. But I'd lost my sense of joy outside those roles. It all kind of came to a bit of a crashing when I just burst into tears in the biscuit aisle and just said to my boys, I can't cope. I just can't do this anymore. That wasn't the first time I burst into tears, and also not the last, but it was just that one moment where I just hit that rock bottom, really. From then I started to learn how to find my joy again.   Zoe Langley-Wathen  06:31 Wow. So the meltdown in the biscuit aisle. Was that a whole culmination of things... life kind of getting on top of you? Was there something that triggered it?   Jo Moseley  06:42 I think that there was a lot of things. One, I was a middle-aged mum, I was 48 at the time and a single mum kind of juggling all the things doing what I could for my boys.  Both mum and dad were going through chemotherapy. So dad has had breast, bowel and skin cancer, and mum was being treated for lymphoma. And then on top of that, but not realising that I was also going through the perimenopause. So I wasn't sleeping, I had night sweats, heart palpitations, incredible anxiety, tinnitus, itchy legs, aching bones and joints, cold flashes, you know the whole, I think there's thirty-eight different symptoms, and I could tick off almost all of them, except hot flashes, I don't get hot flashes. And so that was the background to these other things that were were pretty stressful at the time. That moment was just when it all came to a... it wasn't that it just came to a head. It was that moment, I guess, because I had cried in supermarkets. And I had been upset. But I think it was the moment which then turned me from thinking I've just got to keep going to, I probably need to do something about this. With that recognition that there was a problem. And the first time I vaguely asked somebody for help, or vaguely even mentioned to somebody that I wasn't really managing everything very well. So I think like many women of our generation, the sense that you just have to keep going was very, very, very much part of the way I looked at my life. And also, as a single mom, I had that terrible belief that I had to do everything a thousand times better, because I didn't want to be seen as as not coping. So it was one moment that just represented a lot of moments.   Zoe Langley-Wathen  08:34 So yes, Supermum comes into mind that isn't it you you just feel like you have to be Supermum, and you can't do it. You're going through all those things, but particularly then with your parents care as well, and the worry for them. Yeah, it's such a difficult time. So you mentioned to somebody that you needed help?   Jo Moseley  08:55 I just said a friend of mine because mum and dad were obviously really busy with their own appointments, I didn't want to worry them. So I just said to a friend, in that sort of joking way, "haha, I was crying in the supermarket" and just as a way to sort of gently let somebody else into that circle of trust, really. And she said "how much exercise do you do?", and I said, "well, you know, I spend all my life at the rugby pitch, but I'm not playing rugby". She said that she had an old indoor rowing machine, and did I want to borrow it, because exercise might help me sleep. And I hadn't had a really good night's sleep for years and it had nothing to do with the boys. You know, they were way past that stage. It was just worry and anxiety, and what I realised now all the sort of hormonal changes that I was going through. So she lent me this indoor rowing machine and it really changed things. So yes, it was

  Cherry Hamrick exudes positivity and resilience. Her mindset is that of adventure. Every corner of her life, whether work, play, family or vacation is treated as an adventure. At sixty-five, she faced her shyness to travel alone to Antarctica. At seventy-two she was seriously ill in Tanzania, with the sickness known as the 'amoeba'. Yet all she wanted was to climb Kilimanjaro and appreciate running in Africa. At seventy-three, she has now recorded a streak of over 500 consecutive days of walking. A splits extraordinaire, avid runner, kayaker, dancer and traveller with a zest for life, challenges and adventures. You will be reaching for a map and guidebook after listening to Cherry! Zoe Langley-Wathen  00:14 Hello, and welcome back to the HeadRightOut Podcast. If you're here for the very first time, welcome! I hope you're here to stay. My name is Zoe Langley-Wathen, and I am your host, and I'm here to help introduce the idea of doing something that scares you. To push yourself out of your comfort zone a little bit. Today, in order to take us on this resilience journey a little bit more, I am talking to a very special lady indeed. Her name is Cherry, and she's going to be taking us through her journey of living an adventurous life. Zoe Langley-Wathen  00:48 Now, I have to just say here, a little bit of a thing that has been going on with my internet connection, I think it's mine, I'm not sure. But please, please make some allowances for the quality here. Our connection was unstable, and we had been completely disconnected at the start of our chat. Once we were reconnected, it was it was a bit better, and although there was some occasional latency there in the audio, we decided to run with it. So I will have edited out a lot of the long pauses that you get when you have a delay in a call. But hopefully it doesn't completely detract from the conversation, because it was a wonderful conversation that we had. Zoe Langley-Wathen  01:26 Cherry shares some awesome advice with us about keeping a positive mindset through tough times, which we all get and how best to deal with those problems and how best to deal with a crisis when it hits, as well. She's a woman of much wisdom and an absolute joy to talk to. So without further ado, let's get into the interview. Zoe Langley-Wathen  01:56 Okay, hello, everybody and welcome to the HeadRightOut Podcast. And today I have a very special guest and she is tuning in with us all the way from the United States. Her name is Cherry Hamrick, and I have a wonderful introduction to offer you, before we get right into that interview with Cherry. Zoe Langley-Wathen  02:15 Cherry Hamrick is based in the United States and was a ballet teacher for twenty years before making a career change into becoming a librarian, for twenty-three years. At fifty. She studied for a master's degree, which enabled her to become a library director, at which point she had the joy and satisfaction of being a major part of building a big new library for her community. She loved the construction part of it so much that she says if she could have had a third career, it would have been to become a construction manager. (I absolutely love that already!) Zoe Langley-Wathen  02:51 Cherry has run on all of the seven continents. She has been in a boat on six of the seven continents. And in addition to working for that master's degree at fifty, she also ran her first marathon. She wore the mantle of race director for twelve years at the library, putting on the Run for Reading and the Jingle Bell 5K for women. She is the vice chair of the Ingham County Parks Board and she's a founding board member of the Friends of Lansing Regional Trails. Although she didn't start marathons until she was fifty, Cherry has now run seven marathons; Bay Shore, Detroit twice (that's running once and race walking it once), Big Sur, China, Chicago and New York. She describes herself as an avid runner, (I'd say!), walker kayaker and has done yoga since she was twelve years old. Zoe Langley-Wathen  03:50 Cherry has travelled to Antarctica, despite being shy and not knowing anyone and has undertaken a daily lockdown walk with a friend and never stopped. Current total of those walks is now at over two thousand miles and over five hundred days of walking. She even managed to wear a hole in the bottom of her cast boot that she was wearing for a stress fracture. Cherry's biggest challenge was in 2020. On her final continent, the plan was to Safari for five days, do a partial climb of Mount Kilimanjaro for three days, run a half marathon and then fly home (to rest I assume). That was supposed to be for a total of two weeks with travel time included. Let's say that expedition didn't go quite as planned, despite two years of organizing the trip. And I believe there was another cast boot that became an essential part of Cherry's attire due to another stress fracture this time in her foot and a hellish illness contracted in Tanzania that gradually sucked the life from her and I I believe that also forced her to be hospitalized on her return to the US. I sense that this woman is a determined soul. She is also seventy-three years old. Now she went to set foot on Kili. So let's find out what happened. Zoe Langley-Wathen  05:18 Cherry, welcome to the HeadRightOut Podcast. My goodness me, what a tale. What a whole wealth of tales you have there. What hurdles were you faced with when travelling to Africa, because that sounds like it was your biggest challenge, to date at least and that it threw all sorts of things at you what was going on there? Cherry Hamrick  05:39 It certainly did. The best part of the whole adventure was through the whole thing, all three of us that were on the trip had such a good attitude, which I appreciated from the girls. Not everybody rides in an ambulance in Tanzania, and not everybody experiences coming down the mountain the same way you went up. They were so, so wonderful about just embracing what was happening. I mean, that's part of travel and life, things change quickly, and you have to figure it out. Zoe Langley-Wathen  06:13 So what caused you to be in the ambulance? Cherry Hamrick  06:16 I had somehow, I have a theory, but I'm not sure how, come in contact with the water there. I thought I was really careful. But I think maybe during the tent shower, I was looking up to pull the chain maybe and got some water in my mouth. I don't know. But I got an amoeba is what the doctor there called it and just had (not real pleasant) constant diarrhea, and just no appetite. I tried to cover it up. I didn't want anybody to worry. And I took some anti-diarrhea medicine, which helped the first few days so I could keep going on safari. When it was time to climb, the guide said "how are you feeling" and I said, "well, I've had a little diarrhea." So to be fair, he didn't understand the severity of my problem. But starting up Mount Kilimanjaro, really weak, very dehydrated and wearing an aircast that came up, but I'm pretty determined. And I just wanted to... I was there to climb that mountain. Cherry Hamrick  07:20 So our guide was wonderful, he helped me, hauled me up over things. My foot was really getting moved around in the cast because the ground is so different. So my foot hurt a lot and when we got to that first camp, because I read a lot about it, I was so excited to actually be in a camp on Mount Kilimanjaro. That was such a thrill. I just knew I didn't have the strength or the ability. The next day was twice as long and I just knew I couldn't manage. So we had to come back down the next morning and there was an ambulance waiting for me, and they took me to a clinic to get some medicine and that helped. I don't know how much you want me to go on about this? Zoe Langley-Wathen  08:12 Oh no, you're not going on at all. I'm absolutely taking it all in. I know a little bit of a story but just hearing you recount that story is just so absorbing. So no, please do carry on. Cherry Hamrick  08:23 Okay. So we were able to get into our hotel easily which was nice because it was early. Everybody was so accommodating, and so helpful, and so caring. It was really wonderful. It was a really good experience, but at that point I was so dehydrated I didn't have any saliva, so I couldn't eat because it would make me gag or throw up. So the people at the hotel kept trying to get me to eat and they would bring food to my room and I just couldn't. The good part was the girls, my daughter and another woman her age went ahead and had adventures on their own, which was wonderful. I was so pleased. I really wanted them to keep climbing but they chose not to... and I was pretty much in bed. Cherry Hamrick  09:12 Fortunately it was a beautiful hotel and we had little patios, so I could see outside but I just couldn't do anything. But because it was my seventh continent and I was determined to run, I had a special insert for my shoe that was metal, that I had made before I went to Tanzania, hoping that would help if I can go without the boot with my stress fracture. So I put that on and I ran around the hotel, a little bit not a lot, but I was in Tanzania. I could see Mount Kilimanjaro, literally from my room, and I just felt like I had to do that and then it was stopped; the medicines stopped my symptoms enough to be okay flying home. I had to have a wheelchair because I was so weak I couldn't, I really couldn't stand up or walk very far. So when I got home, my husband took me immediately to the emergency room and I was hospitalized. My potassium was 2.3, which I found out later, it's quite dangerously low, and as severely dehydrated, obviously, and I lost about seven pounds at that point. So I was in the hospital for three days, and got a lot of potassium infusions, and a lot of hydration and went home and took about a week of not doing a whole lot, but I'm pretty healthy, and I recover qui

Helen Jenkins, co-founder of the newest stand up paddleboarding school on the Mon and Brec Canal delivers their very first session to Zoe and her husband. Sharing the business start-up considerations for Blorenge SUP while still working full-time, Helen also offers the importance of a paddleboard session with an instructor and what students can expect to learn under her tuition. Concentration and mindfulness are key to not falling in! Helen is keen to encourage everyone to try stand up paddleboarding and talks with enthusiasm about what it means to her personally and how she first found herself ‘having a go’, when surfing didn’t cut it for her. She believes it’s an activity that helps to keep you young and will take every opportunity to throw her board onto the canal and go for a blast!   Zoe Langley-Wathen  00:22 Well hello there lovely people, welcome back to the HeadRightOut Podcast. My name is Zoe Langley-Wathen and we're here with episode four today - I can't believe we're on to the fourth episode already. It's just this is such a whirlwind and it's so exciting. What's even more exciting today is that we are going to be talking to Helen Jenkins. Now this was a recording that was done, quite a few months ago now. June, if I remember right. This is a slightly different recording because it's shorter and there are some different sound qualities to it, partly because we're cruising on the boat. Partly because we have boats going by, and because we have people out on the towpath. This is a face-to-face recording, not done over Zoom or over the phone, so please excuse the recording. It's still a great episode with Helen.   Zoe Langley-Wathen  01:09 So Helen is a paddleboard instructor. She and Damon, her husband have just recently launched their new paddleboard school in Monmouthshire. It's near Abergavenny and it is the only paddleboard school on the Mon and Brec Canal. So I'm not going to say anything else we're just gonna launch straight into the conversation.   Zoe Langley-Wathen  01:35 So if you can hear background noise it's because we are cruising the boat down to Gilwern. We are going down to meet Helen and Damon who are the founders of Blorenge SUP, and this is very exciting for both us and them because this week is their launch week, for their new stand up paddleboard school. This week, it was also Mike's birthday, so I have got him a paddleboard lesson for his birthday and we happen to be their first customers. So this is a very exciting time around.   Zoe Langley-Wathen  02:15 Hello Heron! The heron has just sprung out from underneath the bushes. That was amazing. He was about a metre away from me. Such graceful creatures. Right, we're cruising the boat down and we're just about to go under Bridge 101, so we're not too far away. We've got to get to Bridge 104. I'm looking forward to having a chat to Helen after we've had our session. I think we're going to be doing a little bit of mini celebrations for Blorenge SUP, and for us as well. Because this will be my first interview for HeadRightOut... and it sounds like my kettle's boiling. Wouldn't you know it?   Zoe Langley-Wathen  03:10 Okay, well hello everybody and welcome. Today is the 21st... no, it's not, it's not even the 21st. It is the 19th I'm ahead of myself. It's the 19th of June 2021, and today is an exciting day, because I have certainly headed out of my comfort zone today. I have been for a paddleboarding lesson with my husband. It was a birthday present, and I bought him the birthday present, because a friend of mine that I have made whilst I've been living up here on the canal has just set up her own paddleboarding business and it's Blorenge SUP, founded by the wonderful Helen and Damon Jenkins. Hello Helen!   Helen Jenkins  03:53 Hello.   Zoe Langley-Wathen  03:54 How are you, Helen? How are you feeling?   Helen Jenkins  03:56 I'm good, thank you, yeah.   Zoe Langley-Wathen  03:57 I'm feeling very bubbly after that fizz. My knees are wobbling for different reasons. I'm really really grateful to you for just taking the time to come and talk to us like this, because you've been working hard. You've spent some time working with Mike and I, on the canal. I hope we haven't been too difficult, but yes we've we've been up and down paddleboarding on the Mon and Brec Canal, and it's been absolutely amazing. And we even broke open a bottle of fizz. I say we, YOU broke open a bottle of fizz to celebrate, because this is not just OUR first time, or Mike's first time, (it's my third), but tell me this is quite an historical moment for you, isn't it?   Helen Jenkins  04:43 It is today was our very first ever Blorenge SUP paddleboard session, and I was so pleased when I saw that Zoe had booked it for her and Mike. It absolutely made my day. So it has been... I was absolutely thrilled to do it and the first time nerves evaporated. But as soon as I saw you guys, because I just thought this is gonna be such a lovely start to this, you know this whole job. This whole thing.   Zoe Langley-Wathen  05:11 Of course it's a journey isn't it? It's an adventure. And I have to say I was I mean I was excited anyway when you told me that you were starting this business, Blorenge SUP. And so is it Blorenge SUP, not Blorenge S. U. P. is that what you just said?   Helen Jenkins  05:23 Yes, either or. It stands for stand up paddleboards.   Zoe Langley-Wathen  05:27 Yes, yeah. Okay, so yeah, I was really excited when you said you were starting Blorenge SUP, and I had in the back of my head that I wanted to get a lesson booked in for Mike for his birthday, which happened to be last week. So when you messaged me to say it's happening, we've had the go-ahead from the Canal and River Trust, it was like, 'wow, this is this is definitely going to work!' And then I spotted, just purely by coincidence, because I'd liked Blorenge SUP on Facebook, I spotted the post that came up to say 'we're taking bookings'. I was in there like a rocketI! It was pure instinct. And just yeah, it just kicked in, and I booked. I didn't know we were the first. I'm just delighted that we were. It worked out really well. So, Helen... I mean, where did this all start?   Helen Jenkins  06:17 Well, Damon actually introduced me to the sport. He's taken up surfing and sort of in early middle age really, and I never really got on with surfing. I think I was probably too late to the party there. But then when we started moving on, he said come and try stand up paddleboarding. I absolutely loved that. That was totally my game. I've always loved the water, in an y case. That sort of swimming in and I like the hand plane. I don't know if anybody's aware of that. But definitely paddleboarding, you can go as fast as you want, or if you just want to get on the water and give yourself a chance to relax at the end of the day. That's what I really like, is just getting my board out after work, chucking it on the canal and just being in the moment.   Zoe Langley-Wathen  07:09 I know it feels like a real buzzword at the moment, but it's such mindfulness, isn't it? Just being able to go out there and paddle, and like you say go at your own speed and take in the sights, and I might not be at that place just yet. But I did experience it today I had a few wobbles and I had a few shakes and I know you spotted my knees shakes, particularly when I was getting up from my kneeling position up to my standing position.   Helen Jenkins  07:36 Yeah...   Zoe Langley-Wathen  07:36 I haven't done that for a couple of years. I have been paddleboarding twice before but once was seven years ago, in Poole Harbour, and the other one was in Shropshire with my good friend Arry. And, you know, I had the same shakes then, but I think it's going to take me a while to get back into that. But I definitely, definitely felt that almost feeling of meditation. And you'd asked me one question, (and I have to apologise for this right now), but I know I realise now what you're doing, but you asked me one question. I think it's something about HeadRightOut, and that was it.... I was blah-de-blah-de-blah-de-blah. And I suddenly went from the knee wobbles went and I just clicked into this autopilot, and was just appreciating where I was. And it took my mind off of being scared. So that was really clever, thank you! So I'm gonna stop blah-de-blah-de-blah, now. So how long did it take for you to set up?   Helen Jenkins  08:35 I think it's probably taken about at least eighteen months to get to this point where we're actually able to offer the first session. We've talked about it and so we started doing the training to become instructors with the Water Skills Academy. So we had to do the Water Safety Course. We've done the Foundation Instructors Course. And in between that we've had to do the three-day First Aid and really start getting all the paperwork together, and get the permissions of the Canal and River Trust in order to operate. We live in a beautiful area. So everything that we want to do is really about complementing the area. We don't want to cause harm. We want to just share it with other people who might have an interest in paddleboarding but be too nervous to outlay all the money to buy one, and they've not really had the confidence to take it on the canal, or have a bad experience and then it just gathers dust.   Zoe Langley-Wathen  09:32 Yeah and I guess if somebody has already bought a paddleboard and is maybe in that situation, this is a good opportunity for them to come out and improve that experience and get used you know build that confidence and get used to being on their board. You know I'm now thinking well I've just spent two hours out on the canal with you and I'm thinking when am I going to get to do it again! So you know it might be that we end up having to buy a paddleboard and we'll find a place or tuck it either in the van or on the boat somewhere.   Zoe Langley-Wathen  10:01 So I have to apologise for any sound that happens

  A powerful conversation with Tough Girl Challenges founder and Tough Girl Podcast host, Sarah Williams. As friends, we easily cover multiple topics across our conversations. These include how to meet fear head-on and deal with it; why Sarah is inspired by two specific female role models/mentors and the moments in her life that nearly broke her. Interestingly, she elaborates on how those darkest times taught her the most and benefitted her in ways she could never have imagined. There are references to many long-distance trails, in the UK and overseas, with the Appalachian Trail being lauded by Sarah as the most life-changing for her, personally. A female adventure epic.   Zoe Langley-Wathen  00:09 Well, hello, and welcome back to the HeadRightOut Podcast.  My name is Zoe Langley-Wathen and I am your host. This is a relatively new show, and I hope if you're here for the first time that you will consider hitting that follow button in your podcast app, because we need to get as many subscribers and followers as we possibly can to grow the show.   Zoe Langley-Wathen  00:34 I'm really excited today, because we're going to be talking to Sarah Williams, who is the founder of Tough Girl Challenges, and the host of the amazing Tough Girl Podcast. It's a really powerful episode, and although we're two friends, and we giggle a lot, and we have a little bit of a chatter here and there, we do go into some deeper stuff. Sarah gives some really strong messages of how to look at fear and how to reframe it. We discuss why so many women seem to be hesitant to adventure and where that fear might actually come from. Sarah talks about her passion for wanting to set up Tough Girl Challenges, and the podcast way back six, seven years ago now. I asked her about who her role models are and that was a really fascinating part of the conversation. So I hope you'll stick with us to listen.   Zoe Langley-Wathen  01:29 Today, here is a beautiful, beautiful day. It's September. It's the seventh of September, and we have just got the hottest weather at the moment and the tops of the trees are changing. There's hardly a breeze out there and the canal is still. We've had some dog barking issues. So I will say, you might hear birds tweeting and that probably isn't a problem. But if you get some interruptions partway through the recording, I apologise because there was a bit of a dog pack issue out on the towpath partway through the recording. So yes, without further ado, I'm going to head off into the introduction.   Zoe Langley-Wathen  02:16 Okay, well welcome everybody to another episode of the HeadRightOut Podcast. I am so excited today. I can't begin to tell you I have got a very good friend of mine, an inspirational lady and all round adventurer, challenge inspirer. She is an author. She's an award winner. I'm going to go through her bio in a minute but we have got Sarah Williams, the host of the Tough Girl Podcast and founder of Tough Girl Challenges here. So good morning, Sarah.   Sarah Williams  02:47 Good morning. How you doing?   Zoe Langley-Wathen  02:48 I'm very well thank you. So I am going to introduce you, because I just felt all of the things that you have achieved over the last six or seven years just needs to be acknowledged and I don't want to miss anything out for certain.   Sarah Williams  03:02 I'm getting ready to be embarrassed and ready to cringe. It's a very British thing like oh my god, okay. I'm ready for it.   Zoe Langley-Wathen  03:08 You've got to soak this up and enjoy. So Tough Girl Challenges was started in 2014 as a way of motivating and inspiring women and girls. My mission is to increase the amount of female role models in the media with a focus on women who do adventures and undertake big physical challenges. I am the host of the two times award winning Tough Girl Podcast where I interview inspirational female explorers, adventurers, athletes and everyday women who have overcome great challenges. The podcast is listened to in 174 countries around the world and has passed 1.8 million downloads. Based on monthly downloads. The Tough Girl Podcast is in the top 15% of podcasts globally. I completed the Marathon des Sables in April 2016. That's six marathons in six days across the Sahara Desert. In 2017, I through hiked the Appalachian Trail solo and unsupported. That's 2190 miles in 100 days, which I also daily vlogged. In 2018 I cycled over 4000 kilometers from Vancouver, Canada via the Pacific Coast Highway to Cabo San Lucas in Mexico. I have a master's in Women and Gender Studies from Lancaster University 2018 with my dissertation focusing on Women, Adventure and Fear. I'm a qualified yoga instructor and personal trainer (2019). In September 2019, I walked the Camino Portuguese - 675 kilometres from Lisbon, Portugal to Santiago de Compostela in Spain, and that was sponsored by challenge with Cicerone. I ended the year by walking the Lycian Way in Turkey. In 2020. I started in Australia walking the Overland Track in Tasmania. And now to celebrate the six-year anniversary of the Tough Girl Podcast I am undertaking six UK-based challenges: The Tough Girl Adventure Series, also sponsored by Cicerone. They include, and we're going to talk about these in a moment, the Anglesey Coastal Path, the South Downs Way, the Pilgrim's Way, the West Highland Way, climbing Ben Nevis and walking the Great Glen Way. Wow. You were smiling and we were like 'yay, yay'. This is such a wonderful, awesome list of achievements. I feel inspired. I have to say Sarah, all the way through, I've been following you since we met in 2014, or was it 2015, I don't know?   Sarah Williams  04:59 It was 2015 at the Women's Adventure Expo.   Zoe Langley-Wathen  04:59 Yeah. I've always found you to be somebody who inspires me. You're almost like a mentor from afar. Each time, I see you developing and growing, through these challenges and activities that you're doing. And your masters in Women and Gender Studies... that absolutely fascinated me. Because you are delving deeper into the area you're interested in. So, the area that you are interested in... tell us more... what is it?   Sarah Williams  04:59 I'm actually getting emotional, I'm going to start crying soon. It's like 'oh, my goodness'!   Zoe Langley-Wathen  06:06 So yeah, where does Sarah Williams come from? What is it that you're interested in? Why? Why?   Sarah Williams  06:22 Oh, my God, the why the big question. I think I've always been fascinated by the motivation and the inspiration side of things in so that personal self development. So I was always sat with like Tony Robbins and reading the secret. And I used to apply it to my life when I worked in banking down in London. So that was like a big part of me. I think one of the things that I noticed when I was in banking was just a) like how male dominated it was, and obviously all the sexism and misogyny and everything else that was going on that maybe that I don't think I really understood when I was twenty-four or twenty-five, about what I was experiencing. And I think the other side of my personality was doing these quite extreme things to shock people like wanting to run marathons, or to doing these, like these Tough Mudder races, or you know, the obstacle course races and people being like, "oh, but you're so you're so girly, and you're so feminine, and you love the color pink, and yet you like running ridiculous distances and doing these crazy challenges".   Sarah Williams  07:18  I realised in my early 30s, that I needed to make some changes in my life. And honestly, I'm more than happy to talk in more detail about that. But to cut the long story short, I ended up leaving my job in banking in 2013, didn't know what I wanted to do with my life, I ended up going travelling, spending time in Australia, heading over to Kilimanjaro to go and climb Kilimanjaro, I spent some time in South America. And I think for the first time a long time, I really started asking myself these important questions. What is your WHY? How do you want to spend your life, like what do you want the next ten-twenty years to look like when you are on your death bed looking back over your life? And what do you want to have experienced? And I've never really thought about it so much. I'd always just been on this path and just following this journey on this route, like I was on a river, but I didn't know where I was going. I hadn't really thought it all through. And when I was over in South America, I finally got this time to think and reflect and to really dig deeply into these subjects. And for me that involved a lot of journaling, a lot of writing, it's been a lot of internal self reflection, which sounds wishy washy, but many people don't spend that time getting to know themselves. And I asked myself those questions. And for me, it was about this travel and exploration. And it was about challenging myself, it was about adventure. But on the flip side of that it was the motivation and the inspiration. And I wanted to encourage other young women and  girls and I knew that I was very fortunate.   Sarah Williams  08:41 I've always been a confident person. And when I was 18, I went traveling a lot of it solo by myself through like Southeast Asia, Australia, New Zealand and Camp America. I think that really helped me positively in the business world. And I remember just interacting with a lot of women who maybe didn't necessarily have that confidence to go after things. I couldn't really understand it. And I wanted to help them to take that next step to be more confident and to embrace challenge and to say yes to different experiences, because I've never had a problem of saying yes. Like, you want to go traveling? Yes, you want to bungee jump? Yes. You want to jump out of a plane and skydive? Yes. Like I would always say yes. And want to experience these, these opportunities. And that's how Tough Girl Challenges came together. It was my love of adventure a

  Zoe Langley-Wathen - host of the HeadRightOut Podcast Zoe Langley-Wathen introduces her aims for HeadRightOut, and the fears she regularly faces. As an experienced solo long-distance walker, she wasn't always the brave soul people seem to think she is. Her mission is to encourage more midlife women to head out of their comfort zone, within the outdoors. It's hoped that Zoe's honest approach and storytelling style will encourage you to take more Outdoor Medicine as you listen and look forward to her conversations with many resilient women. 00:22 Hello, and welcome to the HeadRightOut podcast. My name is Zoe Langley-Wathen. And I am so, so flippin delighted to be here with you for my very first episode, I can't begin to tell you what this is feeling like for me now I'm wrapped up with nerves. I'm wrapped up with excitement. And I am just absolutely, just chomping at the bit to spill the beans and let you know who we are going to be interviewing and what's going to be happening over the course of the next few episodes. So first off, I'm going to start with a request. And that's to ask you this. If, by the end of the show, you are even remotely interested in what I've shared with you today, please, please would you be kind enough to hit the Follow button in your podcast app? It would be great for me to know that I've got a group of people other than my family and friends, of course, who wants to share this excitement with me, this excitement of heading right out of my comfort zone on this podcast journey. I you know, I've spent the last 10 years doing things where I'm heading right out. But this is a biggie for me. So please hit the Follow button button in your podcast app. Okay, so it's the 24th of August 2021, as I record this, and as I launch this, we're just clambering out of the summer, and into that beautiful season of harvest, and the autumn. Oh my gosh, I love the autumn. Autumn for me is a season that's just ripe for potential new adventures. You know, the weather's cooler, the outdoor space isn't so full with holiday makers, the children are back at school, and the spider's webs, they are just decorated with heavy droplets, hopefully not frost at this stage. And the rich colors of the fall, have begun to paint the tops of the trees... and I just find it's one of my favourite times of the year. 02:32 The 29th of August is the second anniversary of me launching the HeadRightOut website. Now that was a blog space and place a guest to share my challenges and adventures. I never dreamt that I'd be sat here two years on muddling my way through an audio swamp. That's all I can call it. I might still be learning how all of this tech stuff works. But you know, that's fine. It's just like playing a complex game of cards, I'll just simply learn the rules as I go. 03:05 Now what did you think of the theme music? I hope you liked it. It was one of the first pieces that I stumbled across almost a year ago now, when I was looking for potential clips to use for the pod. Now I saved this one knowing it only is EA29 something or other, I forget what the code was now. And it took me ages to re-find it a few weeks back. I went through trying to find it because I wanted to be sure that I could legally use it, and imagine my total astonishment when I discovered I'd chosen a piece of music by Caffeine Creek Band, (thank you Caffeine Creek Band), called... you'll never going to believe this... 'Stay Strong'. Yep! 'Stay Strong' for a podcast that centres around resilience, what a coincidence. I just love synchronicity like that. Seriously. It's a true story. So our theme tune is Stay Strong by Caffeine Creek Band. 04:04 Okay, so in today's show, here's the plan. I'm going to give you more of my story and my aims for the podcast. And I guess perhaps I might even let on a few of my fears with you, as this is what it's all about. I'll also happily share why I felt moved to set up HeadRightOut. I'm going to be revealing how I see the podcast being delivered to you. Though I realise this will no doubt be a moveable feast as feedback and reviews are left, and as I develop and discover new opportunities for the show. You know, it's got to grow and flow. Oh, that rhymes! For the benefit of the listeners who've never heard of little ol' me, I'm going to be giving you some of my personal background too. And particularly in my own history of heading out of my comfort zone. And believe me, I'm not the brave soul that many people seem to think I am. One of my biggest issues to hold me back is imposter syndrome. And I'm sure that topic is going to come back time and time and time again. It's going to pop up, not just with me, but with some of the guests that I'll be interviewing as well, I'm sure of it. 05:17 So HeadRightOut, what is it? What do I aim to achieve? How often is it going to happen, when, what format? Right HeadRightOut was born in 2019, when I took the leap of faith out of my permanent contract teaching role, though, I had nothing to go to, signing up as a supply teacher did at least give me some hope of financial backup. Deep down, I knew there was something more out there for me, something that would allow me to use my teaching skills without the pressure of planning, preparation, marking and exam analysis within that school environment. And now I find the calling to develop my creative and adventurous path to inspire other women to HeadRightOut and do something that scares them, is stronger than ever. And I talk to as many people as I can, you know, when I'm out and about I meet people, when I'm shopping at home, I live on a public footpath, on a towpath, and you know, I meet people all the time, and I just want to share this message. Now, as I mentioned earlier, HeadRightOut started life as a blog along with the usual Facebook, Instagram and Twitter accounts, and I'd set it up with a view to inspiring others, to challenge themselves to head off on an adventure or to step out of their comfort zone. And I'm so enthusiastic about this, that I've got plans to publish various books on my personal experiences of adventure and well being, in addition to growing the podcast, and I hope that we're going to have some really interesting and fascinating women that are really going to inspire you, as time goes on. I've already got a list of women that I want to interview. And I've also got a lovely group of people that I've already interviewed. So yes, it's very, very exciting about doing this. 07:14 Now the calling to develop my creative and adventurous path to inspire other women to HeadRightOut and do something that scares them is stronger than ever. As mentioned earlier, HeadRightOut started life as a blog, along with the usual Facebook, Insta, and Twitter accounts. And I'd set it up with a view to inspiring others to challenge themselves to head off on an adventure, or step out of their comfort zone, do something different. And I'm so enthusiastic about this that I've got plans to publish various books on my own personal experiences of adventure and well being in addition to growing the podcast, I hope you're going to stick around and dip in and into those as well and hopefully get something positive back. 07:57 Now my first foray into writing for publication was during 2020 when I wrote a chapter for the Biggest Book of Yes, my story captured the tale of my first solo long-distance adventure along the 630 miles of the South West Coast Path... that's always a tongue twister! The book was sold to raise funds for the charity Teddington trust, supporting those that have a rare and life... not life-limiting sorry, a rare and limiting skin condition of exoderma pigmentosum, or XP, as it's more commonly known. It was such a good experience for me. And while I've always loved to write, it gave me the push I needed to aim for the big one. My own book. So I've got Dave Cornthwaite of the Yes Tribe, and John Doolan, and all the rest of the team around the Biggest Book of Yes, to thank for that. So there's Esther and Claire, and what an amazing team, it was putting together that book. 09:00 November is the month of NaNoWriMo. And so over November, January and February of 2021. I did it I penned over 88,000 words of my first draft. I've never written that amount of words in my life. It's currently resting, but I can't wait to get back to it and actually start editing. Just you know, to go back and do it some justice, get it out there, proper job. The book is an adventure memoir, and it shares an honest account of my fears, feelings, achievements, and all those wonderful people that I met along the route of the South West Coast Path, many of whom were influential in my darkest and my bravest moments. Meeting people and being inspired by their stories, learning from them their expertise and from their mistakes, as well as, gosh, many many of my own hiccups. I guess I realised that this isn't something to be kept private any more, and so many other women need to hear how capable they really are. You need to hear how capable YOU really are, of doing something big, something seemingly impossible. You might have thought you could never possibly manage a long-distance walk, something that took you off for six or eight weeks. But it's just putting one foot in front of the other. And if you're anything like me, you will you know, over-analyse it, overthink it and just find yourself coming up with all sorts of obstacles and problems and reasons why you can't do it. But you ARE capable of doing something like this. Midlife women need to see and hear others like them, telling stories of doing amazing things. Sowing that seed that perhaps they too, you, too, could try something similar. 10:59 Now as it stands, I see the HeadRightOut podcast being delivered as a series, in which to share conversations with resilient women. New episodes will be out every Wednesday at 6am. UK time. And the focus will be mainly wit

Author, Julia Goodfellow-Smith talks about her need to adventure, and how it was spurred on by a personal health scare and the death of her mother. We chat about why it took her 25 years to realise that there were many things on her bucket list. One in particular that really needed conquering, she discovered she could actually do it. The resilience and positivity of this woman is incredible. Julia shares insights about our superpowers and how we can harness them to use to our advantage. Zoe Langley-Wathen  00:20 Well, hello lovely people! Welcome to the HeadRightOut podcast. In today's episode, I'm going to be talking to Julia Goodfellow-Smith, and we're going to be talking about her need to adventure, and how it was spurred on by the death of her mother just before retirement, and a personal health scare. And we discuss how it took her 25 years to realise that there were many things on her bucket list. But one thing in particular that she really needed to conquer, and that she could actually do it. My goodness me the resilience of this woman is incredible. And we talk about our superpowers and how we should harness them to use to our advantage. And for me, I could really see a direct link with work ethics and routine and just think about how you operate in your own work life. I'm pretty certain you'll find your superpowers there, lurking somewhere. So Julia recently published a book and we're going to talk about her book as well. So without further ado, I am going to launch into our conversation to HeadRightOut. Zoe Langley-Wathen  01:37 Well, hello everybody, and welcome to the HeadRightOut podcast. Today is the 7th of July 2021, and I have with me today a very special lady. Her name is Julia Goodfellow-Smith, and she is going to talk to us, all about making your dreams a reality. So there's some very exciting things that she has been up to of late, so I'm going to just read you a little bit about Julia and what she's what she's been doing. So Julia Goodfellow-Smith is an ordinary person who is doing something extraordinary. Living her bucket list, she would like to help others do the same, which is why she has written this book. She has held a variety of management and consultancy roles in a range of sectors, including conservation, volunteering, banking, and construction. She is currently focusing her attention on adventure, writing, and presenting. Julia lives close to the Malvern Hills with her husband, Mike. She spends a lot of time either wandering on the hills or working in their small woodland nearby. She is a member of the Women's Institute and Toastmasters International, a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts, and a senator of Junior Chamber International JCI. Zoe Langley-Wathen  02:53 Wow. That is amazing. So, Julia, thank you. Thank you so much for agreeing to come on the podcast that is quite a list of things that you've been up to there, and that you have attached to your name? Where do we start? I think before I just dip in and allow you to tease out some of that I would just like to start with a quote from your book. And I believe it might even be the first quote. It's on page nine of your book. And this just absolutely resonated with me, because I did get a pre-copy to read for Julia. So it says "life is to be lived as a magnificent adventure, or not at all". And wow. Was that...? I didn't actually write down who wrote that quote. I think it was... it was a lady. Julia Goodfellow-Smith  03:44 It was Helen Keller. Zoe Langley-Wathen  03:45 Helen Keller. Yes, I was. I was about to say Helena Bonham-Carter but I know that's not right! Julia Goodfellow-Smith  03:50 No that's not quite right. Zoe Langley-Wathen  03:51 No it's not is it?! Julia Goodfellow-Smith  03:52 So? Well? Yeah. I mean, that just absolutely sat with me perfectly. Because that's that's what I'm about. So where did this come from this need to adventure and this realisation that if life is about adventure, you've got to just grab it. What was that all about? Julia Goodfellow-Smith  04:09 Well, there are two things that have happened to me that have had a big impact on my desire to adventure. The first happened quite a long time ago now - twenty years ago, and it was my mum, she died from cancer at a very early age, she was only 59. And I was in my thirties. And I thought to myself, I can't wait for retirement to have adventures, because she died six months before she retired. So that got me really thinking about how I was spending my life and what I was doing for work and things like that. And my life did change radically after that moment, but more recently, I had a bit of a health scare. I know it's a bit of a cliche, but I was told that I had a lung condition. That means that as I get older, I'll be more susceptible to respiratory disease when I found that out, the words that I heard were actually, "if you want to have adventure, you better go and do it now, while you can". So, I took that to heart and decided that having a long commute into Birmingham to a job that I really wasn't enjoying that much, was not the best way to spend my life. And I thought about what I could do next, that would be more adventurous. And I made a list of all the jobs that I could do. And I got a bit stuck on the word adventurer, which sounds quite ridiculous to me, even now. But that was all I wanted to do. I wanted to go out and have adventures. So that was really what kick-started it in the more recent past. Zoe Langley-Wathen  05:40 Wow, yeah, I totally get that. I'm so sorry that you lost your mum so young. That was a really significant moment for you, and obviously very painful. But it's amazing, isn't it how, something like that, then filters through into our decision-making and our choices later on in life. And we start realizing the connection when we're faced with our own potential mortality, or as in your case, your health scare. I think my big decision started to come to fruition when I lost my dad. And so it's a very similar situation in that I started thinking, 'okay, life is too short, I really got to think about doing those things now before age starts creeping in'. Zoe Langley-Wathen  06:27 But Wow. Okay, so the word adventure just stuck with you. How did that then... because that's obviously a seed that's been sown. How did that then start growing and blossoming and then eventually fruiting? What happened there? Julia Goodfellow-Smith  06:44 Well, I started looking online, at how to become an adventurer. It's a great search term, Zoe Langley-Wathen  06:56 Great for SEO! Julia Goodfellow-Smith  07:00 And I came across a few websites, one of which was Bex Band who runs Love Her Wild. Zoe Langley-Wathen  07:05 Ah yes, I know Bex. Julia Goodfellow-Smith  07:06 And she gives an awful lot of information on her website about how she became an adventurer. And it made me realise that it is actually possible to do this on a full-time basis. So I used that really as an encouragement to carry on. And I started thinking about, okay, the first thing you need to do if you think you want to be an adventurer is go out and have some adventures, of course. So I started thinking about what I wanted to do, what was the first thing on my list? And the first thing that came to mind, and that stayed really strongly on the list for me was walking the South West Coast Path. I'd read a book when I was 25 or so, so about 25 years ago, called 500 Mile Walkies by Mark Wallington, and it was a funny book. He walked around the South West Coast Path with his dog. And ever since reading that, I thought, well, that's something I'd like to do one day, so it had been on my bucket list for 25 years and I thought it was about time that I actually did it. So I decided that that was going to be my first adventure walking the South West Coast Path. And then of course, Coronavirus hit, which meant that I couldn't walk the South West Coast Path when I'd planned to. Zoe Langley-Wathen  08:16 Wow. Yeah, so I've got to go back to Mark Wallington. I've read Mark Wallington's 500 Mile Walkies as well. And it was after I discovered the South West Coast Path, because I grew up around in that area. But yes, I totally get that. It was a laugh-out-loud book. I mean, it's the sort of book you don't read on the train for fear of snorting. It just had me in stitches, and actually for a while he lived in Swanage in Dorset. I think he was working up in London. But yeah, I think he was either from Swanage, or he lived in Swanage for a while. But yeah, great book. Absolutely loved that. I managed to pick up a couple of copies of his other books. Actually, it was 500 Mile Walkies. And it was a few books together in one book, and I found it in a charity shop in Sherborne. It had been signed by him and stamped with Boogie's paw print. Oh, this is this is amazing. Yes. So I have that and it's precious to me. Zoe Langley-Wathen  09:18 Wow. So you had that moment of 'okay, this is going on my bucket list'. You said that was about 25 years ago. Julia Goodfellow-Smith  09:26 Yep. Zoe Langley-Wathen  09:26 This has taken you ages to get to the point where you then really thought, Okay, I'm going to go and do it. I mean, I was 15 years and I thought that was a long time before going off, but 25 years! Julia Goodfellow-Smith  09:40 Well, there are a few factors involved in that. There are a number that I can identify clearly. So the first one is the fact that I had done another long distance walk in the past. When I was twenty, I walked the Yorkshire Wolds Way, and I had an awful week. Well, I was young and inexperienced. My pack was heavy, my hips hurt constantly, it rained, I had a new waterproof, that turned out not to be. So I was wet all week, I'd bought some new fuel for my stove that didn't actually heat the water up. So the dried food that should have had boiling water on it to heat up, never really cooked properly. And it was just a miserable, miserable week. I finished the walk because I'