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Writing with Purpose – Inspiring Readers, Writers, and Nature Lovers

Writing with Purpose – Inspiring Readers, Writers, and Nature Lovers

Written by: Anna Woolliscroft
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 Do you dream of a life filled with creativity, calm, and connection? Join me, Anna Woolliscroft, writer, journalling guide, and outdoor enthusiast, as I share my love for putting pen to paper and exploring the great outdoors. Through heartfelt conversations and practical tips, discover how writing and nature connection can help you find clarity, spark creativity, and live a more fulfilling life. Whether you’re a seasoned writer, a curious beginner, or simply someone seeking a deeper connection to life, this podcast is for you. Please tune in and let's explore together.Anna Woolliscroft Self-Help Success
Episodes
  • 70: Pay Attention, Be Astonished & Finding Awe with Elaine Brooks

    70: Pay Attention, Be Astonished & Finding Awe with Elaine Brooks
    Apr 25 2026
    Episode 70: Pay Attention, Be Astonished & Finding Awe with Elaine BrooksWhen did you last stop in your tracks and think: what if I never see this again?In this episode of the Writing with Purpose podcast, I'm joined by Elaine Brooks, a certified poetry therapy mentor and certified applied poetry facilitator. Through her own work and teaching collaborations, Elaine helps people uncover their gifts and reclaim their stories using the Eight Wonders of Life framework. Her background as a registered nurse and integrative nurse coach has shaped a uniquely embodied approach to wellbeing, one rooted in the belief that awe is not a luxury but a quiet, transformative force available to all of us.In this warm and wide-ranging conversation, Elaine and I explore what awe actually is and how to recognise it in your own body, why the research of Dr Dacher Keltner has changed the way we understand wonder, and how the Eight Wonders of Life, from moral beauty and collective effervescence to music, nature, and those sudden aha moments, offer us everyday doorways into something larger. We also talk about the journalling technique of the captured moment, the two questions that can shift the way you move through the world, and how sharing stories of awe can deepen relationships and anchor positive memories more firmly in our bodies."What is the weight of the words that I put in my journal? And how many of them are often heavy because I'm writing about things that are going on that are troubling me. And that made me think, what about just kind of balancing that with some lighter words and really capturing moments of awe in my journal, along with the heavyweight words."In this episode:• The Eight Wonders of Life framework• The journalling technique of the captured moment• Two questions that change how you pay attention• How awe activates the parasympathetic nervous system, lowers heart rate, reduces inflammation, and draws us out of overthinking • Elaine's encounter with a juvenile eagle and what it taught her about transformationPractical wisdom from this episode:Elaine shares grounded, accessible ways to invite more awe into everyday life, including:Practising the captured moment after an experience of aweKeeping the Eight Wonders in mind as a compassLooking for moral beauty in daily lifeListening to awe-inspiring music with intentionSharing your stories of awe carefully and with people who can truly hear themConnect with ElainePlease connect with Elaine to find out more about her work, upcoming workshops, and her forthcoming awe wellbeing project.WebsiteContact ElaineEmailAlso mentioned:The Weight of Ink by Rachel Kadish When Breath Becomes Air by Paul Kalanithi A Sense of Wonder by Rachel Carson Awe: The New Science of Everyday Wonder and How It Can Transform Your Life by Dr Dacher Keltner Writing Wild by Tina Welling The Good Life Project podcastJohn Muir Laws Mary Oliver The Poetry Therapy Conference Today's Headline, poem by Rosemerry Wahtola TrommerPodcast Chapters00:00 Introduction to Awe and Wellbeing05:44 The Power of Journaling and Reflection12:38 Understanding Awe and Its Impact18:35 The Eight Wonders of Life37:01 Practical Ways to Cultivate Awe54:32 The Future of Awe and Wellbeing01:15:12 Introduction to Journaling and Community Engagement01:15:37 Exploring the Benefits of Journaling Workshops_ _ _A new episode is released every other Saturday at 8 am.If this episode resonated with you, please subscribe to the Writing with Purpose podcast and leave a review. It makes a real difference in helping more people find the show.Listen on Spotify | Apple Podcasts | wherever you get your podcastsPlease download your free journal planner PDF and entrance meditation to kickstart your journalling journey.Please connect with me on your preferred platform by ⁠visiting my links pageJoin my bi-weekly Writing and Nature Connection newsletter
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    1 hr and 17 mins
  • 69 One Step at a Time: Alex Staniforth on Resilience, Nature, and the Mountains That Changed Everything

    69 One Step at a Time: Alex Staniforth on Resilience, Nature, and the Mountains That Changed Everything
    Apr 18 2026
    Episode 69: One Step at a Time: Alex Staniforth on Resilience, Nature, and the Mountains That Changed EverythingWhat does it take to keep going when everything falls apart, not once, but again and again?Alex Staniforth is a record-breaking adventurer, performance coach, author, and founder of Mind Over Mountains, a charity whose mission is to restore mental wellbeing through nature. Alex has overcome epilepsy, bullying, and mental health challenges whilst surviving two of Mount Everest's most significant disasters before the age of 19. He is the first and fastest person to run all 446 mountains in England and Wales, raising over £150,000 for charity.In this conversation, Alex and Anna explore how adversity shaped his relationship with the natural world, what two catastrophic events on Everest taught him about survival and gratitude, and why he believes that a single walk in the right place at the right time can genuinely change the course of a life. Alex speaks with characteristic honesty about burnout, mental health, and the harder question of what comes after the summit, when the goal is gone and the flatness sets in. He also shares how writing has been a constant thread throughout, from keeping a diary on the road to writing books that help him, and others, make sense of the journey.If I don't have any log of life, then it's so easy to forget it and I've got nothing to pass on. So yeah, that's how I see it really, as an investment."In this episodeHow one walk in the Lake District at age 14 gave Alex a sense of direction, confidence, and possibility he had never felt beforeSurviving two of Everest's worst disasters, and the lasting guilt and gratitude that followedThe founding of Mind Over Mountains and how combining walking in nature with professional mental health support creates something more lasting than a single retreatWhy planning for the aftermath of a big challenge matters as much as the challenge itselfHow writing, voice notes, and keeping a daily diary have informed Alex's booksAlex's advice for anyone facing their own mountainPractical wisdom from this episode:Alex talks about the value of keeping a daily record as a practical investment in memory and legacy. Even ten minutes the morning after, noting the key things from the previous day, is enough. He also talks about the importance of planning the recovery period before a challenge begins as a way to come down and have something to look forward to. And when the flatness comes, he suggests keeping busy but staying present, talking to people who were part of the experience, and accepting that processing takes time.Connect with Alex:WebsiteMind Over MountainsLinkedInInstagramFacebook YouTube Alex's booksAlso mentionedThe Chimp Paradox by Professor Steve PetersHarry Potter series by J.K. RowlingClimb the UK challengeUniversity of Chester Podcast Chapters00:00 Introduction05:14 The Power of Nature and Personal Transformation09:36 The Journey to Everest: Overcoming Challenges12:24 Commitment and the Drive to Achieve19:04 Fundraising23:30 Exploring New Sports and Personal Growth28:09 Writing as a Form of Expression33:48 The Birth of Mind Over Mountains37:37 Navigating Mental Health and Charity Work40:59 Balancing Challenges and Wellbeing46:28 Planning for Post-Challenge Mental Health51:17 Future Aspirations and Advice_ _ _ A new episode is released every other Saturday at 8 am.If this episode resonated with you, please subscribe to the Writing with Purpose podcast and leave a review. It makes a real difference in helping more people find the show.Listen on Spotify | Apple Podcasts | wherever you get your podcasts.Please download your free journal planner PDF and entrance meditation to kickstart your journalling journey.Please connect with me on your preferred platform by ⁠visiting my links pageJoin my bi-weekly Writing and Nature Connection newsletter
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    57 mins
  • 68 Writing with the Earth: Your Wild Soul Story with Mary Reynolds Thompson

    68 Writing with the Earth: Your Wild Soul Story with Mary Reynolds Thompson
    Apr 11 2026
    What if the earth has been speaking to you all along, and the page is where you learn to listen?Mary Reynolds Thompson is a British-born, award-winning author, poetry and journal therapist, and eco coach whose work weaves nature connection, wild language, and therapeutic writing into a path of soul recovery and re-enchantment with the earth.She teaches that the earth speaks to us through archetypes and symbols, and that by writing with these images, we can rewild both our language and our souls.In this episode, Mary takes us on a journey that begins with a wild Bohemian childhood in Positano, roaming the hills, sleeping in caves, riding a pig called Romana, and travels through her years as a copywriter in London, her own addiction recovery, and her eventual turn toward the soul work that has shaped her books, courses, and therapeutic practice.This is a conversation about what it means to stop telling the small, fact-based story of your life and open yourself instead to the full expanse of who you are."...View your life through this extraordinary, amazing thing that you are — a product of 13.8 billion years of evolution.""You are nested in this very particular moment in a very particular way, with very particular gifts that you have to rediscover." Mary Reynolds ThompsonIn this episode:How a wild childhood in Positano with freedom, cave sleeping, and animals planted the seeds of Mary's nature-based philosophyMary's addiction recovery and the moment at the Pacific Ocean that showed her she was strong enough to surviveWhat the ‘wild soul story’ isHow wild language works: using earth archetypes as metaphors for your inner lifeWhy there is no getting it wrong in wild writingHow to take your journal outdoors and let nature lead: the ‘10 things I notice’ practiceA dialogue technique for communicating with the more-than-human world, trees, stones, and the living landscapePractical wisdom:Start with 10 things I notice. Take your journal outside and list ten things you observe. Try the short write. Three minutes, a springboard word or image, no agenda. Use landscape as emotional vocabulary. Instead of saying ‘I'm fine,’ ask yourself: which landscape am I travelling through right now? Open a dialogue with a tree or stone.Write with the archetypes. Each landscape archetype unlocks a different quality of attention and language.Connect with Mary:WebsiteInstagramFacebookMary's booksReclaiming the Wild Soul: How Earth's Landscapes Restore Us to Wholeness (Nautilus Prize winner)The Way of the Wild Soul Woman: 5 Earth Archetypes to Unleash Your Full Feminine PowerEmbrace Your Inner WildThe Wild ScribeAlso mentioned in this podcast:Raising Hare memoir by Chloe DaltonThe Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson BurnettSilver by Walter de la Mare - The Poem TreeKing John's Christmas by A.A. MilneMorning Pages by Julia Cameron (The Artist's Way)Kay AdamsJosé Ortega y GassetHawkwood Center for Future Thinking Podcast Chapters00:00 Introduction06:05 The Power of Poetry and Childhood Influences09:01 Wild Childhood Adventures in Positano12:46 Landscapes and Personal Transformation16:48 The Journey from Copywriting to Eco-Spirituality22:14 Authenticity in a Mechanised World24:22 Living Your Wild Soul Story26:33 Listening to Nature's Whispers31:46 Engaging with the Wild Language37:54 Reclaiming the Wild Soul42:57 Connecting with Nature through Journalling49:25 The Creative Process: Archetypes in Writing_ _ _A new episode is released every other Saturday at 8 am.If you enjoyed this episode, please subscribe and leave a review — it helps more people find the show. Thank you for listening. Join the Journalling Nook, an online community where we write for our wellbeing and personal growth.Please download your free journal planner PDF and entrance meditationPlease connect with me on your preferred platform by ⁠visiting my links pageJoin my bi-weekly Writing and Nature Connection newsletter
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    54 mins
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