An introduction to Nurture with Nature

Nurturing Yourself with Nature: An Introduction

Join Iona Andean in the first episode of 'Nurture with Nature' as she introduces her passion project podcast focused on using the outdoors to enhance physical and mental wellbeing. Iona shares her personal journey from police officer to outdoor enthusiast, her experiences forming a community walking group, and the profound impact nature has had on her life. Despite the challenges of the pandemic, Iona's dedication to connecting people with nature endures. She invites listeners to find inspiration and motivation through the stories of everyday people who have discovered the healing powers of the great outdoors.

00:00 Welcome to Nurture with Nature
00:37 The Meaning Behind Nurture with Nature
01:39 Personal Journey: From Police Officer to Nurse
02:37 Discovering a Love for the Outdoors
03:52 Building a Community: Iona's Adventures
04:38 Achievements and Recognition
05:38 Adapting to Change: Lockdown and Beyond
07:14 Motherhood and Outdoor Adventures
08:11 Starting the Podcast and Call to Action
09:05 Final Thoughts and Inspiration

Transcript

Speaker: 0:02

Hello and welcome to Nurture with Nature, with me, your host, Iona Andean. In this episode, I'm going to give you a little introduction to the show, as well as give you a wee insight into who I am and where this passion project of mine has come from. Whether you're listening in the car, if you're out for a walk, you might be cooking in the kitchen, or it's simply on in the background. Thank you so much for taking the time to be here. I firstly wanted to talk to you about the name Nurture with Nature because nurturing is defined as caring for and protecting someone or something while they're growing. We are all constantly evolving, and growing. As we try to muddle through life and the constant ups and downs, but it really is never too late to make changes or set foot on a new path. And my aim is to create a podcast to help you discover more ways of looking after yourself through the powers of the great outdoors. We can all be nurtured with nature. I chat to people living everyday lives like you and I, who have incredible stories to tell. And they talk really passionately about using the outdoors, adventure and nature for their own and other people's benefits. That's from physical health to mental health and wellbeing and everything in between. The stories you hear will make you laugh, cry and hopefully help you reflect on your life and think about what really matters to you. I haven't always had an interest in the outdoors and adventure, and I actually only discovered this, um, real connection with nature once I was in my twenties. I'm a qualified nurse now, and I do realise that I've always had a real desire to look after others in one way or another, but that was only after I turned my life on its head after leaving behind a secure career as a police officer. At the age of 19, I'd left my job that I'd trained so hard for, I left home, and I moved to Aviemore in the Cairngorms, where I knew absolutely nobody, and I had no idea what direction my life would go in. I began working as a carer in a respite centre for people with disabilities within an outdoor activity centre, and we offered adapted outdoor activities like canoeing, cycling, archery and heaps more, and that was all while meeting the multiple complex needs of the people in our care. I didn't have the foggiest idea about paddling a canoe, let alone the rest. But I soon learned on the job and I just started exploring my new local area by cycling and walking and I quickly fell in love with the Cairngorms. I mean, who couldn't? Fast forward a few years and I had a mountain bike of my own and I was hooked on hiking Munros. I'd progressed to training to be a nurse and I got to spend three years traveling all over the highlands for my uni placements and that was in some incredible locations like the Isle of Skye and way down to Fort William so it really was an outdoorsy dream which was amazing. After relocating to Edinburgh with my now husband to start my nursing career, I still felt like I needed to fuel my newfound mountain obsession. And after posting on Instagram about the local hill walks that I was doing, I decided to see if anybody wanted to take on the 26 mile Great Glencoe Challenge with me. I hadn't done anything like that before. And to my surprise, there was a lot of interest, and my wee team was formed. The Blisters and the Lost Toenail tell their own story, but bringing together a group of like minded people felt amazing, and a seed had been well and truly planted. In July 2018, I formed a community walking group on Facebook called Iona's Adventures. I posted events for the hikes that I wanted to do, and I basically just opened it up for anyone to come along if they fancied it. It does sound a bit mad, looking back now, but for whatever reason, it gained momentum, and it gained new members at a rapid pace. And before long, we were hiking Munros as a group of 20 to 30 people at a time, sharing those experiences as complete strangers often. I can now say that some of my best friends are the people who happened to come along to those initial group walks and I really haven't looked back. Fast forward six years from then and I've had some of the most incredible experiences of my life thanks to that wee walking group. I've hiked up the three highest mountains in North Africa. I've been supported and sponsored by some amazing brands and organisations like Berghaus and Tiso. And I've had the terrifyingly scary experience of speaking on stage to a live audience at Kendal Mountain Festival twice. And I also had the honour of being voted winner of the Mountaineering Scotland Volunteer of the Year award. I was nominated for two categories in the Great Outdoors Magazine Reader Awards and I've been lucky enough to speak on multiple podcasts and blogs about my adventures. Looking back it really does feel so surreal, um, and it's really hard to blow your own trumpet about things like that, but I think it's really important, especially for a project like this to look back and reflect and I can see that finding a love of the outdoors and nature changed my life in ways that I really could never have imagined. Cue lockdown in 2020 and everything ground to a halt. The group walks, they ceased entirely. I picked up extra nursing shifts covered in gloves, masks and aprons for 12 hours at a time. I really missed the outdoors and the adventure family that I felt like I had. Um, I wanted to maintain those connections and to offer some positivity through what was a really tough time for so many people. So I set up live interviews through Instagram stories with some of the incredible people I'd met or people that I was following, and I called it the sunshine sessions, a little bit of light through those really dark times. My most recent nursing role was within a criminal justice social work department and this was specifically for women who had been convicted of crimes but instead of a jail sentence they were given the opportunity to engage with the program after being identified as having experienced significant trauma in their life and they worked with the social workers and psychologists through that. And through the training that I was given for the role, I quickly realised the lasting effects that trauma can have on some people, and the life choices that are often made as a result, and my interest in mental health and wellbeing really ramped up at that point. I was really determined to support people who might otherwise be stereotyped or written off by mainstream healthcare systems. The world had opened up post lockdown but my life was changing yet again for me. As I got married we relocated to Aberdeenshire where I'd grown up and we had our little boy in the summer of 2022. Outdoor adventures changed massively but I was determined to make time to be outside and to introduce my little boy to Mother Nature. Those pram and carrier walks were a saviour at times through early motherhood and I'm now mum to a curious, mischievous and outdoor obsessed two year old and I'm at a point where I love showing that adventures don't end when you have children. Group walks look really different nowadays as I volunteer for an organisation called Blaze Trails who offer baby and toddler friendly family walks. I still get to connect people to the outdoors while showing my little boy what I'm really passionate about and that is something that I'm so proud of myself for. We are now expecting baby number two in autumn, and life is going to change all over again. But starting this podcast is my way of continuing to connect people to the outdoors and to nature, while working on something that is truly for me. Word of mouth is going to be the most powerful way to reach as many people as possible. If you're listening and you like what you hear, then this is your call to action. Please do consider sharing this with a friend. Please share it on social media or subscribe wherever you get your podcasts because honestly, every little action will make a difference. You can tag me on Instagram to let me know your thoughts and you'll find me there as@iona.Adventuring. And you know what, if only one person feels even slightly inspired then at least I'll have made some sort of positive change because doing something's better than nothing no matter how scary it seems. And this has been pretty scary. Thank you for coming on this journey with me while I embark on doing something completely and utterly new and unknown. My hope is that by listening to the show you'll find some sense of inspiration or motivation to make time for you. Maybe just to look after yourself a tiny bit more through the endless powers of the great outdoors. Truly nurturing yourself with nature.