03/01/2025
SHIFTING OUR FOCUS FROM PUSHING THROUGH TO CREATING A NEW LIFE
“Plants and animals don’t fight the winter; they don’t pretend it’s not happening and attempt to carry on living the same lives that they lived in the summer. They prepare. They adapt. They perform extraordinary acts of metamorphosis to get them through
Katherine May, Wintering: The Power of Rest & Retreat in Difficult Times
Three years ago, this weekend, our Founder NHS GP Dr Kath Jones packed her car to the hilt and set off on an hour-long journey into the dark, icy wilds of the Scottish Highlands, to Mullardoch House, a majestic hunting lodge on the shores of Loch Sealbhanach.
Her mission was to host the first retreat, exploring the concept of “wintering”, inspired by the Katherine May novel of the same name, with friends spanning five decades of her life, most of whom had never met before.
Reading Wintering during the pandemic had led Kath to question her beliefs about health learnt during medical school and given her the courage to reframe her own “fallow period in life” as an opportunity for personal transformation.
This new way of thinking about health set her on a quest to find tools to make sense of suffering, and to recognise the importance of us as health professionals, offering the same kindness and love to ourselves as we would to our patients.
Health suddenly seemed more about eating well, getting good sleep, going for long walks in the fresh air and exploring ways of soothing ourselves during times of change, than processing an endless battery of tests and treatments.
So, had did the weekend go? Well, strangers became friends, and I think the pictures captured by .westphotography and the feedback from Lucy Story, an Advanced Nurse Practitioner from Inverness, speak for themselves.
If you’re a health professional in need of change, then join us for a seasonal wellbeing retreat or sign up for The Sustainable Healer conference on Thurs 27th and Fri 28th March at the Inverness Creative Academy book now at www.wild-ness.co.uk.