Hey, I’m Ali the human behind Nurturing Folk and I am so glad you found your way to this space.
Let’s start here: I don’t believe you (or any of us) are broken. You are whole, always have been, always will be. SO, I’m also not here to try to ‘fix’ you - but I am really good at holding a fiercely loving, safe, and compassionate space where you can rest your tender heart, feel, and remember just how magic you are.
You’ve always had wisdom within you—I’m just here to shine a light ✨🕯️ so that you can see it for yourself.
The spaces I create are for the parts of you that have been silenced or forgotten. I spend a lot of time with all the emotions you have been taught believe are wrong. We learn that shame, grief, anger & sadness should be suppressed. That confidence, strength, joy & pride… somehow make you unpalatable or too much.
All stories that are asking to be released.
I listen to the whispers of your energy, the pauses in your sentences, and the wisdom your body carries. Together, we unravel the noise, and together, we journey back to your centre, your strength, and your heart.
Around here (Instagram) I talk a lot about compassion because it is the gateway to being able to see all our emotions as equal and valid. This means we can stop trying to suppress them and begin to understand ourselves better.
At the heart of everything is a space to create internal safety, capacity and compassion. So you can navigate life from a place of feeling WHOLE.
On my page you will find I share quite honestly about my life along side little reminders to be kind to yourself, to go slow, live seasonally and to fuck the patriarchy by prioritising your peace over your productivity.
Spending time in nature is my absolute jam.
This is not a sales page, although I do let you know when l’m teaching. This is a space for connection, compassion and community... I am so glad you are here and I’m really looking forward to getting to know you more. ✨
Beaming you a lot of love,
Ali xx
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#whatido #selflove #selfacceptance #somatichealing #mumlife #southeastlondon #breatheinbreatheout #selfhealing #reikimaster #soundhealing
My loves…
I made us a retreat and honestly it is not just a retreat, it’s an offering from my heart to yours.
It is a place to rest your tender heart.
A little portal back to yourself.
A nest where like minded women gather to remember who the fuck they are underneath all the roles we play, the plates we juggle and the hats we wear.
This weekend was designed for people like you, and like me, who feel the call to immerse in ritual, breath, sound, nature and community… and to gently rediscover the parts of themselves that get a little lost in the noise of life.
I cannot quite put into words how special these immersive weekends become. Yes, the practices matter. The breath, the sound, the time in nature and beautiful spaces.
But what really happens is something gentle but powerful.
You say YES to taking time for yourself. You say YES to putting down what you have been carrying. You say YES to slowing down enough to actually hear your heart again…. Really you are saying yes to nurturing yourself.
Journey Back to the Heart is a summer retreat in the Kent countryside, just 1 hour 20 from London. A weekend of rest, deep practice and being held in truly good company.
If your body gives a little yes when you read this… come and have a look.
Pop a YES in the comments and I will send the brochure straight to your DM’s
I cannot wait to share this with you.
Ali x
#slowdown #seasonalliving #retreat #somatichealing #breathe
Yoga / Breathwork / Sound Healing / Nature Connection / somatics / women / witch / medicine woman / ritual / retreat yourself
May at MICA 🌙✨
We’ve got a beautiful line-up of workshops coming your way this month — from calming sound journeys to deep rest, movement and connection.
Join us for:
🤍 Baby Sounds with Ali @nurturingfolk
🌑 New Moon Breath & Sound with Ali @nurturingfolk
🤸🏻♀️ Inversions Workshop with Giusy @giusy.isaia
🌕 Full Moon Gong Bath with Bella @isabellaverrico
Whether you’re looking to slow down, reset, learn something new or simply take some time for yourself, there’s something here for everyone.
Spaces are limited for all workshops — head to the link in our bio to book your spot 🔗
So you have all the class apps, the home equipment, the sound baths saved on playlists and breathwork bookmarked.
You have all the tools.
The theories.
The knowledge.
You know exactly what you need to do.
But what about being held? Because sometimes we just need somewhere safe enough to soften.
There is SUCH a benefit to hitting pause and being facilitated.
To not thinking about the next thing to do.
To letting the mind soften as you are guided into a flow state and letting the nervous system co regulate as you come into presence.
You’ll hear me say this a lot, because I believe it with all of my heart, and many, many years of teaching, training and personal practice…
Finding the things that bring us back into presence, well, that IS the work.
No where to go and nothing to be, not thinking about the next thing or some past moment.
Just this moment.
We are pulled in so many directions.
We hold so much and in my very humble opinion, one of the greatest gifts we can offer ourselves is the ability to truly be here.
Present in our lives, with the people we love, with ourselves.
But it takes practice.
So why not practice with me? 🫶🏽
Let me hold a space for you to soften the noise, quiet the mind and simply be. However you are.
Here is my May into June schedule 🤍
As always, you can book via the link in my bio or comment YES and I’ll send you the booking links.
SCHEDULE
Mondays: Breath & Sound @oru_space
Rhythmic Breathwork to rebalance and restore.
Wednesdays: Sound Healing @oru_space
A sound journey using gong, bowls and chimes.
14th May: Baby Sounds @micayogastudio
A sound bath to nurture the nurturers.
15th May: New Moon Breath & Sound Journey @micayogastudio
Release and reconnect to your inner guidance using Conscious Connected Breathing and somatic practices.
31st May: Breath & Sound Journey for Inner Compassion @oru_space
Cultivate a deeper sense of compassion and connection using Conscious Connected Breathing and somatic practices.
12th–14th June: Summer Retreat
Journey Back to the Heart.
An immersive weekend of breath, sound, movement and nature.
#breathwork #soundhealing #somatichealing #theartofslowliving #seasonalliving
What if the thing you’re actually longing for…
is space.
Space to hear yourself again.
Space to soften your pace.
Space to lay down all the roles you play for a while and remember who you are underneath them.
I think one of the most powerful things we can do is say yes to ourselves before we reach complete exhaustion.
Yes to rest.
Yes to slowing down.
Yes to being cared for.
Yes to taking time for yourself before you have nothing left to give.
This is not an escape.
This is a weekend where everything is taken care of, so you can connect powerfully with yourself.
~say YES in the comments for all the delicious details~
Journey Back to the Heart was created as a space to breathe, move, rest, reflect and reconnect. A space where breathwork, sound, ritual, movement and time in nature support your journey back to yourself.
A space for slow mornings, sunrise swims, nourishing meals, easy conversation, deep work, deep rest and long stretches of time where nothing is asked of you except to simply be.
And whilst this retreat is soft and spacious, it is also meaningful work. The kind of work that gently shifts something. The kind of work that reminds you of your fire, your hope, your heart.
There are some experiences that leave you rested.
And some that return you to yourself.
I made this space for you 🤍
And if your summer plans secretly include retreating with us on June 12th but you haven’t booked yet… honestly, what are you waiting for? Run, don’t walk 😘
There is a space waiting for you.
And maybe a part of you that’s ready to breathe again.
Isn’t it strange how quickly the mind wants to make something bad when it feels unfamiliar, exposing or deeply uncomfortable…
How quickly the nervous system wants to close us down, pull us towards fight, retreat, certainty, or protection.
And to be clear, I’m not talking about when we are truly unsafe.
But more when we find ourselves on a healing journey… it’s SO uncomfortable, there’s that quote isn’t there:
“Your nervous system will always choose a familiar hell over an unfamiliar heaven.”
And I guess when I say heaven, what I really mean is freedom.
When we are being shown possibility.
Blind spots.
Places where we have unknowingly restricted ourselves.
The edges of the identities we have built ourselves within.
How quickly we want to close, how fast we are to reach for what is familiar.
Lately I’ve been moving through a space that has really exposed how attached I have become to certain identities and ways of being that once helped me survive.
And honestly, it has felt fucking terrible at times.
It feels raw, exposing… and I feel quite naked.
But it really got me thinking how easy it would be, when something feels this uncomfortable, to make the process bad.
To collapse back into certainty, armour, identity, and withdrawal.
But in the edge, in OUR edges, there is a threshold.
A moment where life offers us the opportunity to see differently. To open, to KEEP opening.
Even when collapse feels more familiar than connection, even when hiding feels safer than being seen.
And time and time again, I am reminded that the most beautiful parts of my life, the parts that have brought me inspiration, aliveness and freedom, have not come from closing down and protecting myself from life…
They came from the moments I stayed with myself.
The moments I reached for connection and courage.
The moments I allowed light into the darkest corners.
And sometimes we find ourselves in the birth canal, desperate to turn back toward what is known and familiar.
If you are in one of those moments right now, just know you are not alone.
Something beautiful may be trying to emerge through you.
#slowdown #healingjourney #writersofinstagram #spiritualawakening #matrescence
Do more of what you love.
Travelling with kids… moving around a country… navigating sensory overload, tiredness, different tolerances to noise, smells, heat, pace…
On paper it probably should have been a bit of a shit show. But this trip just worked so well for us, thank you universe.
It sparked something in each of us… imagination, wonder, creativity and connection. AND we really moved through our time away as a team.
I feel so proud of how everyone did,
and also how we held space for each other when it didn’t feel easy, no big fixes, just patience space holding for discomfort and feelings.
Because travelling with kids isn’t really a holiday… 🫠 a trip with kids really asks you to lean in to surrender, grace and a whole heap of acceptance.
But my heart is so full, getting to show them a small part of a place I love so much.
We kept it super simple. 4 stops, ten days, road trip style, which is my absolute favourite.
Marrakesh… souks, henna, wandering
High Atlas Mountains… lots of walking and slower days.
Essaouira… horse riding at sunset, argan groves, galleries and more medina mooching.
Back to Marrakesh… rooftop dinner, sunsets and rest, rest, rest.
Did we do everything… no
Did we go slow and honour our pace… yes
And that felt like the whole point.
I know this isn’t my usual kind of post,
but travel makes my heart sing…
So maybe this is your reminder
to do more of what makes your heart feel full.
Ali x
#travelwithkids #morocco #slowdown #domoreofwhatyoulove #blendedfamily
Gentle parenting / self care / nature lovers / life right now
Oh how it is…
to hold the ache of what you create,
the words you want to speak and the wisdom that wants to be seen
in one hand
and in the other…
the child told to be quiet,
the teen who never felt enough,
the woman who lost her light,
the one who learnt to survive,
And the one who still wants to hide.
The longing to be witnessed and the instinct to shrink ourselves all living in the same body,
and still…
we learn hold both with love.
————
Some times I wonder, are we all just trying to walk our inner child home?
A xx
#innerchild #slowliving #healingjourney #somatichealing #grace
Ceremony / energy work / Anamist / self love / freedom
Your purpose should you choose to accept it… is to embody love.
To keep extending the hand of love, to yourself, to others…
Because love is a doing word
Not something we wait for, nor something we can store up.
We move in love, move with love, we are moved by it!
Love is not something we create but something that flows through us.
An energy we can choose to reside in.
Love is a practice, a way of meeting this moment
Again… and again… and again.
We can’t force ourselves to receive love, and we can’t manufacture it to give away.
No matter how much we might want to.
But, we can soften enough to notice where it’s already moving, like a river we step into.
To live in love
Is to stay present enough to feel
When we collapse
And return to,
Gently with courage.
Because love is not always easy is it?
Sometimes it asks for compassion, when judgment would be quicker.
Sometimes it asks for acceptance, when resistance feels safer,
And still…
You get to choose
The lens,
The energy you extend,
The way you meet the world.
You cannot get love right. Nor can you get it wrong. Love is simply love.
You practice it & remember it
And when you forget…
You look for it.
In trees
In moments
In sunlight
In strangers’ faces
In the hand that reaches for you
In your heart
In your breath
You will find it everywhere.
It cannot run out
It moves
It flows
And you are always a welcome guest
Always invited back
Always wanted by love.
I love us 🕊️
p.s if you know someone who thinks like us, share this ♥️
#slowdown #love #meditation #writersofinstagram #spiritualawakening
Photo of our Lunchtime Sound Meditation, yesterday with @nurturingfolk 💫
Review: The lunchtime Sound Meditation was a fantastic experience. I felt much better and at peace after it. 🧘
Feeling the stirrings of spring?
Ideas returning, energy shifting, or a need to clear something out… maybe you’re simply feeling a little exhausted?
I have got just the thing for you! A place to pause, to meet yourself as you are, to tend to what is rising this season…
Join us for a Breath and Sound Journey this Sunday to come back into relationship with yourself with compassion…
We will breathe, slow down, come back to ourselves.
But what does that actuall mean?! As we move through spring, things begin to stir.
Energy shifts, emotions rise.
Parts of us that have been quiet begin to make themselves known.
And alongside this… there is also a question of direction.
What you are ready to nurture.
What you are ready to grow.
What seeds you want to tend this season.
Spring can feel like change and as though something reorganising is within you.
And this is where compassion matters and taking a moment to check in with yourself.
So our workshop offers a space to meet what is rising, to choose what you nurture,
and to gently welcome yourself there.
Because how we meet ourselves…
is how we meet what we are growing.
This is a space to soften the noise of the outside world and turn inward…
to meet every version of yourself
with care, clarity and courage.
The session:
Intention setting
A moment to arrive, to notice what is present, and to meet it with compassion.
Conscious connected breathing
A flowing breath that opens space within you, allowing what is ready to move, to move.
Resting and integrating in sound
Being held in sound, so your body can soften, receive, and gently integrate.
Come as you are…
Please note these sessions are not suitable for everyone there is a list of contradictions on the sign up please be sure to read all the way through. Thank you.
Ali x
#breathwork #soundbath #somatichealing #slowdown #eastdulwich
My loves, just a gentle reminder to let yourself grow at your own pace.
Whether you are springing forward
or slowly unfurling… you can trust your rhythm.
March sits in that in-between. Slightly frustrated energy, one foot still in winter, one reaching toward spring.
A threshold and also awakening that isn’t in a rush.
So before you move forward… take a moment to honour all that you have been last season, every version of you, every experience, every lesson.
Thank those versions that got you exactly here and know that their wisdom now sits within your bones, as a deep knowing.
And remember even in beginning, you are never beginning again.
You begin with everything you have lived.
With your ancestors beside you, knowledge as your map, and intuition guiding the way. You are exactly where you are supposed to be.
Some blooms arrive early, Others take their time.
Both are exactly as they are meant to be and right on time.
Trust YOUR timing.
Trust YOUR growth.
It will look different for everyone.
I can’t wait to witness you bloom,
in your own time.
Ali xx
#slowdown #seasonalliving #somatichealing #spiritualawakening #wordstoliveby
