In this weeks episode, Roger reflects on the last decade of practising mindfulness and accessing the space between stimulus and response.

In the episode, Roger shares how he found the gateway into mindfulness back in 2015, the 31-day mindfulness summit by Melli O Brien. You can still access the summit, the link is below...

The Mindfulness Summit

Get in Touch

If anything in this episode resonated and you'd like to explore coaching — or simply have a quiet conversation about where you are — I'd love to hear from you.

🌿 Website: www.alderpathcoaching.co.uk

📧 Email: hello@alderpathcoaching.co.uk

🎙️ Alder Path Podcast — Season 2 on Spotify

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Disclaimer

The reflections shared in this podcast are my own personal thoughts and experiences. They are intended for general information and reflection only, and are not a substitute for professional mental health support, therapy, or counselling.

I am a qualified coach — holding a Level 5 Diploma in Performance Coaching and NLP and trained as a mindfulness teacher — but I am not a counsellor, psychotherapist, or mental health professional. If you are experiencing significant emotional distress or mental health difficulties, please seek support from a qualified professional or contact your GP.

Nothing shared in this podcast should be taken as personal coaching advice. If you'd like to explore working together, please get in touch directly.

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Connect & Subscribe

If this episode resonated please share it with someone navigating a transition right now. Sometimes knowing that the wilderness is a phase — not a destination — is exactly what someone needs to hear.

Follow or subscribe on Spotify so you don't miss Season 2.

Walk slowly. Pay attention. And trust the season you're in. 🌿

About this episode

Negativity bias — the brain's tendency to register, process and remember negative experiences more intensely than positive ones — is one of the most ancient features of the human mind. It kept our ancestors alive. And in the modern world, it runs constantly in the background of our lives, scanning for threats that rarely materialise, manufacturing anxiety from uncertainty, and making the present feel insufficient by comparison with an imagined safer alternative.

It's also one of the most significant obstacles to whole life essentialism.

In this Season 2 episode of the Alder Path Podcast I explore:

- What negativity bias actually is and why we all have it

- How it shows up in work, relationships and anything unfamiliar — with honest personal examples

- Why it hits differently in midlife — when accumulated experience gives the worried mind plenty of material to work with

- The connection between negativity bias and why the essentialist life is harder to live than it sounds

- Active savouring — the daily practice that genuinely retrains what the mind tends toward over time

- Nature as the natural container for this practice — and why walk and talk coaching works so well for overthinkers and over-worriers

This episode ends with one simple, practical thing to try today. Not a system. Not a programme. Just three things — noticed properly, held for a moment longer than usual.

That's enough to begin. 🌿

This Week's Practice

Tonight — or tomorrow morning, whichever feels more natural — pause for two minutes.

Three things from today that were genuinely good. Not extraordinary. Just good. Real. Present. Yours.

Hold them for a moment longer than you usually would. Long enough to actually feel them rather than just note them.

Then — if you can — take one walk this week where the sole intention is to notice what's good. Not to solve anything. Not to process anything. Just to notice.

The brain that is genuinely attending to what matters has less room for the manufactured threats that don't.

About Roger Hunt & Alder Path Coaching

I'm Roger Hunt — gardener, nature based life coach and host of the Alder Path Podcast. I tend gardens and I tend people — helping those in midlife find their way back to what actually matters.

My coaching is grounded in whole life essentialism — the disciplined pursuit of what actually matters, applied to the whole of life. Walk and talk, nature based, unhurried. Based in Derby and the East Midlands.

Get in Touch

If anything in this episode resonated and you'd like to explore coaching — or simply have a quiet conversation about where you are — I'd love to hear from you.

🌿 Website: www.alderpathcoaching.co.uk

📧 Email: hello@alderpathcoaching.co.uk

Disclaimer

The reflections shared in this podcast are my own personal thoughts and experiences. They are intended for general information and reflection only, and are not a substitute for professional mental health support, therapy, or counselling.

I am a qualified coach — holding a Level 5 Diploma in Performance Coaching and NLP and trained as a mindfulness teacher — but I am not a counsellor, psychotherapist, or mental health professional. If you are experiencing significant emotional distress or mental health difficulties, please seek support from a qualified professional or contact your GP.

Nothing shared in this podcast should be taken as personal coaching advice. If you'd like to explore working together, please get in touch directly.

Episode description

I've been away for a few weeks.

Not dramatically — no crisis, no difficulty. Just a pause. A stepping back. A deliberate slowing

down that turned out to be more necessary than I realised when I began it. And something clarified in the quiet.

In this first episode of Season 2, I share honestly what was really in the gap — a sense of

misalignment I'd been carrying quietly for longer than I'd admitted, and a philosophy I'd been living with for years without fully naming or committing to.

Whole life essentialism.

Not the corporate pursuit of peak performance. Something quieter and more human than that.

The disciplined pursuit of what actually matters — applied to the whole of your life. Season 2 of the Alder Path Podcast is built around that idea. This episode is where it begins. Welcome back. I'm glad you're here. 🌳🌱

About Roger Hunt & Alder Path Coaching

I'm Roger Hunt — gardener, nature based life coach and host of the Alder Path Podcast. I tend

gardens and I tend people — helping those in midlife find their way back to what actually

matters.

My coaching is grounded in whole life essentialism. Walk and talk, nature based,

unhurried. For people in midlife ready to build a quieter, more intentional life. Based in the East Midlands.

Get in Touch

If anything in this episode resonated and you'd like to explore coaching — or simply have a quiet

conversation about where you are — I'd love to hear from you.

🌍 Website: www.alderpathcoaching.co.uk

📧 Email: hello@alderpathcoaching.co.uk

About This Episode

There's a sentence that has been sitting with me this week, quietly reorganising how I think about everything else. True happiness is the absence of the search for happiness. It sounds almost like a riddle at first. But the more I've turned it over, the more it feels like a key — one that unlocks something about presence, about enough, about why so much of modern life leaves us feeling like happiness is permanently one step ahead. In this episode of the Alder Path Podcast I explore: What the search for happiness actually looks like in modern life — striving, comparing, consuming, scrolling, Why the search itself, by its very structure, takes us away from the present moment — the only place happiness has ever actually existed, What replaces the searching when it stops, even briefly, Why this isn't an argument for passivity or giving up on a wonderful life — but a different orientation toward building one and lastly, A simple practice for noticing when you're searching for something that might already be here.

A Question Worth Carrying

Where in your life are you searching for something that might already be here, if you stopped reaching past it long enough to notice? Don't rush to answer. Just carry the question. On a walk, in the garden, in a quiet moment before sleep.

About Roger Hunt & Alder Path Coaching

I'm Roger Hunt — gardener, nature-based life coach, and host of the Alder Path Podcast. I tend gardens and I tend people — helping those in midlife find their way back to a simpler, more grounded life.I work with people age 40+ navigating significant life transitions — those who arrive feeling confused and overwhelmed, and leave feeling clear and calm. My coaching is walk and talk, nature-based, and unhurried. No quick fixes. Just honest, grounded conversation at the pace that real change actually requires.

Get in Touch

If anything in this episode resonated and you'd like to explore coaching, or simply have a quiet conversation about where you are, I'd love to hear from you.

🌿 Website: www.alderpathcoaching.co.uk

📧 Email: hello@alderpathcoaching.co.uk

Disclaimer

The reflections shared in this podcast are my own personal thoughts and experiences. They are intended for general information and reflection only, and are not a substitute for professional mental health support, therapy, or counselling. I am a qualified coach — holding a Level 5 Diploma in Performance Coaching and NLP and trained as a mindfulness teacher — but I am not a counsellor, psychotherapist, or mental health professional. If you are experiencing significant emotional distress or mental health difficulties, please seek support from a qualified professional or contact your GP. Nothing shared in this podcast should be taken as personal coaching advice. If you'd like to explore working together, please get in touch directly.

Connect & Subscribe

If this episode resonated, please share it with someone who might need a reminder that enough is often closer than it feels. Follow or subscribe on Spotify so you don't miss future episodes.

Walk slowly. Pay attention. And notice when you're searching for something that's already here. 🌿

About the episode

There's a quality of presence that children have naturally and most adults have almost entirely forgotten.
Not mindfulness as a practice. Something older and simpler than that. The capacity to be fully, unself-consciously somewhere. To notice without trying. To exist without performing.
In this episode of the Alder Path Podcast, I trace a personal journey — from formal mindfulness training and group teaching, through the evolution toward one to one bespoke practice, and finally toward something that feels truer still. Awareness not as something you do, but as something you return to. A way of being that nature, more than any technique, has helped me recover.
Inspired by Jean-Pierre Weill and his beautiful book The Well of Being, this episode explores:

• The journey from formal sitting practice to integrated everyday awareness

• Why group mindfulness teaching evolved into something more personal and bespoke
• How nature trains awareness in ways that formal practice sometimes doesn't reach
• The image of the adult on the platform — waiting for a life that is already happening
• The lion who looks in the mirror and sees a cat — and what that says about how we misread our own depth
• The story of a child that painted on a blank wall in the house and learnt that expression can have consequences.
• What it means to return to the well of being that was always there
  About The Well of Being
  The Well of Being is a quietly extraordinary book by Jean-Pierre Weill — gentle, philosophical, and deeply human. It explores the nature of consciousness, presence and what it means to live from a place of genuine inner depth rather than surface activity.
  If this episode resonates, I'd encourage you to find a copy. A picture book for adults, a link to the author and his work is below 🌿
  
  

About Roger Hunt & Alder Path Coaching

I'm Roger Hunt — gardener, nature-based life coach, and host of the Alder Path Podcast. I tend gardens and I tend people — helping those in midlife find their way back to a simpler, more grounded life.
I qualified as a coach in 2018 and hold a Level 5 Diploma in Performance Coaching and NLP. I work with people from midlife and onwards, navigating significant life transitions — those who arrive feeling confused and overwhelmed, and leave feeling clear and calm. My coaching is walk and talk, nature-based, and unhurried.
Get in Touch
If anything in this episode resonated and you'd like to explore coaching — or simply have a quiet conversation about where you are — I'd love to hear from you.
🌿 Website: www.alderpathcoaching.co.uk
📧 Email: hello@alderpathcoaching.co.uk
Disclaimer
The reflections shared in this podcast are my own personal thoughts and experiences. They are intended for general information and reflection only, and are not a substitute for professional mental health support, therapy, or counselling.
I am a qualified coach — holding a Level 5 Diploma in Performance Coaching and NLP and trained as a mindfulness teacher — but I am not a counsellor, psychotherapist, or mental health professional. If you are experiencing significant emotional distress or mental health difficulties, please seek support from a qualified professional or contact your GP.
Nothing shared in this podcast should be taken as personal coaching advice. If you'd like to explore working together, please get in touch directly.
Connect & Subscribe
If this episode moved something in you, please share it with someone who might need a moment of stillness today.
Follow or subscribe on Spotify so you don't miss future episodes.
Walk slowly. Pay attention. An

In 1972 Jim Croce wrote Time in a Bottle - a song about wishing he could save time for the things that matter most. He died in a plane crash the following year, before the song was ever released.

A man singing about never having enough time. Gine before the world heard it.

That story has been sitting with me this week. Along with a question I think many of us are quietly living - why does time feel like it's always slipping away? Why does a week disappear before we've properly inhabited it? And why, since the pandemic, has something shifted in our relationship with time that hasn't quite shifted back.

In this episode, I explore the strange feeling that there's never enough time. Where it comes from. What the pandemic did to our experience of it. And what it actually feels like when time restores itself - because it can, and it does, in the right conditions.

This one is quiet and reflective, best listened to with a favourite cuppa and when you don't need to be anywhere else for a little while 🌱🌳

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About Roger Hunt and Alder Path Coaching

I'm Roger Hunt - gardener, nature-based life coach, and host of the Alder Path Podcast. I tend gardens and people - helping those in midlife and onwards find their way back to a simpler, more grounded life.

I work with people aged 40 and onwards who are navigating significant life transitions - those who arrive feeling confused and overwhelmed and leave feeling clear and calm. My coaching is walk and talk, nature-based and unhurried. No quick fixes, just honest, grounded conversations at the pace that real change actually requires.

--------------------------------------------------------------------

Get in Touch

If anything in this episode resonated and you'd like to explore coaching, or simply have a quiet conversation about where you are in life, I'd love to hear from you.

🌿Website: www.alderpathcoaching.co.uk

📧email: hello@alderpathcoaching.co.uk

--------------------------------------------------------------------

Disclaimer

The reflections shared in this podcast are my own personal thoughts, reflections and experiences. They are intended for general information and reflection only and are in no way a substitute for professional mental health support, therapy or counselling.

I am a qualified coach - Holding a level 5 diploma in performance coaching and NLP and trained as a mindfulness teacher - but I am not a counsellor, psychotherapist, or mental health professional. If you are experiencing significant emotional distress or mental health difficulties, please seek support from a qualified professional or contact your GP.

Nothing shared in this podcast should be taken as personal coaching advice. If you'd like to explore working together, please get in touch directly.

--------------------------------------------------------------------

Connect and Subscribe

If this episode resonated, please share it with someone who needs a moment to slow down today. That's how quiet things find the people they're meant for.

Follow or subscribe on Spotify so you don't miss any future episodes.

Walk slowly. Pay attention. And save a little time for what matters. 🌿🌳

Happy Earth Day 🌳🌍

This weeks episode is a quiet celebration of the natural world - and an honest reflection on what we lose when we drift away from it.

I'm recording this on Earth day 2026, having spent some time in our little garden, a day of blue skies, new flowers emerging and a fledgling bird taking its first uncertain steps into the world. And a growing sense that nature has always known something we keep forgetting.

In today's episode, I explore what gardens and the natural world teaches us about patience, imperfection, and belonging. Why so many of us feel unrooted and disconnected. And why returning to nature - even in small, simple ways - is one of the most quietly radical things we can do.

This one is slow and reflective. Made for a gentle walk, or an open window, or a quiet moment outside.

A little gentle reminder that we are not separate from the natural world, we are part of it.

Today - even for just a few minutes - go outside. Notice one thing. Let the natural world remind you where you're from.

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About Roger Hunt and Alder Path Coaching

I'm Roger Hunt - Gardener, nature-based life coach, and host of the Alder Path Podcast. I tend gardens and I tend people - helping those in midlife and onwards find their way back to a simpler, more grounded life.

My coaching is walk and talk, outdoors and unhurried. No quick fixes. Just honest, grounded conversation at the pace that real change actually requires.

--------------------------------------------------------------------

Get in touch

If anything in this episode resonated and you'd like to explore coaching, or simply have a quiet conversation about where you are, I'd love to hear from you.

🌿Website : www.alderpathcoaching.co.uk

📧Email : hello@alderpathcoaching.co.uk

--------------------------------------------------------------------

Disclaimer

The reflections shared in this podcast are my own personal thoughts and experiences. They are intended for general information and reflection only, and are not a substitute for professional mental health support, therapy, or counselling.

I am a qualified coach - holding a level 5 Diploma in Performance coaching and NLP and trained as a mindfulness teacher - but I am not a counsellor, psychotherapist, or mental health professional. If you are experiencing significant emotional distress or mental health difficulties, please seek support from a qualified professional or contact your GP.

Nothing shared in this podcast should be taken as personal coaching advice. If you'd like to explore working together, please get in touch directly.

--------------------------------------------------------------------

Connect & Subscribe

If today's episode resonated, please share it with someone who needs a moment of stillness today. That's how quiet things find the people they're meant for.

Follow or subscribe on Spotify so you don't miss any future episodes.

Walk slowly, pay attention. Take a moment outside for a powerful pause 🌳🌿🌍

How much are you carrying that was never really yours to carry permanently?

In this episode, I reflect on the weight of accumulated roles, identities and versions or ourselves that made sense once - but may no longer fit. I share honestly from my own experience of returning to things I loved in my younger years and finding that I had changed, and what that taught me about the difference between quitting and completing.

This isn't about dramatic reinvention. It's about the quiet, honest work of noticing what no longer serves - and giving yourself permission to set it down.

We explore

• Why we accumulate roles and identities without noticing
• The difference between quitting and completing
• Why letting go is so hard - identity, sunk cost fallacy and other people's expectations
• What the fallow period actually feels like, and why it matters

• What becomes possible when something is genuinely released.

The question I leave you with this week:

"What am I carrying that was never really mine to carry permanently?"

You don't need to answer it straight away. Just carry it with you on a walk, or sit with it over a cuppa in a favourite chair. Sometimes naming it is enough to begin...

_____________________________________________________________

About Roger Hunt and Alder Path Coaching

I'm Roger Hunt - Gardener, nature-based life coach, and host of The Alder Path Podcast. I tend gardens and I tend people - helping those in midlife and onwards, find their way back to a simpler, more grounded life.

I work with people age 40+ who are navigating significant life transitions - Those who arrive feeling confused and overwhelmed, and leave feeling clear and calm. My coaching is walk and talk, nature-based and unhurried. No quick fixes. Just honest, grounded conversation at the pace that real change actually requires.

Get in Touch

If anything in this episode resonated and you'd like to explore coaching, or simply have a quiet conversation about where you are, I'd love to hear from you.

💻website: www.alderpathcoaching.co.uk

📧email : hello@:alderpathcoaching.co.uk

Disclaimer

The reflections shared in this Podcast are my own personal thoughts and experiences. They are intended for general information and reflection only and are not a substitute for professional support, be that mental health support, medical advice from a GP, therapy or counselling.

I am a qualified coach, holding a level 5 Diploma in performance coaching and NLP. I am not a trained counsellor, psychotherapist, or mental health professional. If you are experiencing significant emotional distress or mental health difficulties, please seek support from a qualified professional or contact your GP.

Nothing shared in this podcast should be taken as personal coaching advice. If you'd like to explore working together, please get in touch directly.

Connect and Subscribe

If you enjoyed this episode, please follow or subscribe on Spotify so you don't miss future episodes. If you know someone who might need to hear this one, sharing is the kindest thing you can do.

New episodes released regularly.

Walk slowly, pay attention. The Path forward rarely needs to be rushed.