28 August 2025
01:04:43
Lizzi Larbalestier
OVERVIEW:
Curly Steve and Lizzi discuss the healing power of water, the roots of Blue Health coaching, and how reconnecting with the ocean can inspire wiser choices, deeper wellbeing, and a stronger sense of reciprocity with nature.TOPICS
UncategorisedAVAILABLE ON:
WATCH ON YOUTUBE
Wallace Nicholls writes in Blue Mind, "We're finally beginning to understand why being near, in, on, or underwater makes us happier, healthier, and more connected and better at what we do." Hi, I'm Curly Steve. We're searching for a
greener room. [Music] [Applause] Today I'm joined by Lizzie. She's an ocean advocate, blue health coach, seal
rescuer, and allround water whisperer. Through coaching, science, and story, she helps people reconnect with the ocean and with themselves. Lizzy, welcome to the show. Thank you for inviting me. Nice to see you. Nice to see you. What
I'd like to do first, Liz, is just uh rewind to your childhood. I'd like you to tell me a little bit about first of all u where you came from and secondly what what was your sort of introduction to uh to nature and to sustainability. It's a good question. So I would say I
was born in Devon. I'm really sorry, but I was brought up in Cormal. Seven bays area is where I spent most of my childhood. The first memories that I've got of being really connected with nature would be walking on the coast path with my dad and he would know the name of every butterfly and all the wild
flowers. So his energy was much more around the green space. So he was very focused on the foliage and the the flora and fauna and we would go to a place called Onewell which I think might be just into Devon. Okay. And then most of my childhood was then spent when he would go off flying that was his hobby. He would leave us at
Triionan Beach. So he would leave my sister and I pretty much to fend for ourselves with some really helpful health and safety advice of don't swim out too deep. It's the Atlantic. And we would go and look for tadpoles in the stream. We would run down Constantine Bay dunes and probably cause a load of coastal erosion because back
then you don't know any better. I think they're protecting those dunes now. But we would be absolutely captivated by the rockpool at Triana and I don't know if you've been in there. It's I would cons consider that even to this day my heart space and very much um the place that brought me up. But in terms of the connection with the
environment in terms of environmental side of things, I can remember as a child there was a competition for to draw signposts around Cornwall. You might remember it uh or you've probably seen some of the signs and it was Mrs. Bagot says Binit or Mrs. bagget says take your litter home was the little girl that won that competition which
sadly wasn't me but um but I remember going around Cornwall and seeing lots and lots and lots of Mrs. baggot signed and and just asking about those and it was and you'd see people throwing sweet wrappers and things out of their car and I can just remember even as a really really small child being totally confused by the idea that you would
throw litter away and need to be told by signposts not to do that and relatively the environment was pretty clean back then but um but that's the first time that I really remember any environmental issues being raised in my consciousness and I'd have been really really young back Then Mhm. What sort of really young young are we talking?
I'm talking six, five, six. Really? Super super young. And how was your sister older or younger? Sister was two years two years and a half older than me. So she could look after you. Yeah. It's like it's like off you go. Off you go. 7 It was the 1970s and the world was definitely a different place. It was sunscreen was optional. You'd
spend the evening crying and being covered in calamine lotion where where you'd burnt to a crisp. And it was it was a very different slower world. You'd get kicked out the door first thing in the morning and you come back when you were hungry in the evening, wouldn't you? No mobile phones. You'd have a vague sense of sense on your analog watch of
what time it was and what time you needed to be back. Uhhuh. They probably still wouldn't worry until you were until you were at least a couple of hours late. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Until it was really dark as a really small child. Yeah. So lots so much freedom and I think that's one of the biggest things that I'm really grateful for having so
much freedom to connect with nature as a really young child. Excellent. And to have a memory of that is is really special as well. Excellent. Excellent. So growing up you um you obviously went to school and then um left school. What what was your um connection with Cormal? What when did you make the transition from Devon to
Cormal? So not long after I married my husband, we knew that we wanted to come back to Cornwall. We were spending every weekend down in my dad's caravan. Okay. Yeah. We had a caravan. So we always had a base here. That was Trion. That was New Trian. Yeah. Yeah. So we would we always had a base and even though we weren't living in Cornwall, we knew that we wanted to come
back to Cornwall. So we as soon as we could move back, I think I was 19 when we moved back here and um to Truro. Mhm. And um and the aim was then to get closer and closer to the coast as close as you could get. Excellent. That's a a great plan. So So you moved to Truro. What did you do in Truro? So um for a while I was still working
for WH Smith. So I was heading up learning and development for them. So first of all I was a store manager. Then I moved into their head office. Store management was okay. It enabled me to transfer to Cornwall. Mh. But um but actually when I was working in head office, I was commuting to London.
Yeah. To Swindon. Oh, Swindon. Beautiful. Amazing environment. Yeah. There's a great swimming pool, isn't it? Lots of roundabouts. Lots of roundabouts. So I So I So I was commuting. I kind of missed out a step. I was between that and it probably sounds quite desperate, but it makes sense to me. I was a sports therapist.
Okay. Um, and that was an interest that I had in terms of the mind body connection and that's always been a passion of mine. And and also at the same time as doing that, I was also volunteering in animal rescue. Mhm. With dogs with control orders, so aggression. So dealing with animals with
aggression, which I felt fitted really beautifully um in partnership with working in the corporate world. Yeah. Yeah. because actually exploring behavior and triggers and status and those sorts of games. The communication side of things um was really fascinating to me in terms of my background hobbies
always including either being out in nature or working with animals, communicating in some way, shape or form. I always find uh interesting the the um the synergy and the the opposition, should we say, of of um animal versus uh human behavior. Um and
a lot of it's very different, but a lot of it's very similar, isn't it? Yeah. Yeah, I mean I was really lucky cuz volunteering in that capacity, I worked with a lady who worked both with prey animals and animals that that were pack animals and exploring the difference between those in terms of um aggression um but
also in terms of how they work together and how they protect each other and protect themselves. Um, and it just f I find observing animals really fascinating because there's so many patterns that we can learn from as humans to come back to reminding ourselves that we're part of nature. And quite often that uh that aggression
is uh is based around fear demonish. Um and if you if you corner an animal, it's going to be fearful, isn't it? You know, so um don't corner animals. Um so but um yeah, that's interesting. So um so you were what made you go into WHMS?
Weird a really weird one. It was um partly paying your mortgage. Yeah. So it was partly that and partly the opportunity to work with people. So it wasn't that I enjoy retail particularly and certainly wasn't passionate about selling pens. Although at one point they had an amazing strategy which I think was a bit
aspirational for the business. But it was that they only had two themes and one of them was education and one was entertainment. M and actually I quite liked that where you can can kind of distill what is the idea of what you do and actually if you have a pencil for instance a pencil can be used to make art or it could be used
to educate and write and actually every single thing that that organization sold really was either about educating or entertaining and yet on the surface it was stationary and books and pens. What a wonderful way to look at that cuz I'm a I'm a bit of a a stationary geek. I love walking around a a station a good
stationary shop. Um but I've never actually considered that. Yeah. It's either it's either business education or or fun, isn't it? Yeah. And so so so I enjoyed that part of it. I enjoyed the more exploring culture, exploring how we work together, teamwork, leadership. I enjoyed the human element of it. So that was that
was partly why. And also it gave me an opportunity to potentially transfer to Cornwall. Yeah. And that was my sights were set on how do I get to Cornwall. Unfortunately or fortunately, however you look at it, I was then once we got to Cornwall, I was then headunted to go and work in people people development. So I ended up
living in Cornwall and doing a lot of commuting. But that's where I learned about various different communication. What was that role again? That was setting up learning and development and change and change management. So I had the opportunity to learn lots about systems and change and communication and how we interact with each other
and almost build my dry bag of tools if you like. So um to for coaching so developing as a coach and as as somebody who facilitates change. So all of this all of this is leading to a um like you say a dry bag full of psychological tools isn't it? And um
yeah so so what next? So, um, I was noticing that when I was driving home, I'd do that big exhale as I saw the the nearly home trees. Lots of people recognized that sensation of arriving, okay, we're nearly home. And then as soon as I saw the ocean, I felt
comfortable. I I like being around edges. I don't like being landlocked in any way, shape, or form. We had a stint where we lived in Taton and it felt absolutely contained for me. M so I was noticing how much of that that sensation of relaxation I I got when I was at the coast and I was doing a lot
of work taking people outdoors in the corporate environment um to green spaces and noticing how they behaved differently they thought differently they communicated with each other very differently and I wanted to set up my own NLP business at that point in Cornwall because I've been training in that modality as up to trainer level so
I set up my business in 2009 N and that was predominantly coaching at the coast as as an NLP coach. NLP coach, executive coach. I trained as an executive coach as well. So your classic A2B type performance coach. So just for those who might not know, can you give us a a brief snapshot of
what what is NLP? Yeah. So NLP looks at it's neural linguistic programming. So neuro is how our brain operates. So so our senses, how we take in the world through our senses. Linguistic is is how we code our experiences. So based on our internal models of the world and the patterns that we create internally based on our
values, our beliefs, our sense of identity or our history. Then the programming is how we might then behave as a result of that. So it's this idea that we we don't respond to the external world. We respond to what we imagine is going on. So NLP enables you to ask people what did you interpret there? What was happening for you? What patterns are you
noticing? What's triggering you? Those sorts of questions. So it's sort of like a modality of change. It's a change modality and it's it's very much about exploring the structure of our subjective experience and it's really important to recognize that we can all change and change is change is constant. Change is the only
constant thing you know completely absolutely the whole time things are changing even rocks completely and that's and that's I think that's where the NLP became a lot more dispersed because whilst it's it's a modality that looks at structures and patterns in real life it's a little bit more hazy than that there's there's
there's more gradients than edges so um so my dry bag started with going to the coast and playing with some NLP and then the coast started taking over a little bit and and saying well actually I want to be part of this process and did you notice the sparkles on the ocean
and what might they tell you about what's going on for you and and how are you showing up as nature rather than showing up in nature. So my coaching practice dramatically shifted with a load of other modalities. There's a lot around aligning our internal our our bodies, our heart, head, and guts so
that we actually are able to even tune into the space. Because if we're we're arriving at the coast with sketchy energy, it will do a lot for us. But the sooner we can actually get into a vibe with the space, the sooner the wisdom emerges. Yeah, that makes perfect sense. So, so what were the other things that you were putting into your dry bag with these
things that you're picking up along the way which are all um I always I always look at coaches and there's there's always there's might be a couple of sort of qualifications that you take but there's always masses of stuff that goes goes in with that that you know the the experiences that you yourself um uh
experience and then the the people that you come into contact with what they experience. And then with your coaching, what nature helps you to experience, what the ocean helps you to experience, what water help, there's so much that goes into the the dry bag. So tell me a little bit more about apart from NLP and
the psychology of uh WH Smiths um and and the beach. What else is going into that dry bag? So working with animals. So so being super aware behavioral modeling. So which links to NLP. Things like multiple brain integration techniques. I trained in that modality which is about dialing into your heart, head and gut and the neuroscience of how
those interlink within your body. I trained as a yoga teacher. So breath work and a free diver. So really So you did your full yoga training, didn't you? I did do a full Yeah. Do 200 hours. It is. Yeah. Which involves yoga philosophy. So So that that takes you down that spiritual path. I'm not religious, but I certainly would say
would connect with nature in a very spiritual way. I'm interested in quantum mechanics. So, this idea of us being the particle and the wave fascinates me and how you can't capture everything about about life in simply numbers and lines on a chalkboard and really asking those deep questions around what is consciousness and how do we really know
we're here? So, much more down the spiritual path. Philosophers, I love Alan Watts for instance, fantastic. um and and how he links nature a lot to to what he talked about. Um lots and lots of lots of modalities um but actually also this taken the spiritual path of of being part of
nature. So I trained I did a mast's and explored leveraging ambiguity productive outcomes. Let me just break this down. Say that slowly. Leveraging ambiguity productive outcomes because I was noticing coaches were corelling people into these well-formed outcomes. Okay. And realistically, actually,
life's more emergent than that. And if we can help people to feel centered in themselves and connected with nature, they're likely to make wise decisions moving forwards. So, um, so I interviewed lots of people at the coast, so in the most changeable space that you can and explored, you know, how are you with
non-ertainty? How do you respond to unknowing? And what creates what creates momentum for you and what creates inertia and helping people to become centered in a space of dynamic equilibrium so they can have a positive trajectory rather than saying I'm going to move
from A to B, not acknowledging that the world around you is changing moment to moment. Mhm. And there's a spiritual piece to that as well because when you open up your senses and allow the world to come into your awareness, your consciousness expands and it's you're not just relying on your wire, your internal wiring.
You're breathing with the space and you're sensing, okay, if I'm here for the now and this is this is it. This moment is it how do I want to be spending this moment and do I want to be spending that wisely and not creating harm around me? So, I was interested, we spoke earlier um before the show about the different kinds of hats and how a lot of people
feel that they need to wear a different hat for each thing that they do. But your philosophy is that there is only one hat and that hat is you and you just do the different things, but they're all you. Is that am I right in that? I can only be me. So, um so I'd say the hat I wear
professionally is Blue Health. So, and I've always loved and it's I've always loved communication. I've always loved exploring, you know, what creates connection between ourselves and the world or ourselves and each other or Yeah. or between ourselves and ourselves. So, anything I do is blue health. So,
anything I do is with the purpose of aiming to tread lightly. And my passion is the ocean. So, hence the volunteering side of things. It used to be dogs with control orders. It's now seals, you know, seals who are defensive. I do seal rescue with British divers, marine life rescue. That's a huge passion for me. But that's still Blue Health. That would
still be Lizzy doing her animal rescue bit as part of Blue Health or as a surface against sewage rep, Lizzy doing her beach clean as part of reciprocity, as part of recognizing that we are part of the process. We're part of the space that we're inhabiting. And and we were talking as well about um whether
green is better than blue and and whether sort of inland is better than the ocean, but that's all one as well and actually explain what you were saying about the the blue what makes green. Yeah. So I'd say so I have a model that I play with. So I now train blue health coaches. So that's my modality that I've
developed where we've basically dissolved a load of other things and created something very different. So we we we talk about eight forms of water or eight channels of water. One of them is embodied water. Okay? And embodied water is in your animals. It's in your pets. It's in ourselves. It's our very cells and it's
the our fluids in our body. It's it's in the trees. So it it distills that that it basically dissolves rather the boundary between green and blue because if you look at a tree, it's only green because it's got water in it and it's a form of embodied water. And water takes so many forms. It can be our
imag It can be imaginary water in our mind when we're dreaming of going to a beach for instance. It could be linguistic water. It could be the metaphors that we use and the language that we use and whether our language is I have a real thing at the moment around um coaching clients saying they want to work on their mindset. Well, I don't
want to work on anybody's mindset. I don't mind working with a mind state, right? Because it's more fluid and the world is fluid. But a mindset you could imagine that means my mind is set on something and that's a great well brilliant have intentions have intentionality but actually I don't want to I don't want to coach anybody who wants a
mindset that's fairly solid isn't it a mindset and and and actually what I discovered in the MA uh was that certainty is not the grail so once you're certain of something you have very little choice clarity however is great so we can look at a wave and we
can explore opacity and clarity within a within a wave or transparency within a wave and explore what's the balance of that within your life right now and and is there an optimal uh blend of those things for you because one's not better than the other um but actually certainty is not I don't
want to be certain about things really I want to be have enough certainty enough alignment in my body and enough connection with nature that I can make I said again wise choices, not necessarily what's seen as efficient. Certainly not um choices that are seen as convenient because convenience is another Yeah. Do
we want to be convenient? Convenient is usually there's there's some real negative side to convenience. Convenience leads to using things up. And I don't want anybody thinking about using nature as a mental health resource because again says I use the beach for my mental health. Do you? Because that's again a worry for me
because humans don't use things well. When they see something as a resource, they talk about using up and throwing away. So be in nature instead or be with it. Be with it. Be it even better. Remember that you are the wave. Uh so again step away from those boundaries but
partner with nature. Fine. Certainly don't use it. Interesting. So te so tell me about blue health. What what is blue health? Where did it come from? Where did it start for you? Yeah. So blue health science is something in and of itself. That's a scientific field that looks at our
connection with water. So how it impacts us psychologically, socially, spiritually, physically, lots of different experiments noticing, you know, what's the impact of spending time in blue in blue space on our mood um and our mind and our behavior. Sorry to interrupt there. What what do you class as a blue space? Yeah. So blue space in that field is
described very much as places of overwater by a lake, river, streams, rivers. Get somebody to look at some pictures of an ocean. Get somebody to look at pictures of a shopping mall. Do they feel different differently when they experience those two things? Yeah. Do they is a is a beach at high tide or low tide
more restorative? And it appears that a low tide is more restorative. Do people with eyetracking notice litter? It appears that people notice very humanmade litter more than they notice fishing litter. Maybe perhaps because they think that fishing litter belongs in that space like ropes
and things. They don't necessarily think of it as as part of them. Whereas somebody's sandwich packet, there's that sense of noticing, oh, that's the human footprint right there. So that's blue health science looking at lots of different elements with a view to making policy changes. So there's a great intention in that, but it also is about
establishing a value of blue space. Blue health coaching is about establishing awareness of reciprocity rather than a value. It's less anthropocentric. It's recognizing that we are animals on a on a planet, part of the process within the framework and part of the
world continuing. So So tell me what reciprocity. Reciprocity. Yeah, it's a long one, isn't it? The other one was an anthrop an anthropological. So anthropological I love words as you can probably tell. Yeah. Absolutely. So anthropological is suggests that humans are at the top of the tree and everything's in service of us.
Okay. Where whereas ecoentrism reminds us that nature has rights too. Okay. It takes us out of that from a coaching perspective. It takes us out of the two generation limit where we only think about our grandchildren to our grandparents and think that our actions are only that that long. It reminds us of deep time and that beyond us the
water has rights too and and nature has rights. So that's that's that element. Reciprocity is reminding that we're symbiotic. We're part of if if nature is giving us something and we need to give nature something. And more than that, we need to recognize that we are it. So um am I allowed I'm probably not allowed to swear on this. Am I?
You can swear if you want. It's the don't poop where you eat. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Analogy. So there's so there's so with blue health coaching there's all of those modalities and that ethos and that spirituality in it. There's blue health science integrated into it which is the evidence-based piece. Uh there is there's a lot around
language our language there's a lot around sematics as well. So as a yoga teacher you're really aware that our body impacts our mind. So getting much more into the body than perhaps other coaching modalities do. So in blue health coaching we're looking at two things. One is can we align internally? So can we get our body into a place that
we can tune into the wisdom of our whole nervous system and then can we align externally expanding our nervous system and allowing the world to come into us. So being informed by nature and showing up as nature and that's anybody who's with the blue health coach that's what they're aiming for because then they can apply that state of being or even that
state of becoming because we're not we're not static. a process to whatever the decision is that they make rather than can you come and help me with my time management. I'm not interested in having those conversations. Interesting. So tell me about the the
the the mind, the heart and the gut. What's the what's the the idea around that? So multiple braining looks at those three things. I in blue health we expand it to the whole nervous system. So you might link it to more esoteric practices. So um chakra alignment for
instance but in membraning there's three fields. One field is your classic neuroscience field of the head. There's the neurocardiocardio side of things that look at the heart and there's neurogastroenerology who look at the gut and the heart and the gut people each think they're working with the second brain. So the heart
people will say this is the second brain. The gut people will say this is the second brain. Right? Embraining is looks at patterns throughout um spirit all forms of spirituality all forms of ancient teachings as well as the neuroscience and says these things aren't separate. So it says if we're saying that we've
got um 80 to 100 million neurons in our sorry 80 to 100,000 neurons in our heart neurons that can fire and wire together that that actually can create awareness. um that isn't working in isolation. And then in our gut, we've got 400 to 500
million neurons. So we know that we have neurons. We know we have brain cells equivalent in our gut that can make sense of information, process it, and create a response. But it doesn't work in isolation. And we know that our head has billions. So it it draws our attention to when your body gives you a signal. It's about
interception dialing into your body and say, "Do you know that squiriness you felt in your belly? That might be something that might actually be your nervous system telling you that something's off and you might want to listen to that. So then interpreting and breathing into that space and saying what is that and what does the rest of my system know about that? What does my
heart want? What ideas can my brain come up with to to to live that fully and how can my gut help me help my sense of self get involved? So there's the role of compassion, connection, creative, compassion, connection, um, values, relationships. This part of our nervous
system in our in our heart space tends to fire up when we're in that space where where our heart and we when we use the language, our heart's in it and we and we desire something. Our head's supposed to be about ideas and creativity and problem solving. And sometimes it gets into a squirly space and we can go down the route of
transaction analysis, emotional intelligence, those sorts of models around the stories we tell ourselves. And then our gut is the place that's supposed to be the part that keeps us safe. It's the instinctive part. It's the deepest part of us. And it's it's the part of courage, part of self. Yeah. And it's part of
self, right? So um it's it's how we can see behavior that we we wouldn't entertain ourselves and be physically disgusted by it. We don't ask ourselves the question why am I getting a gut feeling about that because my gut surely is just about food processing. It's a reminder that it's about a lot more than that. So the aim
in embraining is to align all three but not to talk about it because if I even now talking about the heart and talking about the gut I'm not in those spaces is to sit with and breathe into those spaces and notice the sensations of your heart when you're applying awareness to a topic. I'll notice sensations of your gut and then maybe
say what might that sensation mean and what might I want to do about that to bring all three in again if you only go with gut then you're just going to be darting from thing to thing without wisdom it needs to be connected it needs to be connected and values led and it needs to have creative possibilities so
there are in that modality there are different I guess different qualities and competencies you might say that is your is your head doing the role of your gut. Is your head the part of you that's trying to keep you safe? Maybe check in with your gut. How does your gut feel about that?
Interesting. So, so um breathing is a massive part of this and so um breathing comes into your yoga breathing comes into your coaching, breathing comes into psychology, brea the whole lot is is about breathing. And that's how you I guess you can bring everything together. Tell me about tell me about what your thoughts are on
breathing. Yeah. So, breath work is amazing. Um, my friend James Nester wrote the book Breathe. I don't know if you've read it. He's he's one of the Blue Mind family. He came to a couple of our summits and and it's a beautiful book that brings together lots of different theories and principles around breath. Breath allows us to balance our nervous
system. So as you know as a yoga teacher yourself so um if when we breathe and we we're we have shiness in our breath our heart rhythm is not as smooth as perhaps it might be which fires us up either into that sort of high energy state which is my normal state of being
I generally have quite a lot of energy I'm similar but I also you know that we have the ability we have a dial it's not an up or down so if I'm if I'm with somebody on the coast it's let's dial it down and allow the space to do the So um when we so when we breathe well we can actually bring ourselves into a
place of coherence which removes turbulence in the ocean or noise on the line. How you choose to describe that sense of static where we're not not connecting with our body. And you see people either talking at 100 miles an hour not because they're passionate. It's fine to have high energy if you're
passionate but they're talking at 100 miles an hour because they're stressed. And you see people, you ask them a question and they go and they hold their breath, right? They don't say, "Ah, I don't know. What do I think about that? What do I think about that? My whole body rather than immediately fire back
the throat closed off, headbased answer operating in the world from the neck up." And breath work allows us to firstly slow down, pay attention, and it's got that beautiful tidal quality. There's a guy called Phil Gilbertson, and you I'm sure you're aware of this quote. He says, um,
when you exhale, it's not you exhaling, the world is breathing you in. Right. And when you inhale, the world is breathing out and into you. Yeah, that's beautiful. So, knowing that there's that there's another way, like water is another way of reminding us that there's a tidal exchange there. M and I love that idea of um when someone asks you a question,
like you say, you don't fire an answer straight back. You just breathe, count to 10. Yeah. And then answer. And and true listening, uh you know, if you really listen to someone, um you haven't got an answer for them straight away because you've
not been thinking about the answer. You've been thinking about listening to them. Exactly. You get you say, "How do I how do I know? I don't know. How do I know?" Yeah. All of me. Amazing. So, um, so the importance of breathing, you know, massive. And, um, you talk about, uh, poetry as well.
Yeah. Um, this is, this is fascinating because I've not heard of this before, but it's there's research coming out nowadays. Tell me a little bit about this. Yeah. So, I was nerding out on a load of research the other day. Predominantly, I I did the classic where you jump from one thing to another. I was actually looking at sound. I was looking at
soundscapes first of all and the sound and resonance of different spaces and how ocean spaces can have different sounds and that fascinated me. And then I was interested in in poetry and language and cadence. So it came from cadence and rhythm and really thinking about how our words can have beautiful cadence and they can
change in pace and they can change in tone and the actual words if they're words that touch our heart they have they create the chills in us. they create an emotional response within us. So there's new research now or not that new but looking at brain scanning when people hear poetry and what happens with us in terms of um from a neurological
perspective and from a embodied perspective and they've shown that poetry absolutely connects with emotions and we know this. So all the science stuff is great to have as background but it's generally just backs up what we already know. Um but they they show that poetry is different to music. There are
similarities but actually offers something different. And I think we don't when we step out into blue spaces and green spaces. There's a poetic quality to being in that space and we're moved we're moved to perhaps write our own poetry or journal um in ways that
perhaps would not be evoked would not be evoked in the built environment. So poetry has been shown to to really stir our emotions and it's hugely underrepresented in terms of arts. There's a few there's a few um poetry spoken word clubs. I think recently I
noticed a new one down in Fmouth I do once a month. Um but actually being able to sit and listen to poetry or being able to think in poetic poetic form just fires fires our emotions and connects us to ourselves and the space. And I think there's that um
it's there's a an LP one. You'll be able to help me with this. I can't remember the name of it, but where you um where you leave something to um question in a conversation. And it's the same with poetry, isn't it? It doesn't give you the answer. It allows you to find the answer.
Beautiful. Yeah. as probably zygic loop is probably what you're thinking of where the unfinished business and we go to sleep on it and and our unconscious works on it and I I I I can't remember who who it was. I think um uh John um
can't remember his name. Anyway, um a a famous singer um put out uh the fact that once he's written a song and published it, it's no longer his song. Lovely. and he won't tell people what the meaning what his meaning of that
song is because he'll ruin it for other people because as soon as that song goes out there he's offering it to the people for them to come up with their own ideas for it. Um, and if he was to say, "No, no, no. I wrote it about this." It would be taking that away from people. And I thought that's quite a beautiful thing.
And that's similar with poetry. You you create your own assessment of it and and you know what it actually means. I love that. And I um it fits with blue health coaching as well because when I go out onto the coast, I might think that a river is going to evoke the stream's going to evoke a conversation
about journey and obstacles and all the cliche right things that you might imagine and people's insights are so surprising. So we have no idea when we step out into nature what's going to capture somebody's attention. It's one of the reasons I think that you are never going to be able to build a virtual coaching
environment that can compete on an equal level with with nature. I don't know because that relies on whoever's doing the coding to decide what's relevant to put into the coding. Whereas, if I happen to be out on the coast with somebody and a ladybird happens to land on their arm at a particular moment in
time where their thought has gone to a certain space and there's a breeze and they take the ladybird and the ladybird flies off and it has some symbolic meaning for them. That can't be written into that cannot be written into a program. And we might argue that whatever's in the program people will find meaning for, but how limited when
we have access to so much wisdom in in natural spaces. So that does that work sort of alongside the chaos theory and the butterfly effect, you know, the the idea that if a butterfly flaps his wings over the other side of the world, it's going to change what happens over here. That's I love that sort of
idea and and like you say this I guess that would be a a view into an AI world where everything is very coded exactly whereas like you say if you can't you can't write that you know a 100,000 people going to see a band every single one of them will have a different
experience even if they're stood shouldertosh shoulder which is a beautiful thing is I love it I love it and it's that's as technology becomes more and more advanced, we can get closer to it, but we're never we can never ever compete. And why would we want to with natural space? So,
interesting. So, what else? What's uh what's next for Lizzy? So, for me, I'm writing a book. So, there's a book coming out next year called The Healing Power of Water. Uhhuh. She's with Little Hair Press. So, that's currently going through the painful editing process of
you. This isn't the first book you've written. I've written a book on poetry which um which Yeah, we probably haven't got time to read anything from, but there's I've written a poetry book. Maybe we have got time to read it, do you think? Yeah. Would you like to read us Is this one of your own poems? This is one of my poems. Well, in that case, we've definitely got time to
So, I've written a book called Blue, which is um based on the Cornish coast, a winter at the Cornish Coast. It's lots of images of coastline. I've gone for authenticity over perfection in the photography because I'm not a photographer. It's whatever the picture was on the day. I don't believe in perfection.
Yeah, it's it's overrated. Imperfectly perfect. It's overrated. So, I'll give it a go to read it. Um I think Yeah, I'll give it a go. So, this one's um unsurprisingly about the ocean. Okay. Like the ocean, our sweet and fragile reality, a coalescence where distinctions dissolve and separation is
but an illusion. Consciousness, a vibration that travels unbburdened by time. The heart beats in rhythmic harmony with the world if we care to listen. Perspectives shaped by memory, thought and ideas. A dance within the mind. Opinions old or new,
carved in stone or like shifting sand. The echoes resound and yet are dynamic in essence. The breath advances and retreats much like the waves. momentum and inertia, both friend and foe, a balanced flow of sorts, and everything just is.
Joy and despair drift equally on the breeze, and the seas pass not for a passing emotion. The world keeps spinning. And yet connection is found in bird song, or the scent of salt on skin distilled within wild flowers.
A forest floor gives warmth, surrendering underfoot, bringing a spring to each step. With light diffused, a myriad of shapes and shadows find form, a stream, bringing movement to the scene. A sense of transition within the pause whilst busy bees collective in intent draw attention to
life unfolding. Circularity in action. Dawn and dusk undivided and unified. A setting sun arising on a new horizon, giving the grace of space for the moon and stars to emerge. A time and space
for everything. No questions, no answers, no desires, and no control. Gratefully, we lean in to all that there is to sense and to feel. Beautiful.
Thank you. And this is this is your book. This is my book. This is your book called Blue Blue. Unsurprisingly, I'm going to have to have a a read of that some stage. I I think that was beautiful. Well, I'm not going to talk about it because it's uh
don't talk about it because it means what it means. Yeah, absolutely. Oh, that's nice. I like that. And I'm not a I say I'm not a poet. We're all poets. Mhm. And I think that's journaling and poetry is just another way of conveying emotional connection. So I'd advocate everybody having a go at poetry.
I think this is this is let me just take that in because this is what I want this podcast to be about. Not poetry but um but sustainability. I want everyone to recognize that they can do something. Um, and
it doesn't matter that you're not doing it right. It it might come right at some stage. And it's the same with poetry. You know, you can write one word and it's beautiful and it's a poem. Or you can write a million words and it's beautiful and it's a poem. Um, and everybody is
able to do that. Every we had Matt Hawking in um a few weeks ago and we discussed how everyone is creative. Everyone has creativity in within them and so many people have been told at school or been told by the environment or been told by the media or whoever
that they can't do these things. And actually everyone's got that ability. Everyone's got that ability to do this. And I think when you when something stirs your heart, you you're reminded that you're in and of the world and then you're going to feel more connected to the world and then you're more likely to want to
protect it. So we know for instance spending time in nature and blue spaces promotes pro-social and pro- environmental behavior because it evokes awe and wonder and which then actually reminds us we're part of something bigger than ourselves. Yeah. So less it's less the the direct
telling somebody to pick up a piece of litter. They fall in love with the space and they see that there's something in the space that maybe doesn't belong there and they do something about it or they learn more about the space and human habits and then they make choices that then they're not creating that litter. So it's it's about evoking passion and energy and connection so
that we can be inspired to make the world a better place. and you've come up with several um initiatives over the years to uh to help people to to see this very thing. Um one of them was your 100 days of blue. Is that the right the right title? Um tell me a little bit
about 100 days of blue. So it's not attributed to me personally although I lead it certainly this side of the globe. So my friend Wallace J Nichols wrote the book Blue Mind back in 2014. It was the first book that brought blue health science to the mainstream in a very poetic way. And Jay created a movement of people who were wanted to
protect what we love in terms of the world and really shift the environmental uh piece away from shame and towards love so that you actually have both elements. You have the element of towards and away from in it. 100 days of blue was to celebrate the launch of that book in 2014. and we just loved it and we were getting more people
getting out into blue spaces and they were loving it and we had somebody who hadn't been in the sea since he was 17 years old and lived in Cornwall and he now visits the ocean regularly and has fallen in love with the ocean and therefore protects the ocean. So we continued and this is the 12th year
and what was what is 100 days of blue? 100 days of blue is get getting near in on and underwater in in whatever way works for you for 100 days in a row consciously. So it could be consciously having a glass of water and marveling at how lucky we are to be able to to do that in this part of the world getting
not getting into the world of water companies and and that sort of thing. But you know is aren't we fortunate that um this this compound that's been on the planet since the dawn of time is so accessible to us. Um, so it could be something like mindfully drinking a glass of water or stepping out into wild nature or writing a poem or writing a
song or noticing biophilic design around you and going noticing where there's pictures of ocean in the space that you're, you know, colors of the ocean. How bopilic design. Yeah. So, so, so where we have things within our awareness that remind us we're part of nature. So this would yeah wood would would effect or would wood
based share has shows the patina of time reminds us that time is is within us within and beyond earth if you like um stone colored stone colored things this room you know is certainly evokes evokes a sense of being part of nature absolutely it could be that it could be painting a
picture it could be making a pot and feeling feeling the movement of your hands forming forming the clay and and how much water is part of that process but It's consciously connecting with water for 100 days and doing that ideally in a real space and time. We share it on social media because it encourages others, but actually it's not about the social media. It's about are you taking
time to pause and be with water in some form for those 100 days and noticing what a difference that makes for you. Yeah. because then actually you build that relationship with it which again is links you the the ultimate aim so that we tread more lightly
and I've um I've witnessed people who have got involved in the 100 days of and um it's been a special time for them which is uh well done you 100 days of blue I I love championing it on behalf of Jay Wish Jay Nichols um
it's it's a celebration of water and it's also a reminder like a puppy isn't only for Christmas. The water isn't only for the 100 days and they don't do 100 days, they do they carry on most of them. Exactly. And it's and it changes people's behavior and we started that in 2014 and there's lots of different
initiatives now um not linked to 100 days of blue. They're amazing. You where lot of more wild swimming groups emerging like the likes of the blue tits which are encouraging people to connect with water and it's it's beautiful. You don't need to tell them the science. You hear people saying, "Oh, I feel lots better." And you think, "You get it intuitively. You get it. I don't need to
say, "Oh, well, do you know that what's happening in your body is this?" Yeah. But that's interesting, but that's not necessarily relevant for them. It's it's building that connection. Lizzie, what gives you hope? What gives me hope is um that the world and it comes from a horrible place but I think the world feels like it's getting
smaller and probably due to war and displacement of people due to war and climate shift but it enables us to feel more connected towards common goals. So I'm hopeful that as the world feels smaller, we recognize that actually this is we have this one planet and fighting and battling over it as as
space becomes the big one of the biggest challenges we have. We have displaced people due to climate like the warrus is a displace is a climate change refugee but we also have war- based refugees and other other poverty poverty lots of challenges in the world but actually as
the world feels smaller we'll notice that we have common challenges and therefore common opportunities to work more collectively towards um a better planet. Excellent. And while we're talking about the walrus what's the wolver story? Warus story. Wally the warrus found himself in the
south of Spain, which is not where you're supposed to be if you live in Swalbard. I ended up in the aisles of Silly. I was lucky enough to spend five weeks as his personal PR assistant and bodyguard. I built him a pontoon so that he would stop sinking people's boats because he wasn't popular for that for that reason.
Did you get you got called to the I was lucky. Yeah. With British Divers Marine Knife Rescue. was just sort of still in about the COVID time um that I went out there as his as his medic, his personal medic to to observe him and monitor and ask people not to get in the way. Three three biggest challenges in terms of people disturbing him. One is education. They just didn't know
they were disturbing him. One was he was just so flipping awesome they couldn't help themselves. And then the one that was the one that the least pleasant one, but actually I was really happy by how little it occurred was a sense of entitlement. And they tend to be three big challenges I think that that nature faces in terms of disturbance of marine wildlife
particularly. Um but actually as we if we educate and we inspire and we feel connected and we show compassion and recognize that the impact that we're having is potentially longlasting and not kind. Um people can change their behavior. And so I was really lucky and he he swam back to Ireland and then he was spotted in Iceland and he made it.
We guess that he made it. though. But we are getting displaced. We're getting out of range. What a story. Well, and what a what an amazing privilege to be a part of. And he holds part of my heart forever. Forever. They're big old animals, aren't they? Yeah, he was stunning. He was absolutely stunning. They do sink boats.
Yeah. He was lost. Yeah. He's a lost child essentially. Excellent. Right. So, this leads us very nicely onto your evidence. And uh what we're going to do is Alex over there has a little bell. Show us the bell, Alex. That's a lovely bell, isn't it? Alex likes his bell and he rings his bell
after a minute. Okay. So, we're going to ask you to talk about for a minute if you can on each of these each of these subjects which you've come up with. The first one is the res put my teeth back in the restor restorative benefits of nature toward an integrative framework which is
researched by Steven Kaplan. Okay, this is the root of environmental psychology or one of them. Attention restoration theory suggests that when we step away from we have sense of being away our our nervous system can relax. Um and we also our attention is more broad. So we soften our fascination. We open our gaze which affects how our
brain and bodies work. We have direct directed attention fatigue from looking at screens too much. So being out on the coast enables us to breathe well, shift our posture, widen our perspective and think clearly. And that's attention restoration theory. There's lots of other elements to it too, but that's one
of the founding pieces of research that linked to environmental psychology and blue health. Perfect. You've been practicing now, haven't you? Cool. Goodness me. You you're good. We'll we'll put all of this um the these bits of research onto the website so
people can have a look at a later date. The second one uh today is or the small self and the pro-social behavior which is research article by Paul K. Piff. Okay. So Paul is a blue mind friend. So Paul looked at how are we are we more compassionate as a result of
experiencing awe and we know that nature provides a lot of awe and wonder for us. So it's when we experience something that's so vast that our mental models of the world can't make sense of it that we go into that sort of broader way of thinking. small the self disappears. So what happens is we're less aware of ourselves and we have more of a sense of
wider connection. And it was proven through his research that when we experience images of awe, we're more likely to be kinder to people. So the researcher dropped some pens pretending it was an accident, those that had seen the ore images were more likely to pick up more pens to help than those that hadn't was one of the research pieces.
But awe and wonder is really really important for ourselves. You have literally been sitting at home doing I literally haven't. on. Good timing. Good timing. So, your third piece of evidence is the emotional and rewarding aspect of poetry reading. Um,
which is a research article by Eugene Wiliz Wizzy Whiskey, something like that. Something like that. It's one I've only recently come across and I know I want to dive deeper into that, but that's what we talked about previously. The fact that poetry impacts our emotions. We also have a bit of a dopamine hit when something rhymes.
So we have a sense of like completion. We're expecting the rhyming word. And then when it's not there, that can create more curiosity. So it has a benefit to have poems that rhyme and poems that don't rhyme. And they've done neuroiming on our brain to show that that works for us. But we know we notice ourselves having goosebumps when something moves us poetically. So that's
a field of research around poetry. I love that. I love that you I love that your timing is is I'm washing his hand, but also um I'd like to to to uh bring in there that laughter and comedy is so similar. So the way that comedy works is
you either come to the end of a joke and you expect the answer to be what it is and it is or you come to the end of the joke and you expect the answer to be what it is and it isn't perfect. And so both way it makes us it shocks us into into laughter which is
excelling. Such a good link. Yeah. Absolutely. Absolutely. So um the next one and I'm not surprised this is on the list. This is the blue mind the surprising science that shows us how being near in on or underwater can make you happier. And that's by uh Wallace J.
Nichols or as you call him Jay. So Jay it's a beautiful book. Everybody should read it if they're connected with nature in any form. It's like an executive summary of some of the blue health science that existed at that time, but also tells the story of real people connecting with water. So, it brings in a little bit more about poetry and art and philosophy rather than just
the science and really reminds us to connect with our blue planet and look after it. And reminds us that everything that we do on the planet matters. It's where 100 days of blue came from. It's also where the blue marble movement, passing on a blue marble as a sign of gratitude and connection came from. Amazing. Amazing. Did you just ding that
there because we came to the end or did we Was it actually a minute? Because I came to the end. He's good, isn't he? I think I can't make I I could talk about that for hours, so it better not. And then the last one um I I've got down here is Mraining. Um using your multiple
brains to do cool stuff. It's a book by Grant Susala and uh Marvin Oka. Yeah. So embraining is as we talked about really connecting in with our body dialing into ourselves and allowing a spa the space and coherence to be able to make wise decisions the decisions that are connected to what's important
to us what comes from a place of our values what has creativity and possibility associated with it and what requires courageous action and is part of who we are. It's it has lots of tips and techniques for aligning those things and can work with working with an embitic coach as well. It can build on that experience and it's very much about
the internal system. So it complements the work of blue health in that it's about actually let's get ourselves into a coherent space so that we can dial into nature. Super useful if you're designing products and services and thinking about things like circularity to just double check is this a wise decision that I'm about to make or not.
Perfect. Lizzy, that evidence was fantastic and your timing impeccable. So, we're going to move on to um on to uh your uh achievable um top tips now. Um and we'll use the same format. We'll give you a minute to talk about each. Your first one, are you ready to go? Are
you ready for this? Um learn about the ocean. Um we understand what we're taught. We love what we know and we protect what we love. Yeah, that's a Jack Gustau quote or close to it. So when we learn about things we it inspires us to um to connect with them and we feel a sense of guardianship towards them. So whatever
aspect of the ocean it is whether it's micro or macro could be that you get into whales and huge great beasts of the ocean or it could be that you get really excited about new debrank the aliens of our world. I think it reminds us that on this planet we have both dinosaurs and aliens. We have creatures of the sea that look absolutely ancient and
creatures of the sea that look like they've come from another planet and it that opens up our mind to all sorts of possibilities. It also reminds us of the interconnection of everything and that ecosmic thinking. So I would advocate everybody learns about the ocean. It's the heart and lungs of the planet. Excellent. And that's um that sort of
that idea that there's still so many things that we don't know anything about. Yeah. And I like that. It's fascinating. Yeah. I I don't I think the unknowing is healthy. It's the most unexplored place in the world, isn't it? The ocean. Um so your second uh one is breath. Connect your
inner world with the outer world and question the ripple effect. Yeah. So there's two two things in that. So one is notice how you are breathing rather than get too formulaic about it. Just notice am I breathing well right now? Am I breathing into my whole body or am I breathing just for the head part of me? And allow your body to breathe
fully. Take time out every single day to breathe fully. That will enable you to recognize that you are part of the world with the inhale and the exhale. So that will also enable you to think about the ripple effect of your actions. So the fact that even your breath is moving in and out of you. Every single action that you take on the planet has a ripple
effect and you can have unintended consequences. So it starts you thinking about actually what is the energy that I'm sending out into the world? How is my action going to impact upon the wider world and people around me and the planet and the animals and um and the longer term? So, it takes us into deep time and those sorts of reflections.
You're good. You're good at these. I'm talking really far again. I could probably say a lot less a lot less and more coherently in that space. So, the third one here is uh mini beach clean or street clean. Every time you're out, do this as a beautiful act rather than a social media post. make it a habit.
So there's something called um and I don't know who who to attribute it to. There's something called the beautiful act that I read about. It was a guy that used those ter that term and this was then when we do an act because we do it because it's the right thing to do. We don't do it and look around to see who's watching us. So sometimes we do put things on social media to encourage others but never put
put a beach clean on social media to say look at what I've done. No. Absolutely. So this is about actually beach cleaning because you feel it's part of you. It's like looking at a child and seeing they got a smudge on their face. licking your thumb and saying, "I'm just going to clean that off." You look around you. See if the space has a smudge on it. And do something because because you're
doing it out of a place of love and a place of connection rather than a place of ego. And um and look at me. So, and it's do it every day. So, it's part of a habit rather than just once a month being shocked. That's beautiful. And I think um I think social media has has changed things over
the years where people do sort of have a look around to see who's looking and to um you know to post. And I I certainly was a um you know part of that several years ago. I used to literally walk around thinking what can I next post on social media rather than what can I do
just to be a beautiful act. Yeah. Love that. Um, so your fourth one is dial up your plant-based meals. Not moving into ultrarocessed, non-meat substitute foods, but choosing seasonal foods. So that's to do with carbon footprint. It's to do with eating as cleanly as you can. You might not choose to go vegan.
It's literally just about perhaps eating less meat. And if you do eat meat, be really aware of how it's sourced and the husbandry of the animals and that side of things. So it's not banging my hand on the table that everybody needs to completely eat no fish or no meat, but look at the source of your foods and then avoid going into the super
processed. So quite often people when they they go vegan and they choose to choose a vegan diet, they suddenly go into really highly processed foods because that seems to be the alternative. You're not looking at a meat substitute. You're looking at healthy nutrients to feed your body and feed your brain
and feed your mind and at the and that should not cost the earth. So um so actually be really mindful about what you put into your body because it is the building blocks with water of who you are. Absolutely. And I think um this is something that keeps coming up time and time again is you don't have to stop eating meat
tomorrow but maybe just have one less meal a week or like you say eat a little less. Yeah, absolutely. Question your investments. This is coming up time and time again and uh this is this is uh this is important. uh question your investments, check what your pension is funding, for instance, and make a switch
if needed, ensure your energy supplier champions renewables. So, I went on a climate awareness um workshop and I went on it. I have to say I went on it with a bit of oh, it's not going to tell me anything I don't know. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. For sure. But I'll go on it because I kind of have to. So, I went on it and I was not as
aware, not really as aware of quite how impactful shifting our investment would be. I was questioning some investments, but I wasn't really thinking about pensions and that side of things. And on the on that training, I've discovered that one of the biggest things that we can do is really make sure that how be
aware of how our money is working for us. So, if you do have any savings or any investments or you're going into pensions, you don't want to be on one hand, I don't know, changing to low energy light bulbs in your house and then on another on another scale, you're investing in something hugely detrimental to the planet. So um so
check there's websites that you can can go on to look at the climate awareness course I did had a website that you could check. Yeah. Brilliant. Brilliant. I think um there's one called uh green green finance is it or something like that and it's and that um you can put in your details there and it tells you where
you're at. Brilliant. Um so Lizzy, how can we get in contact with you? Um you've got website, Instagram and uh LinkedIn. got website, Instagram, LinkedIn. I don't really frequent Facebook very much. My Instagram posts to it, but I'm not really there. So, Instagram, my Instagram, I like
Instagram. I tend to post things on Instagram. Um, connect via email, connect via LinkedIn. Um, and connect with any other blue health coaches. So, I train blue health coaches. There's lots of us out there now. Um, it's becoming a modality in and of itself. So, if you want to work with somebody that's going to help you align yourself and be connected with the planet to make wise decisions, look for a blue health
coach. Amazing. And uh one thing we can all start doing today to make a better tomorrow and help to find the greener room. So I can't remember what I put here, but it probably was about the ripple effect. It probably it probably was. You want to know what what you take yourself to the ocean. Remember take yourself to water in any form.
In any form, remember that you're it. Remember that you are the wave. Yeah. You are particle and you are wave and your consciousness. You are all you are it. That's you're not separate from and and don't poop where you eat. That's a really good one. Don't eat yellow snow.
Lizzy, thank you so much for coming in today. It's it's always a pleasure to chat to you and I always learn so much and uh it's a beautiful thing. Thank you so much for what you've done for the planet. Thank you so much for what you've done to the for the people and thank you for coming in today. Thank you so much. It was fun. Thank you. That's it for this episode of
Searching for a Green Room. We'd love to hear your thoughts. Let us know what you think, who you'd like to hear from, any topics you want us to cover. Drop us a comment. Don't forget to like and subscribe so you never miss an episode. See you next time.
The Chat
The Chat
The Guest: Lizzi Larbalestier
Ocean Advocate, Blue Health Coach, Seal Rescuer, and Water Whisperer
The Chat Tapping Into Ocean Superpowers
Childhood by the Sea
Lizzi recalls her upbringing on the Cornish coast, where rockpools, dunes, and butterflies sparked her first connections with nature. Freedom to explore, often with little supervision, rooted her deep love of wild spaces and an early awareness of environmental care.
From Corporate World to Coastline
Her career began in retail and people development, but she was always drawn back to the ocean. Alongside corporate work, she trained in NLP, executive coaching, and animal rescue, building a toolkit of skills to explore behaviour, change, and communication.
Creating a Blue Health Practice
In 2009 Lizzi established her coaching practice in Cornwall. Over time, the ocean became central to her work, shifting her focus from performance outcomes to nature-centred transformation. Blue Health coaching was born: an approach that blends science, story, and embodied wisdom.
One Hat: Living Blue Health
For Lizzi, there is no division between personal and professional. Whether rescuing seals, leading beach cleans, or teaching yoga, it all falls under one hat: Blue Health. Her philosophy centres on reciprocity, recognising that humans are part of nature, not separate from it.
The Power of Water
Through concepts like “embodied water” and the eco-attention wave, Lizzi explains how water shapes every living system. From our cells to our seas, dissolving the boundary between self and nature opens the way for clarity, compassion, and wiser choices.
Breath, Poetry, and Awe
Breathing connects our inner and outer worlds, anchoring us in presence. Poetry and cadence stir emotions and deepen connection, while awe in nature expands our perspective and nurtures prosocial behaviour. Together, these tools dissolve stress and invite wonder.
Seals, Walruses, and Hope
Lizzi shares powerful stories from marine rescue, including her time with Wally the wandering walrus. These encounters reveal both the fragility and resilience of nature. Despite climate challenges, she finds hope in shared struggles, collective action, and the reminder that we are the wave.
Top Achievable Tips
-
Learn about the ocean – we understand what we are taught, we love what we know, and we protect what we love
-
Breathe – connect your inner world with the outer world, and question the ripple effect
-
Mini beach clean or street clean – do this as a “beautiful act” rather than a social media post, and make it a habit
-
Dial up your plant-based meals – choose seasonal foods and avoid ultra-processed substitutes
-
Question your investments – check what your pension or energy supplier is funding and make a switch if needed
Evidence
-
The Restorative Benefits of Nature: Toward an Integrative Framework – Research article by Stephen Kaplan
-
Awe, the Small Self, and Prosocial Behaviour – Research article by Paul K. Piff
-
The Emotional and Rewarding Aspects of Poetry Reading – Research article by Eugen Wassiliwizky
-
Blue Mind: The Surprising Science That Shows How Being Near, In, On, or Under Water Can Make You Happier, Healthier, More Connected, and Better at What You Do – Book by Wallace J. Nichols
-
mBraining: Using Your Multiple Brains to Do Cool Stuff – Book by Grant Soosalu and Marvin Oka
What One Thing Can We Do Today to Make a Better Tomorrow?
Take yourself to water in any form and remember that this water has been here since the dawn of time and will be here long after us. Ask: how might acknowledging deep time and nature’s rights change the way I make decisions?
Contact Details
Website: www.lizzilarbalestier.com
Instagram: @lizzilarbalestier
LinkedIn: lizzi-larbalestier
