Welcome!
I’m Carly and I’m a writer, yoga, nidra and circle facilitator, unschooling mama and Herd Manager at Hideaway Wood Farm.
I live in a caravan in the Northamptonshire countryside with my silversmith and writer husband and our young daughter.
A lifetime of trauma, burn out and struggle led me back home to nature and initiated a process of gradually retreating from the modern world to find solace in simpler, slower and more cyclical and ancestrally inspired ways of living.
For almost a decade I have worked with women in service of reconnecting to ourselves, our cycles and the cycles of nature.
Before I discovered yoga I felt broken and was living in survival mode. I went from work to sleep to work and from addiction to obsession looking for something I felt was missing in places I would never find it.
That first taste of savasana in an East London gym class had me pouring with tears and howling with laughter as years of hardness melted away.
I followed that feeling up mountains, down streams, into woodlands, onto retreats and through my dreams and slowly I began to find what I had been looking for, discovering it had been within me all along.
A journey had begun to remember the wildness within.
And so Moon Forest Flow was born.
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For the Village
From its very inception, long before becoming a mother myself, Moon Forest Flow has always been about reinstating the village.
Recapturing the feeling of a time when we were surrounded by the wisdom and company of women and girls of all ages, stages and cycle phases.
Here at Moon Forest Flow some of our most memorable and special moments have unfolded when our spaces reflect our wilder communities of times passed.
In the village, we would have been surrounded and supported by those of every age, from babes in arms to greying silver vixens and everything in between.
Every woman would have had a place and a role regardless of their womb status and choices. The wisdom of nature and women would have been woven into the core of our communities.
In our western world, there is a trend for attending a specialist yoga class for each phase of life and I certainly believe in the value of these spaces but I have also seen firsthand how wildly natural it is for us all to gather together.
Our primal senses perceive it as a homecoming to our original way of life. To our hunter-gatherer roots. And we both come alive and deeply relax at the very same time.
Wild Woman Club & Wild Woman Yoga are spaces for the whole village and honour the shifting needs of a woman’s womb life through a lifetime.
So welcome to our village beneath the virtual trees, I am so delighted to welcome you here.
Carly x
Wild & Cyclical practices for women of all ages, life stages and cycle phases
Yoga . Nidra . Nature . Circles . Menstrual Cycle Awareness . Wild Woman Club
Milton Keynes, UK | Contact
(Please know that my work is inclusive of but not exclusive to those with wombs and periods. You don't have to have a womb or periods to practice with me or join a circle but if you do I'm here to accommodate that.)
Photos: @ellieblack.jpg
Wild & Cyclical
I blend Well Woman Yoga therapy, natural movement, cyclical living, women’s circles, restorative yoga and yoga nidra with my love of anthropology, rewilding, poetry and books to offer a wild and cyclical practice for women of all ages, life stages and cycle phases.
Wild Woman Yoga is a practice of exploring movement that honours and nourishes our wild and cyclical ways.
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Playful, spontaneous, fluid, cyclical, rhythmic and self-guided.
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An invitation to surrender to the flow and be released from expectations of consistency, predictability and infinite resource.
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A shift from rigid repetition and ambition to fluid spontaneity and contentment.
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Encouragement to practice in a way that is fluid and adaptable to the waxing and waning of our needs and nature.
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A remembering of the freedom that lies beyond form.
A call back home to our wilder selves.
A wild and cyclical yoga practice, for me, is one that honours the rhythmical nature of our bodies and lives and as such can be nurturing and replenishing at certain times and fierce, wild and free at others.
Like the lioness we have the capacity to be both gentle, caring nurturers and fierce, fiery protectors, our wildness can be expressed in both a gentle purr and a ferocious roar.
As such my classes fluctuate with the phases of the moon offering an invitation to stay connected to the seasons and cycles of our bodies and nature through movement, rest and connection.
Some classes are restorative and gentle & others are more dynamic offering the space to explore different approaches for different phases of the cycle and life.
Classes are also bespoke and adaptive to the needs of each individual group. Following a check in at the start of class I will craft an offering accordingly.
Wild Woman Club
Welcome to Wild Woman Club! A village beneath the virtual trees for women who crave a wilder life.
For almost a decade I have worked with women in service of reconnecting to ourselves, our cycles and the cycles of nature.
In 2021 I gave birth to my daughter and the powerful process of matrescence has since shifted my focus and priorities. It allowed me to claim my purpose as a writer and offered me a chance to work on the land which I wholeheartedly accepted.
The rewilding of women is still at the heart of my work but I feel more called to spend time offline, on the land and immersed in creativity.
The grind of promotion, marketing and selling myself (which I know I may have to return to at some point in some form) got exhausting and I'm seeking alternative ways of making a living.
What Patreon means to me
I like the idea of a future where we return to small businesses, cottage industry, bartering, shopping local and supporting the arts. Patreon's values align to mine in this regard.
Patreon allows me to live more aligned to these values and still have an income. That's huge. Most importantly it offers a paid creative outlet and connection to a community of (amazing) like-minded women, both of which are hugely important to me. Thank you for being here and making this possible.
What I do
So these days you’ll find me writing books and blogs here on Patreon, still sharing the odd wild and cyclical women’s yoga practice video and yoga nidra recording but mostly out in the fields with my daughter on my back co-alpaca shepherding with my dear friend Amy at Hideaway Wood or nerding out about the herd as farm secretary.
Who this space is for
This space is for anyone who feels the call, you are so very, very welcome. I wonder if you’ve made your way here because you…
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Feel more at home outside than in
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Find the modern world bewildering and exhausting
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Would rather own a Nokia 3210
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Think nothing of having conversations with trees
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Spend a lot of time thinking about the soil
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Problem solve by wondering what our nomadic hunter gatherer ancestors would have done in any given scenario
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Begrudge having to wear shoes
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Love standing in the rain
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Feel most comfortable in outdoors clothes and no make up
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Grew up feeling more of a connection with animals than humans
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Lived in books as a kid and could easily read for a solid 8 hours if you had the time
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Would rather read a long-form piece of writing than watch a video or reel
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Felt lost and confused before you found your people or still do and are still looking (I hope you find them here!)
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Dream of finding a patch of land for you and your friends
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Would rather gaze into a campfire than a TV
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May have a past that is in total opposition to your present (addiction, raving, office work, a mismatched crowd, a high powered job etc.)
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Long to live closer to nature and her rhythms
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Know (or are starting to) that you are an entirely different creature with different needs on day 1 of your cycle to day 14
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Have started to notice that the alternative crowd that formed your teenage homecoming still bear the marks of that past (tattoos, good taste in music and a critical mind) but are more likely to be found in the woods or at their local regenerative farm than in the pit these days. Ancestral is the new punk.
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Feel a primal knowing that the modern approach to pregnancy, birthing, post partum and parenting is entirely at odds with our well-being whether you are a mother or not
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Have discovered traditional foods and are living your best life eating a whole heap of organic grass-fed tooth butter (a Danish work meaning so much butter that you can see your teeth marks in it) on organic homemade bread
I could go on but you get the gist.
My north star
At the heart of all of my work is the idea of rewilding.
Taking down fences, reinstating what has been missing and letting nature take its course. Trusting in the unfolding natural processes beyond human management to bring nature back to equilibrium.
An invitation to take down the fences of our domestication, reinstate those things that have been missing and release control. Stepping into acceptance and surrender as we let nature take its course led by the wisdom of our intuitive bodies.
Women breaking free of captivity
In my decade of working with women in nature, I have come to see the many ways that our modern world and our enculturated captivity* affect our capacity to thrive.
We are born wild and gradually accept the limitations of our domestication until our wilder heritage is unknown to us. Many of spend a lifetime suffering as a consequence without knowing why.
Some of us lose the capacity to cope with the modern world somewhere along the way. At the time it feels like breaking but we soon realise that it is in fact breaking free.
These pivotal moments connect us back to our hearts and our wilder heritage.
We catch the scent of home and long to return.
We have awakened to the culturally imposed bars on our windows and this cannot be undone.
We are the women breaking free of captivity.
*Credit to the work of ecopsychologist Vaughan Wilkins for this powerful phrase.
What you’ll find here
Writing
I write because I can’t not write. Words burn inside of me waiting to find a page. I have always written but it took me a long time to feel worthy enough to call myself a writer.
Over the years I have often found myself writing things I would struggle to share out loud and then questioning why I do it but the responses I receive every single time remind me how important it is to share the deepest parts of ourselves if we feel we can because I know for me when I see a piece of myself in the story of another it helps me to feel less alone.
The overarching theme of my writing is wildness and through that lens I explore topics such as motherhood, matrescence, wilder parenting, mental health, menstrual cycle awareness, rewilding, nature, farming, anthropology and more.
Wild and Cyclical Yoga & Yoga Nidra
I hate being told what to do, I feel uncomfortable in a space where I am not given autonomy and I have spent a lifetime trying to tune out the voice of ‘I should’ and discover what I actually need (which is more often than not a lie down).
This inspires the way I facilitate my yoga and yoga nidra practices.
Wild Woman Yoga is a practice of exploring movement that honours and nourishes our wild and cyclical ways.
It is…
-
Playful, spontaneous, fluid, cyclical, rhythmic and self-guided.
-
An invitation to surrender to the flow and be released from expectations of consistency, predictability and infinite resource.
-
A shift from rigid repetition and ambition to fluid spontaneity and contentment.
-
Encouragement to practice in a way that is fluid and adaptable to the waxing and waning of our needs and nature.
-
A remembering of the freedom that lies beyond form.
-
A call back home to our wilder selves.
(Please know that my work is inclusive of but not exclusive to those with wombs and periods. You don't have to have a womb or periods to practice with me or join a circle but if you do I'm here to accommodate that.)
Benefits
As a member (tier dependent) you gain access to these benefits:
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Early access to any in person offerings
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Regular exclusive blogs
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Excerpts from books I am writing
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Regular Wild Woman Yoga videos
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Regular yoga nidra recordings
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Rewilding practices and blogs
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Wild Mama content when trying to conceive, pregnant, postnatal or parenting
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Menstrual Cycle Awareness practices and content
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Regular opportunities to have input on your yoga practices and nidras
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Full access to the entire back catalogue of content
A note on when you get your content
I run a mother centric cyclical nature inspired business and as a result this often means that I have to surrender to the ebb and flow of my capacity to do my work and the demands of my child and my body and the seasons of nature. And I wholly celebrate this in others too.
I share in sync with my rhythms and the rhythms of nature rather than by calendar date. At certain times of year, I share a lot more than at others but it's pretty regular. At times when I need to will pause my page so that you aren't charged.
Also your comments and interactions here help me to feel a bit less like I’m shouting into the void and are hugely appreciated <3
Carly x
'To feel the breath of wildness come into your body is to reclaim your natural wholeness' ~ Mary Reynolds Thompson
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We are the women breaking free of captivity
Know Grow Flow
My book Know Grow Flow shares my experiences, thoughts and ideas around cyclical living through Menstrual Cycle Awareness.
Sold out in paperback but available as an eBook, it's a fully illustrated A4 workbook with audio and video resources.
Within its pages you are invited to explore cyclical living through the practice of Menstrual Cycle Awareness, providing support as you get to know your cycle, grow with your cycle and flow with your cycle.
Circles
I've been facilitating women's circles for 8 years and have witnessed some of the most connected, embodied, liberated and spontaneous magic in that time. There's a certain special something that happens when women come together in this age old way that's hard to put into words but I'll try...
In a world of predictability and restraint, isolation and constraint in circle, we are reminded of our elemental, cyclical and feeling natures and are invited to explore ourselves untamed. Invited to remember how it feels to live and breathe and be unshackled from the trappings of domestication. In essence to reclaim our wildness.
In circle we pick up an ancient red thread of connection and find ourselves woven back into the tapestry of community and inextricably sewn into the fabric of life on Earth.
The spaces I offer are an invitation for you to reconnect to your feeling nature, a place to find your voice and practice being vulnerable and unfiltered, an opportunity to find your village and a call to rewild our minds, hearts and wombs.
Women's circles are...
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An autonomous space where you are in charge of you
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A place to practice vulnerability and softness in an often hard and unfeeling world
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A place to connect and share without comment or advice should you wish to
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A place where you are always welcome exactly as you are
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A place to celebrate and cultivate joy as much as a place to grieve and feel
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A place to be seen and heard in a world where women have been taught to be seen and not heard
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A place where we’re remembering and reigniting the wisdom of our ancestors whilst also redefining and updating what it means to be a woman
That’s just some of what a circle means to me but it’s not easily translated into words, the best way to discover the magic is to come along and discover what it means to you!
As we retreat to the Moon Lodge, a tradition as old as time, something in us shifts and there is no doubting the tangible power of women in circle.
Come and join us?!
Carly x