Reconnecting to the Land, Living a Simple Life, and Recognising You Are Enough.

Sarah is a former astrophysicist, meteorologist, and winning ultra-runner, who now lives, works, and writes from a beautiful off-grid narrowboat based on the inland waterways of England and Wales.

She’s a coach to mission driven women, helping them to live and lead from a place of powerful, embodied presence, so they can create the life and legacy they deeply long for. You can contact her via her website:

https://www.sarahlkent.com/

I long dreamed of living a simpler life, as lightly and as close to nature as I could. Sometimes I came near it - in my own time when I solo hiked long distance trails, or during my career as a meteorologist when I visited remote islands in the Falkland Islands.

But I had to get to the brink of burnout before I finally committed to saying yes to my dream and creating a life which truly nourished me. It’s still an ongoing experiment, and when it comes to self employed off-grid narrowboat life ,I’ll say so far, so good!

The woman I interviewed for this week’s dream had already experienced success and influence. Yet as she enters a new season of life, her dream is also of a simpler life, whilst still making a positive difference through her work.

Her story reminds us that life unfolds in seasons, and that the ambitions that served us in one chapter may not belong in the next.

Perhaps the most striking aspect of her dream is that it circles back to where it began.

Perhaps our deepest, heartfelt dreams are invitations to remember what nourishes us, and to remember our connection to the places, people and values that make us feel most alive.

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This week I’m offering these questions to you for reflection or journalling:

💡 What ambitions or goals once felt essential to me, but no longer carry the same meaning?

💡 What season of life am I currently in, and what might that season be asking me to prioritise?

Make yourself a brew, sit down for a few minutes, and enjoy reading the story of this woman’s dream. The following words are all her own, from an interview held in November 2025.

With love, Sarah xox

I’m 50 and I’m about to endure my fifth year of psychology by doing my master’s. I’ve long dreamed of qualifying as a clinical psychologist, and it’s a six-year journey. I’m dreaming of a much simpler life, off the back of a life that has been very full and which I would also say very materialistic. The label that I’ve given my dream is the Hiking Psych.

I dream of having a base by the ocean in a place called Brunswick Heads, which is a very beautiful part of northern New South Wales in Australia. My partner and I will spend our days travelling around Australia and hiking from our four-wheel drive with its camper trailer, and that’s why I’m calling it the Hiking Psych.

I want to spend my days in nature, and ideally I’d spend time with indigenous communities, learning from their 40,000 years of wisdom. Potentially I’ll be working with them too, leveraging my psychology, if that is something that is helpful.

That’s pretty much as exciting as it gets for me, and I love the fact that it sounds so damn boring.

I grew up on a 140-acre farm with horses and cows and chickens and everything. When I was 18, all I wanted to do was get off the land; I just wanted to get out of there. It was inconvenient. It wasn’t close to anything. I couldn’t be with my friends. We were always so far away from everything.

So as soon as I turned 18, I left the farm and I moved to Melbourne. I never went back and ever since I’ve lived in cities. I had a very successful corporate career – but ten years ago, I turned my life upside down in pursuit of happiness.

I walked away from all of my success, pretty much overnight.

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I relocated my family from Perth back to Melbourne. I left an 18-year relationship and started my own purpose-driven company with the sole intent of helping others define what brings them joy and what enables them to flourish in the everyday.

As part of all that, I met my current partner, who I’ve now been with for ten years. He’s very much into being outdoors. He gives not one shit about anything material and he lives a very simple life.

He comes from a Croatian background, surrounded by these incredible Croatian women who make all their own food and grow all their own vegetables. He spent many years with his 90-year-old grandmother making salamis and wine in her garage.

Being shown this different way of life completely changed my perspective on what was important. I realised how all the material stuff that I’d had before gave me no sense of anything other than attachment. I also realised how much I actually love being in nature.

My dream of being the Hiking Psych is almost like a return to my younger self.

It’s not that I didn’t love living on the farm; I actually loved nature. I used to love riding horses in the bush. I think it was just that the season of life that I was in made me want different things.

One thing that has become acutely apparent to me over the years is honouring the season of life that you’re in, and to know that it’s okay to let things go that you don’t want in that particular season, because it simply might not be the season where they need to live.

I have a lot of clients who come to me saying, “Oh, but I want to do all of these things, but I’ve got two kids under four and I haven’t even got time to scratch my butt.“

I tell them, “It’s great to have all these dreams. Those dreams don’t go away, and we can still work towards those dreams. We can do micro things now, but the season of life that you’re in, and what you’re telling me is that the priority right now in terms of what you can get done is your children, and that’s okay.”

I’ve done TED talks, I’ve written for Harvard Business Review. I’ve travelled the world as a speaker, speaking in front of thousands of people. I’ve got book publishing deals - all things that I’m very proud of. Things I never, ever thought I would be able to do and which weren’t even on my dream list 10 years ago.

As I move into the next season of life, I don’t need to do more of that to prove my worth. It doesn’t make me any different from who I am, because who I am was who I was always. Does that make sense?

I want to return to a way of being that is not weighed down by the expectations of what others make you feel you should be.

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I’ve always needed to find meaning in what I do, and to make a difference in the lives of others. When I started out, I wanted to impact the lives of millions, and I know I have impacted the lives of thousands around the world.

But it’s not about the numbers anymore. If my work makes a meaningful difference to one person a week, then that’s great.

We can end up attaching our worthiness to things like the salary that we earn, the titles that we have, the accolades and the certificates on the wall. I’ve definitely been a junkie for all of that stuff.

Women have such high expectations of themselves. It’s why we’re so often overachievers. There’s a constant striving to improve and to show people how much you can be and achieve.

That’s what makes us feel like we’re never enough. It’s why so many women experience negative self-talk. I remember looking at the data around it and something like 80% of the inner conversation for most women is negative, because we’re never enough.

I think my dream is about recognising that I am enough, and always have been.

I hope to become more at peace with myself and with the world around me. I know this dream is not going to be perfect, and parts of it, I’m sure, will be hard, especially living out of a van.

But I do want to lessen my footprint on the world as much as I can. I definitely want to live more sustainably as much as I can.

Maybe through living this dream I will be able to honour the history of the land. To foster a stronger connection to the land, which is funny, because that’s what I came from, and that’s what I resisted for so long.

I’ve always wanted to do something with indigenous communities, and I don’t know what that looks like in its completeness. I feel that learning from them, given they are so spiritually connected to the land, will help me find a truer connection to the magic of the land - because Australia is a pretty amazing place.

I had no appreciation of how important my connection to the land was.

It’s a full circle moment, after growing up on land and being so connected to it as a child.

I hadn’t realised how important that connection is to me.

Truly, it’s important to all of us.

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Interview November 2025

I want these dreams to continue to be freely available, so If her story nourished or inspired you in ANY way, please do consider sending something back. For those who already do (you know who you are!) so much love & gratitude.

🌸 Keep me supplied with strong tea as fuel for me to continue the work of the Dreamworks Project which I run in my spare time.

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