Rachel Herring-Smith
Rachel Herring-Smith
Mental Health Nurse
Based in Oxfordshire, UK
Who inspires you, and why?
I actually get inspired most days by every day people, real people living real lives. We have the ability to learn from everyone who crosses our path and to take a little piece of inspiration from each one along the way.
I guess thinking about it, my children have been my biggest teachers - from day one they have inspired me to become a better person, to question my flaws and to work on them for the sake of others.
What's your main life goal?
My ultimate goal in life is to be able to look back on my life and feel calm about the choices I made.
I believe in order to do that you have to sit with all those horrible emotions like pain, anger, guilt and envy and be okay with exploring those feelings. We learn from reflection, and through processing the shit we go through we can move on easier. I have very little room for regret in my life and even when I feel total chaos all around me and inside of me I remind myself I can always change something about everything.
If I can gain perspective and feel a sense of balance in every aspect of a situation then I usually feel peace.
In your opinion, is life fair?
No, it certainly is not.
We are born into our lives without any choice with no influence of the circumstances we are born into.
I see myself as a one of the lucky ones, born into a relatively wealthy family in a country that is not war torn during my years of living. I feel safe in myself and my immediate surroundings, a privilege so many are without. I have choices & opportunities that were placed in front of me with ease.
The child who has just been born to a mother who is a heroin addict living on the streets will not get those same opportunities, the 8 yr old who has been living in a children's home because he watched his parents lives be taken from him by a war, will not get those same opportunities. Their paths have formed, and without any idea their neural pathways in their brains have taken in such trauma at such a delicate age that unless they keep grafting and they continue gaining grit and resilience it's likely they will struggle through our life.
So no, life is very unfair if you look at it on a global scale. The world is dripping in inequality and dysfunction.
Of course. So what's the greatest reward in life?
I guess I look at reward in a non tangible sense, I see very little value in money unless it leads me to an experience, and those experiences don't have to be huge or extravagant. Maybe in the form of travelling to a new country, enjoying a memorable event with my family, crying at the cinema with a friend, fish and chips on the beach with my boys - all these moments add true meaning to my life.
Curiosity is what drives me, staying curious makes me feel alive and my greatest reward is the blessing that I get to live and feel in the beautiful yet messy way that I do.
If you were God, what is the one thing you would change right now?
I think if there was a god he'd be pretty pissed off at how we humans have treated our planet so for the sake of my children and Childrens children I wish the climate crisis wasnt even a thing. But the only way to change such huge disasters and traumas in this world is by first changing how easy it is to place power on all the wrong people and systems. The hidden corruption in our society has led to damage all over the world and one of those is our climate crisis. I hate the fact we live in a capitalist system, ruled by greed and inequality & driven by a media that sneakily infiltrates the mind to serve that greed. Natures beautiful resources are so so depleted due to the constant want for more of everything, for bigger and better 'stuff'. It's so damaging on a long term global level.
What's your biggest challenge in life, and how do you overcome it?
Getting swept along in a society I feel I don't belong in, l've felt like this all my life and it can cause such anxiety. There are days I feel I can't breathe as it becomes so overwhelming. So, I breathe consciously and slowly and I do the things that that help me connect back to myself and where I am in space numerous times a day. I use nature to ground myself as often as I can, let my bare feet touch cold grass or if my body needs it l'll drive to a beach just to put my feet in the water & to look out over the ocean. It puts things into perspective for me and teaches me to let go of all the big stuff we can't control. We must listen to what our souls need, honour that & then carve out time for those little things to happen in order to heal us over and over one day at a time.
Finally, what is your greatest life advice?
"Trust the process"
This has become a life saving mantra for me - it instantly soothes me as I know that even in the most awful of times it allows me to create a space to just breathe, to just allow the situation or the feeling to just happen. It stops me from trying to control things that are totally out of my control and 'trust' that I am exactly where I am meant to be in that moment.
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