The

Rewilding Studio

The Rewilding Studio blends mindfulness, science-based grounding techniques, and slow living inspiration from the Pacific Northwest.

Created for women who feel overwhelmed. We offer practical tools for nervous system regulation, emotional balance, and everyday empowerment.

Founder & Creative Director

Ashley Slade, B.A., B.Ed.

Ashley helps women slow down and start to heal—no pressure, no perfection, just small, real steps back to calm. Based on Vancouver Island, she blends science, humour, and heart (even the occasional f-bomb) into everything does.

Living with chronic health and autoimmune challenges herself, she understands the layered realities of womanhood—especially while raising two spirited daughters in a way that honours their ethnic roots and celebrates their wholeness.

She finds her own grounding tending her backyard garden and chickens, exploring local trails with her family, or curling up with a good book by authors like Brené Brown or Gabor Maté.

A graduate of both the University of Victoria and the University of British Columbia, Ashley brings her background in education and counselling to everything she creates—helping women trade hustle for honesty, burnout for balance, and self-critique for compassion—one honest, human moment at a time.

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It’s Monday.
And we’re moving toward the solstice — the darkest stretch before the light turns back.

If motivation feels low right now, that’s not a mindset problem.
It’s seasonal biology.

Less daylight means more melatonin, lower dopamine, and a nervous system that naturally slows down.
Your body is conserving energy — not failing you.

So here’s what actually helps today:

You don’t need to feel inspired to start.
You just need to begin gently.

Do the smallest version of the thing.
Open the email — don’t answer them all.
Start the task — don’t finish it perfectly.
Show up — don’t overperform.

Momentum doesn’t come before action.
It comes after the first few minutes.

We’re not at the solstice yet.
The light hasn’t turned back — but it’s close.

Until then, steady is strong.
Getting through today is the win.

Save this for the Mondays that feel heavy.
Take the next small step.

#mondayenergy #winterweeks #therewildingstudio

As we move toward the winter solstice, the shortening days don’t just change the sky — they change how your body functions.

Less daylight disrupts your circadian rhythm, the internal clock that regulates sleep, hormones, mood, digestion, and pain sensitivity. When that rhythm is thrown off, melatonin can rise earlier and stay elevated longer, which increases fatigue and brain fog. At the same time, serotonin — a neurotransmitter tied to mood, motivation, and emotional regulation — tends to drop with reduced light exposure.

Cold, damp conditions can also increase muscle stiffness and inflammatory responses, which is why chronic pain, joint pain, headaches, and old injuries often feel worse this time of year. Add to that a nervous system already managing stress, caregiving, work, and constant stimulation, and your threshold for overwhelm gets lower.

That’s why during these darker weeks people often feel more reactive, more tired, less motivated, and emotionally thinner — even when nothing specific has “gone wrong.”

This isn’t a mindset failure.
It’s biology responding to environment.

As we approach solstice, the work isn’t to push harder — it’s to adjust expectations, support regulation, and respect that your body is operating under different conditions.

The light will return.
Until then, slower is not lazy — it’s adaptive.

#pnwisbeautiful #vancouverisland #daysofsimpleandslow

I work with people every day who second-guess themselves into exhaustion.

Who look left, look right, and decide they’re already behind before they’ve even started.

But here’s the truth most of us forget while we doom scroll and compare ourselves to the filtered content we see on our screens:

Your life isn’t supposed to look like anyone else’s. It CAN’T.

Your childhood, your lessons, your setbacks, your breakthroughs — they’re yours because they’re meant to shape you.

There will be seasons in life where everything feels aligned, and seasons that feel like nothing is happening no matter how hard you push.

But that doesn’t mean you’re failing.
It means you’re growing, at your own pace.

A colleague once told me something that I now think of often… she said something along the lines of percolating is an important part of the process and you have to go through it.

Sometimes your life needs a moment to brew… to settle… before you can enjoy what you’ve set out to gain.

So trust the season you’re in.

Trust the part of your journey that doesn’t make sense yet.

And trust yourself enough to stay open for what comes next.

It’s right on time.

#inspirationalquoteoftheday #takeyourtime #personaldevelopment

You don’t have to keep calling something “fine” just because you’ve gotten used to carrying it.

Your nervous system always tells the truth — even when your mouth says you’re okay.

If you’ve been running on empty, overfunctioning, or swallowing the discomfort because “that’s just life,” here’s the gentle truth:

It’s not strength.
It’s survival mode with a smile.

Today, try this:
Name one thing you’ve been pretending doesn’t drain you.

Not to shame yourself — but to actually see what your body has been trying to show you.

Awareness is the intervention.

It’s the first step out of autopilot and back into a life that doesn’t require you to disappear to get through it.

Share this with a friend who is also “fine”.

#selfregulation #nervoussystemhealth #motherhoodunfiltered

WELL… Amazon did the one thing I hoped they wouldn’t do.

They sent my entire book shipment back.

Which means the box of The Rewilding Guides I was expecting — the one so many of you were patiently waiting on — isn’t coming. And I won’t be able to get restock copies until February.

I’m honestly so disappointed.

I know many of you were counting on grabbing one from me locally for the holidays, and you’ve already waited longer than you should have.

Thank you for being so patient with this whole process. I’m frustrated too.

But here’s the good news:

If you were planning to buy a copy, you can still get it in time — just order directly through Amazon. Their delivery times are still solid for December, and you won’t be left disappointed or empty-handed.

The links for both versions are in the link in my bio.

Thank you again — truly — for supporting this little book and this little studio. Even when the logistics get messy, you show up. And it means everything. 💗

#holidaygifts #vancouverisland #smallbusinessbc

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