Travel and Exploration
Alongside my working life, I travelled.
I have circled the world twice, exploring remote landscapes, diverse cultures, and the stories hidden in nature and people. These journeys broadened my understanding of humanity, spirituality, and the quiet beauty found in simplicity.
I lived alongside both the richest and the poorest on earth and witnessed the full spectrum of life. Through it all, I learned that truth, resilience, and connection transcend status and circumstance.
Living Off-Grid
Eventually, life led me back to something quieter.
I have lived off-grid in three different places.
The first was a small caravan in the forests of Portugal, set on 1.5 hectares of land surrounded by ancient trees whose roots felt like they held the heartbeat of the earth.
Each morning began with sunlight filtering through leaves, the smell of damp earth, and the awareness that everything I needed, I had to meet with my own hands.
The second place was a 35-acre farm in Portugal, where I ran a spiritual and psychological healing centre.
Finally, where I live now is where I run my Airbnb retreat, spend my days photographing light and land, and write in the quiet rhythm of water moving past. This is home, not as a concept, but as a lived, working, breathing place.
Living this way is both brutal and beautiful. There is nowhere to hide. You come face to face with fear, joy, resistance, and truth. The land does not bend to your expectations. It asks for humility.
It was both humbling and awakening – a remembering of something ancient within the human soul.
Inner Work and Healing
Over the years, I devoted myself deeply to understanding the human mind, body, and spirit.
My training includes CBT, NLP, life coaching, mentoring, herbalism, international massage therapy, Reiki, humanism, and holistic psychology.
My river house garden on Airbnb
I ran a spiritual and psychological healing centre for five years, guiding people through emotional release, personal transformation, and deeper inner understanding.
This work taught me that healing is not about fixing people. It is about presence, safety, and truth.
Photography and Creative Expression
Alongside this inner work, photography became one of my primary ways of seeing and sharing.
As an internationally published photographer, I seek to capture nature in its raw honesty, people in their authentic essence, and the stillness between moments.
Photography is how I tell stories without words.
Photographing Ben Fogle
Photography and Creative Expression
Alongside this inner work, photography became one of my primary ways of seeing and sharing.
As an internationally published photographer, I seek to capture nature in its raw honesty, people in their authentic essence, and the stillness between moments.
Photography is how I tell stories without words.
Photographing Ben Fogle
Sharing the Journey
I appeared twice on Ben Fogle’s New Lives in the Wild (Channel 5), sharing my off-grid life and philosophy with a global audience.
Being part of the show was more than filming. It was an invitation to be seen without filters and to speak from lived truth.
After the episodes aired, people from all over the world reached out. Strangers who felt a spark, a recognition, or a moment of permission to live differently.
Sharing the Journey
I appeared twice on Ben Fogle’s New Lives in the Wild (Channel 5), sharing my off-grid life and philosophy with a global audience.
Being part of the show was more than filming. It was an invitation to be seen without filters and to speak from lived truth.
After the episodes aired, people from all over the world reached out. Strangers who felt a spark, a recognition, or a moment of permission to live differently.
Wylde Roots is the integration of my life.
Wilderness. Inner work. Travel. Leadership. Healing. Creativity. Psychology. Spirituality.
It exists to help you reconnect with your true self, release emotional patterns, and cultivate clarity, presence, and joy.
Everything here – photography, writing, blogs, journals, workbooks, books, music, retreats, and tools – is designed to guide you gently back to what matters.
Why I Created Wylde Roots
About
My name is Alexander Sully, born in the wild, poetic beauty of England’s Lake District – a place where nature teaches you to listen long before you learn to speak.
But my life didn’t stay rooted in one place. It unfolded in ways I could never have scripted.
If you are searching for clarity…
If you are craving reconnection…
If you want to rediscover your purpose, peace, and authenticity…
This is your space.
Arrive exactly as you are.
Grow at your own pace.
Let presence, nature, and truth guide your path.
My Invitation to You
Keswick - Lake District
Early Life:
The Lake District
I was born in the Lake District, that ancient land of soaring fells, glistening lakes, and winds that seem to carry secrets from centuries past.
Growing up, the wild was my playground and my sanctuary. Mornings when mist hung low over the water, air so fresh it felt like a balm for the soul. The mountains taught me patience, how to listen deeply, and how to find peace in solitude.
The Pain That Shaped Me
Behind the adventures, leadership, and later off-grid living, there is another layer to my story.
I grew up surrounded by trauma. I lived through the chaos of an alcoholic parent, witnessed suicidal moments within my own family, and carried the impact of emotional and physical abuse.
There were years of heartbreak, betrayal, and confusion – years of trying to understand why life could feel so heavy even when everything looked fine on the outside.
My first home - Motherby village in the lakes
These were not lessons from books or workshops. They were lessons from the fire. From nights that broke me. For days I didn’t know how I would make it through.
Over time, I came to understand something powerful: pain becomes your teacher when you stop running from it.
Those experiences cracked me open. They gave me empathy and a depth of compassion you cannot fake. They taught me how to sit with others in their darkness, not to fix or change them, but to simply be there as someone who has walked that road too.
Healing does not mean forgetting or pretending it did not happen. It means facing it, integrating it, and allowing it to become part of your strength.
I did not choose those traumas, but I choose now to alchemise them – to turn them into something useful, something that might help others remember their own resilience.
Because sometimes the most broken parts of us are what make us whole.
Birmingham
Here, I saw the edges of humanity: struggle, hope, pain, and survival all tangled together. Drugs, gangs, poverty, and disorder existed alongside kindness, humour, and resilience.
That contrast between wild nature and the urban jungle taught me how to find stillness inside noise. How to carry calm in the middle of the storm.
During this chapter, my life also unfolded in the world of business.
I helped scale Superdry retail into a global brand, managed a department of 1,600 employees, worked across the hotel and restaurant industries, and ran successful Airbnb properties.
Those years taught me leadership, patience, humility, and how to stay grounded in highly demanding environments. They taught me discipline, emotional intelligence, and how to hold responsibility under pressure.
They also showed me something important: success on the outside means little if it comes at the cost of truth on the inside.
Leaving Lake District
Life eventually pushed me out of the sanctuary.
For years, I lived in Birmingham – a city of grit, noise, and relentless pace. It tested me in ways the Lake District never could. The streets were crowded, loud, and raw. You had to be sharp, resilient, and ready to face chaos head-on.
Why I Created Wylde Roots
Wylde Roots is the integration of my life.
Wilderness. Inner work. Travel. Leadership. Healing. Creativity. Psychology. Spirituality.
It exists to help you reconnect with your true self, release emotional patterns, and cultivate clarity, presence, and joy.
Everything here – photography, writing, blogs, journals, workbooks, books, music, retreats, and tools – is designed to guide you gently back to what matters.
My Invitation to You
If you are searching for clarity…
If you are craving reconnection…
If you want to rediscover your purpose, peace, and authenticity…
This is your space.
Arrive exactly as you are.
Grow at your own pace.
Let presence, nature, and truth guide your path.
Publications
The Free
Transformation course
When you join the Wylde Roots mailing list, you’ll receive a free, self-guided course designed to help you slow down, reflect, and gently step out of patterns that no longer serve you.
It’s a simple, day-by-day journey you can move through at your own pace — with short reflections, grounding practices, and space to reconnect with what actually matters to you.
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