Subscribe
Share
Share
Embed
A space to settle in and listen, and see where the episode takes you. This inspiring, reflective podcast is an invitation to travel deeper, with compassionate self-enquiry.
Henny shares insights from her own life, alongside practices that help us connect with our inner wisdom, explore our relationship with change and find a greater sense of flow. Henny believes we all hold our own answers, so there are no one-size-fits-all solutions here. This is a space to be with what’s true for you, and to grow from there.
If you’re drawn to slowing down, listening in, and exploring what it means to live with greater authenticity, this podcast is for you. Guided by psychology, mindfulness, therapeutic coaching, flow journaling, and everyday compassion, we explore ideas that help us step further into our inner worlds, in order to shape the changes we seek in our outer worlds.
So I've just recorded an extra bonus episode to share here and I know, I know I said the season was over but something inspired me to return. So I just recorded it and then I've listened back and the background noise is so loud that I just couldn't put you through it. So I am re recording it. Let's see where this goes. I'll probably forget half the things that I said originally but hopefully it will still be of some service.
Henny Flynn:So yeah, let's dive in. Welcome to the Henny Flynn podcast, the space for deepening self awareness with profound self compassion. I'm Henny. I write, coach and speak about how exploring our inner world can transform how we experience our outer world, all founded on a bedrock of self love. Settle in and listen and see where the episode takes you.
Henny Flynn:So I use that term 'inspiration' and that was going to be the heart of what I talk about today. I don't know if you've heard or listened to or seen the Elizabeth Gilbert TED talk on genius. I can't remember what the actual title of it is but if you Google that you will get it. I'm absolutely sure it was fascinating study of where does inspiration come from? Where does this concept of the genius as in, you know, the person, the creator, the often we use the term the master who, you know, sort of holds this huge well of creativity within themselves and what she shares in the TED talk is that actually way back in the day in sort of Greco Roman times, the concept of genius was much more that we had a muse that was something other than us, not another human but something other.
Henny Flynn:So what we now might call source or spirit or universe or divine inspiration, whatever language, resonates with us. And that, you know, the the the font, the source of the creativity came from this something other. It didn't come from within the human form that ended up being the kind of the vessel to manifest it and to put it out into the world. And then I think it was sort of around the time of the enlightenment, we came to an understanding that actually the genius was within the human, was the human, the human was the genius, rather than recognising the experience that so many of us have, which is that we get our inspiration from something outside of us. And Elizabeth Gilbert shares a couple of really fantastic stories.
Henny Flynn:Er one which I think it's Leonard Cohen. Er if you've seen the the TED Talk please correct me if I'm wrong. Where he's driving along in the car and you know a song just lands within him, it's like it just drops down from the sky into him and he ends up kind of shouting up into the ether, you know, can't you see I'm driving? Like, you know, he didn't have a pen and paper and wasn't able to capture the, you know, the inspiration that was there. And then another story, beautiful story about a poet who shared that when she was a young girl working in the cotton fields, she could feel a poem rolling across the fields, like rolling across from the horizon towards her and she had to run, run, run home in order to get there before the poem landed in and through her, so that she was able to capture the words and the inspiration that was there.
Henny Flynn:I love this idea and it's something, you know, I wonder does that resonate with you? If there have been times where you've created something or maybe written some words in your journal or had an idea for how to solve a problem or suddenly found yourself knowing the words to say and then on reflection thinking, gosh where did that come from? You know for me writing the books that I share and in fact actually even doing this podcast, like so often I feel though it's not really me and I'm very aware that that sounds a bit odd, or it could sound like a dreadful affectation as well like, oh I'm so special, I've got divine inspiration, but my feeling is that we all have this, we all experience this at times and I think maybe the act of journaling is a really sort of clean, clear channel where I experience that. I think many artists experience it when they're in the process of creation. Like we might call it flow as well, and in that state of flow, ideas emerge and form and coalesce that we might never have been able to attend to, to pay attention to, if we're up in that rationally thinking, you know, cognitive part of the brain.
Henny Flynn:And so yeah, I I just wanted to sort of open up this idea of like where does inspiration come from and maybe there's a journaling prompt in there that could be really beautiful to write to yourself if this is appealing for you. So maybe something like Sorry I'm I'm I'm shutting my eyes and and just going deep into my into my inner self just to to see what that flow journaling prompt might be. And perhaps something like, oh, when I sense the hand of inspiration. Yeah, that sort of feels or when I hear the voice, when I hear the whispered voice of inspiration. I'll put both of those into the notes.
Henny Flynn:It's interesting that one about hand. I kind of, there's a part of me that sort of separates from that in some way, But I'm also curious about where that word came from actually. You know this idea of like sometimes it is a bit like having a hand just placed so gently on our shoulder or hand even like holding the pen or holding the paintbrush or you know what or you know crafting the clay or whatever it might be whatever our medium is. You know, and sort of just or even, you know, sensing inspiration kind of flowing through us, you know, maybe in the kind of like the rise of the words coming up from our belly rather than down from our brain. So see.
Henny Flynn:Yeah. Let's see. I'm gonna I'm gonna write to that hand one and just see what that what arises for me. Maybe I'll share that next week. And then and then the other thing that I wanted to share oh, yeah.
Henny Flynn:And I was sort of thinking actually about this this idea of inspiration. And actually when I, you might have seen and heard that my latest book, Everyday Compassion is now ready for pre order. I'm so grateful to everybody that's already ordered. If that includes you, thank you so much. If you're curious to find out more, then there's a link in the show notes.
Henny Flynn:It's three sixty five days of ordinary kindness. It's tiny notes filled with love, and I'd had this kind of idea, I've been kind of wearing the idea for a little while that I wanted to do a series of emails that were offering little drops, little drops of love, little drops of kindness, to go into people's inboxes, because I'm so aware of how overwhelmed so many of us are and I wanted something that didn't demand anything of the reader, that was simply just this tiny little generous gift. And I, like I thought about it and that didn't get me anywhere. So then I just felt into it and trusted that something would arise. And then as I was driving home from the garden center one day, this is about two and a half years ago.
Henny Flynn:I felt like I drove through a wall. I mean, it was literally that kind of feeling like a wall, not like a hard wall, but this invisible wall. I drove through it and as I drove through it, the knowledge of how to share everyday compassion became suddenly clear. Actually the phrase, I mean I don't really use it in association with emails, but the phrase that really came to me was love is easy and that's the kind of like the essence of these messages because love obviously human love is complex and hard and so you know I haven't used that phrase but within that came this phrase everyday compassion And so that became the name of the email series that have been going out to hundreds of people for the last couple of years and it's the name of the book. But for me, like the really interesting part here is that sense of inspiration.
Henny Flynn:It's, you know, driving in my car, suddenly this thing landed and I remember like driving along and having to kind of repeat the things because some of the actual messages landed in me and I just had to drive home and keep repeating them to myself and then run into the house and grab pen and paper and write them down and hey, that sounds a bit similar to what Elizabeth Gilbert was sharing and so I kind of want to share this because I feel it is so human. I feel it is so available. It's not we are not as human beings, know, sort of special in the sense that no human being is more special than any other and every human being has the capacity to meet themselves with the kind of openness and love. Oh, I'm going a little bit off piste here but I just feel that, you know, when we as a human race decided that it's the person who's the genius, we lost connection with something that is so important and that is the recognition of there's something other, this something divine, which isn't just there for the mystics and the, you know, and the priests and the people who, you know, who tell us that they have a connection with God.
Henny Flynn:It's there for all of us. Yeah, I've realised I've just strayed into some really big territory there actually. So, gosh, how does that land for you? You know, does that resonate or does that that make you feel a bit uncomfortable or does that make you feel, oh yeah, kind of like that. Like what, where does that take you?
Henny Flynn:Anyway, the other bit of inspiration that that also arose just yesterday, in fact, was in a voice note from a girlfriend of mine who is listening now and she will know who she is. And she just sort of randomly said oh I know that the podcast season is over. So I'm going to be playing a podcast roulette and I'm just going to spin through and see what episode I land on. And then she carried on speaking, but I just thought, oh I like that. I like that idea of this podcast roulette.
Henny Flynn:You know what might be in the archives that could be of service to listen to. For all of us, you know, what what could be there. So, if you receive my Sunday emails, then, this Sunday, which will be Sunday July 5, you'll receive the first podcast roulette email. Or we could call it a kind of lucky dip email. I don't know.
Henny Flynn:Which which language do we like? And you know, and let's let's sort of see what's there and hopefully you'll enjoy listening to it. And if you don't already get those emails, then then you can sign up through the website. But I was also inspired by an idea that my friend shared in a subsequent voice note, which was that maybe we could play a kind of version of podcast roulette here. I'm very mindful that roulette is has got this sort of gambling connotations and the sensitivity around that.
Henny Flynn:And I'm maybe we can find, yeah, a word that feels a little bit more in tune with our feelings here. Maybe it is something like lucky dip. Don't know. Let's let's feel into that. Let's let's co create this.
Henny Flynn:But the intention being that you could send me anything that you feel you would love me to share on the podcast. So a topic, is there a challenge that you're facing into maybe or is there a particular thing like, I don't know, like boundaries or how to to deal with resistance to self care or, you know, these kinds of, like, universal themes. Maybe there's something there that that you notice would be really interesting to hear more about. Or maybe there's, you know, something that you'd find really enriching to explore, something that's got some some kind of, you know, much deeper sort of layers to it. Or you know, maybe there's a topic that we've covered on the podcast before and you'd like to go to look at that from a different perspective.
Henny Flynn:So, yeah, whatever. We're to it all. But basically anything that ties into these themes of change, whether that's inner change or outer change, compassionate self inquiry, and also yes of really looking at the things like the belief systems, the value sets, the stories that we may have inherited or adopted or adapted in our lives. So anything along those lines that feels like you would like to hear more, then drop me a note. You can contact me through the website hennyflinn dot co dot uk or you can email me henny@hennyflinn.co.uk and just send in your ideas.
Henny Flynn:And then on the podcast, I'll just flick through them and pick one, maybe more at random and speak to it and let's see let's see what emerges. That kind of sounds like fun to me. Even if the topics themselves are deep and challenging and very human like so much of what we talk about here. You know, we don't shy away from the stuff that feels more complicated or painful to hold. So, I think that's me done.
Henny Flynn:This was going to be literally five minutes and it's turned into a proper podcast episode. Hey, go. The last thing I wanted to say is if you are curious to be able to find out a bit more about this book of everyday compassion, then there's a link in the show notes or you can find it on the website hennyflinn.co.uk it's there on the home page. And as I said before, I'm so honored by every single order that comes in and these pre orders they really help with a self published book which this is and the books will actually be published properly published in September so your pre orders help me work out how many books to print. All right my darlings I am sending you so much love and a hug and a wave.