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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.
Every now and again I record an episode of the podcast that for whatever reason just doesn't seem to work. Sometimes that's technically so what a couple of memorable occasions I forgot to press record. Another couple of times I think the audio has been so odd it hasn't sounded like me and then what happened today was I realised that like part of the spirit of this podcast is the expansive meandering nature of seeing where the thoughts go but the one I recorded today seemed to venture into sort of confused and difficult to follow. So I'm beginning again and that's what I'd like to talk about. Welcome to the Henny Flynn podcast, the space for deepening self awareness with profound self compassion.
Henny Flynn: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. So this idea of you can always begin again, it feels very resonant with the work of Sharon Silzberg and she's a mindfulness meditation teacher, part of the Jack Kornfield, Ramdaz, cohort from the 60s and 70s who set off from America and went to India for for you know spiritual enlightenment I suppose. And who found a deep connection with themselves and with the deeper truths that resided within themselves and they were able to access and hear through their mindfulness and spiritual practice.
Henny Flynn:And she's an amazing teacher, she's a writer and there is a quote which really speaks to this idea of beginning again. And she says, we can always begin again, no matter what happens, no matter how long it's been, no matter how far from our aspirations we may have strayed, we can always, always begin again. And this feels like such hopefulness to me. This idea that even if we recognize that something hasn't worked out for whatever reason, even if we recognize that, you know, despite our best efforts, we haven't been able to achieve what we wanted to achieve and we feel forlorn and floundering to remember that we can always begin again. There's resilience in that and there's also the refusal to believe the part within us that might be saying that we have failed or that things are hopeless or that there is nothing that can be done and you know when times feel hard when the light feels like it's dimmed then knowing that we can always begin again feels you know incredibly profound to me and I think also just in the context of a piece of work knowing that we can always begin again is also really important.
Henny Flynn:I recognize in myself that I have this sort of keep going driver and that's very useful, you know it's definitely been helpful in my life and it's also been a little bit of a burden at times too And even in the context of, I don't know, like writing a deck at work. If you've worked in a corporate environment, you know what I mean, you know, writing a set of PowerPoint slides. In my old world and knowing in my heart of hearts that it just wasn't working, but keeping on going with where I was at and sort of constantly kind of editing when really what would have been wiser perhaps would have been to begin again. Come at it with a fresh mindset, maybe after a good night's sleep and see what that could reveal, see how that could be and see how much easier I could actually make the process rather than, you know, insisting on pressing forward even though it was like wading through treacle. And you know, in the context of today, you know, I could have shared that episode with you.
Henny Flynn:It would have been, you know, would have been okay. I don't have a feeling that everything must be perfect. And it also when I listened deep into my gut, into my heart of hearts, I recognised that it didn't really feel quite right and so remembering that it's okay to begin again, felt like good wisdom, useful wisdom and very practical wisdom too. So, I suppose the question really is, as you're listening, know, is there anything in your own life that as you scan across maybe at work, maybe around how an ongoing conversation is unfolding. Conversations are rarely just in that moment.
Henny Flynn:They often unfold over a period of time. Maybe in a practice that you've been doing but maybe are no longer doing. You know, is there an opportunity here where you recognise, oh yeah, actually, actually I could begin again' and what would beginning again look like for you? Does it mean wiping the slate clean, you know, having a clean sheet of paper and beginning absolutely from scratch with your ideas for something that you're working on? Recognising that we always bring our past experience with us anyway, but what we can bring is a kind of fresh energy to the way that we approach something.
Henny Flynn:Maybe if it's in the context of a relationship or a conversation dynamic that you have with another human is there something about resetting yourself? You can't change the other person of course but maybe resetting yourself coming out of a fixed mindset about how you should be what you must say how you ought to show up and just taking a breath and pausing and feeling into what beginning again might mean in the context of how you approach something, you know, maybe with a clearer head, maybe without a whole list of assumptions. Once again, recognising we bring all of our experience with us and if we have that conscious awareness of it, then that can be part of what helps us begin again, because we're able to see where those assumptions or presumptions or anticipations of how someone else might react, how we can notice those thoughts and just very gently park them while we're fully present with what unfolds in front of us. Could beginning again show up in some way like that for you. Or perhaps, you know, in the context of the practice, is there something that you used to love doing that was something you recognised really nourished you and nurtured you that maybe has fallen by the wayside somewhere along the way of life that you'd like to pick up again.
Henny Flynn:I've actually just as I say that I've actually got an example of that in my own life. I used to run when I after I, well when I was recovering from having been so ill nearly ten years ago now, I began running as a way of reconnecting with my body and helping myself feel strong and for the first time in my life it was not exercise to get thin or exercise to get fitter, which actually the subtext of that was get thinner. It was exercise to feel strong and I learned to really love running and then when we moved here about five years ago, I had a frozen shoulder which was extremely painful. If you've ever experienced that or know someone who has, you'll have a sense of you know how incredibly uncomfortable, painful, debilitating that can be. And then when that healed, my other shoulder went.
Henny Flynn:And so I got out of the habit, I got out of the practice of running and we moved from somewhere very flat to somewhere very hilly. So, if I did go out for a run, it was really hard. I couldn't really do it. I'd lost a lot of my fitness and stopped thinking about myself as being a runner. And then the other day chatting with two girlfriends, somehow or other this whole topic of running and the reconnection with the feeling that that gives me and also the realisation that I've been feeling less strong in my body and that running was something that helped me feel strong in my body and so I have started the Couch to five ks.
Henny Flynn:Now in the past I think I would have been really sniffy about that. Now that might sound ridiculous just saying that but I think I had a real resistance in the past, know, I'm talking many years ago, a real resistance to getting help. That's probably the reality of it, a resistance to asking for help. And so therefore I would never have used an app like Couch to five ks, regardless of how many people told me how brilliant it was, and how much it helped them. I had this kind of arrogance of I don't need help, I can do it on my own, And you know, in that first time around when I got well, did broadly do it on my own.
Henny Flynn:Although I have to say Anton gave me guidance. He's a trained PT, so he was able to give me guidance and amazingly I actually listened. But this time round, I am absolutely loving having the app, because it's enabling me to run without having to think about it, which means I can just be with the running, be with the experience and for me this is such a brilliant example of beginning again and actually in a way what the app is sort of teaching is that each run is like beginning again. You know, we put our shoes on and go out and you do the interval training and each time that you actually speed up into a run and each time you slow down into a walk, in a way they're kind of micro examples of the art of beginning again, rather than pushing through sort of beyond what your body is actually physically capable of in that moment and it's about building this resilience, building this tolerance to the experience of running. That I can already feel, mean I'm only literally on week one by the way, so I'm kind of naming this out here now, and hopefully I will keep going, but if I don't, I can always begin again of course.
Henny Flynn:So, you know, maybe there's a practice for you. Maybe it's something like meditation and you've just got out of the habit, but now you've built up a whole load of stories about what meditation actually means. Or maybe it's journaling, maybe you used to journal you know, when you were sort of in your 20s and you haven't journaled for twenty odd years and oh I don't know how it would be, but I kind of quite would quite like to. You know this realisation that it is okay to begin again. I think it's one of the most powerful things that we can teach our children, that we can teach young people, because if we never learn that we can begin again, then we might inadvertently shut off like whole avenues of our life that could bring us great joy.
Henny Flynn:So when I say that, I think about people who loved art, you know, when they were at school, but because someone once told them you can't draw, they never again pick up a paintbrush or a crayon or a pencil and never begin again purely from the love of doing something that gives them pleasure. Know, and also, you know, if we have an idea or something that we wish to create in some way and it doesn't go right the first time around. Well, knowing that we can always begin again might be the very thing that enables us to learn from our past experience and bring that learning into what comes next. So I'd love to hear your reflections about that. I'd love to hear, you know, are there examples in your life where you've noticed, where you did begin again and what impact that had.
Henny Flynn:Maybe there have been examples where you know where you've noticed that you've needed to bring discernment to a time when you've begun again and what that discernment enabled you to learn about yourself or about what it is that you were embarking on. Yeah, and also sort of how beginning again can be. Maybe it's been a part of resilience for you. You know, times in our life where things feel like they've fallen apart, you know, maybe a relationship has ended or we've been made redundant or we've experienced deep grief or deep loss in some way. You know, if we have no sense that we're able to begin again, then life can feel very hopeless in those moments.
Henny Flynn:But when we realise that beginning again is available to us, it might not look the same as it used to look, but we can move forward in some way with that Zen Buddhist beginner's mind being present with what we experience in an open way, then that feels imbued with hope. So gosh, I'm really glad that I restarted this episode that feels that felt much deeper it's interesting like I can really tell when I'm in the zone because my body sways from side to side and that's what I've been doing so I'm interested to hear back to what I've shared with you just to see what came out of my mouth. And then the other thing I just wanted to very quickly share is how wonderful it's been to hear your reflections on the episode where I shared standing on that rope swing bridge across the river in New Zealand and that really profound sense of the energy of the river like rushing through me and becoming indivisible from my own energy, which, you know, of course we are. We are all energetic creatures. We're all made of the same star stuff and the molecules and the atoms that make up us are the same thing that make up a mountain and make up a cloud and make up the earth beneath our feet.
Henny Flynn:So it's been really interesting hearing your stories. Many people talking about how water is a place where they feel that deep connection with the all whether that's swimming or being beside water, being with water in some way. Others speaking about how they feel a profound connection with the all with this you know, this sort of deep sense of the oneness of, you know, our natural self being inseparable from the natural world. You know, sort of when they're up a mountain or others speaking about when they're with a much loved tree. And, you know, and I think something that I said in that podcast episode is that my sense is, you know, there was nothing special about the feeling that I had about energy of the river rushing through me.
Henny Flynn:Although, of course, was deeply, deeply special. But it wasn't because I was special. It was just because I was able for whatever reason as I turned and looked down river something opened up inside me and I was able to feel it. I think we all have this capacity to have you know, ordinary and extraordinary connection with the natural world around us. So, yeah, so just to thank you for sharing those thoughts.
Henny Flynn:You know, some have come by email, others by through Instagram and others have been with, you know, clients have shared in our sessions. And yeah so please keep sharing your reflections and I'd love to hear your reflections about this sense of you can always begin again. What does that mean to you where have you seen it or where might it serve you now okay my darlings all right well I am just going to send you love and a hug and a wave.