The Work Can Be Light (S17E2)

This episode wasn’t planned (hmmm - that seems to be a theme!)

I’d actually already recorded something else, but when I sat down to share it, I realised it simply wasn’t what I really wanted to say. Not today.

So I began again. 

And what came was this: a call to hold things lightly.

Ourselves. The inner Work. The world. 

This doesn't mean we don't take what we see seriously, or that we condone or ignore the challenging things unfolding around us. It simply means we hold it all with a lighter, loving touch.

If you’ve been feeling called to do the inner work, but there's fear that it might be all too much — maybe this is the call you’ve been waiting for. We can do this work, with love.

If you're ready to step toward your Self in this lighter way, please do connect. I would love to support you, as you navigate whatever inner Work is calling you.

Chapters

• 0:00 Welcome and Shift in Direction
• 1:25 The Work Need Not Feel Heavy
• 5:30 Embracing Lightness in Inner Work
• 9:00 Finding Joy Through Self-Compassion
• 12:49 An Invitation to Step Forward
• 14:50 Closing Thoughts and Farewell

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:01

Hello, my darlings, this is actually my second attempt at recording an episode today, and you might get to hear the episode that I've already recorded another day. But when I came to publish it and do all the you know, the podcast assets, as they're called I just suddenly thought oh, that's really not what I want to be talking about. That's really not what I want to be talking about, it's actually not what I want to be sharing. So we're going to talk about something else. 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, and I'd like to base whatever happens for the rest of this episode on something that I wrote this morning sitting up in bed, and if we're connected on Instagram, you might have seen that I shared it already, but it seems to speak to something which I've been noticing, and maybe you've been noticing it too, and really it's this call to hold things more lightly, and when I say things, I mean know us to hold ourselves lightly, and also, you know, in direct reference to the work that I do with people, to hold the work lightly.

Speaker 1: 1:53

There's an awful lot going on in the world. There is a lot of pain, a lot of suffering, a lot of change, and my reflection has been that maybe what we all need is a lighter touch, and that doesn't mean turning away from what we see, it doesn't mean not standing by our values, but maybe it means being willing to turn toward ourselves and continue to do this really important inner work without being afraid that it's going to be. Oh, this heavy, hard, difficult thing. And, and I feel so strongly about this, I'm actually going to do some work on my website over the next few days just to to really feel into. You know, is that language really appropriate for what I'm feeling in the, the energy field that we're in right now? You know, I often talk about deep and lasting change and of course, that is the work. You know, that is what we're doing and and something can be deep without feeling heavy.

Speaker 1: 3:15

So, and that thought is really what sparked this particular piece of writing, which I've shared as as a piece of everyday compassion. Really, it's not one of those daily emails I send out, but it is a. It's very much connected to that. You know that kind of philosophy that I have around compassion is something that is present with us in all moments, or is available to us in all moments. So so this is what I wrote this morning.

Speaker 1: 3:51

The work need not feel heavy. Even though it may be deep, we do not need to feel broken to begin to understand ourselves. We can be grounded and light. This profound work of meeting ourselves with love simply needs us to listen to that still quiet voice within, the one that whispers the truths we have learnt to ignore in favour of harsher words. The one that sends a smile through our body when we think of how kindness feels. The one that understands the pain and joy we hold within us. The one that loves us through it all. The one that holds us safe as we step toward the edges. The one that whispers now, my love.

Speaker 1: 4:52

It's funny, as I was reading it, it feels a little bit like my darling girl, feels like poetry in a way, and you know, I think, gosh, there's so much, there's so much truth in there, for me anyway, I don't know about whether that resonates with you. This, oh, it's almost like a sort of lifting of the weight of having to, you know, sit with the sit with the deep, sit with the heaviness, sit with the heaviness, sit with the, you know, the huge, gigantic capital W of the inner work. And remembering that we can go lightly. And going lightly doesn't mean, you know, not taking it seriously. You know, not taking it seriously, it doesn't mean it not being valuable, it doesn't mean it not being, you know, really profound process, but what it does mean is that we don't need to be afraid of the work, just as we don't need to be afraid of the work, just as we don't need to be afraid of the dark. Um, and and I'm really sort of I feel really cool to share this, actually that you know, if you've been feeling, oh gosh, there's something that I really want to work on. I'm feeling a block within me, I feel, uh, disturbance within me. Oh dear, I think, you know, maybe I need to do, get some support, work with a guide, someone like me, or work with a, you know, a psychotherapist, you know, whatever, wherever you might be at, that it needn't be hard and we can set our own parameters, set our own boundaries around how we wish to navigate this beautiful inner work. And maybe this speaks to a kind of zeitgeist, a kind of in my system I feel there might be a sort of zeitgeist into a lighter way of holding this work. When I think about my own journey, there's definitely been like, oh gosh, that's been, that's been big and that's been heavy, and I also recognize there's been an awful lot of laughter. That's really good for us. Laughing is good for us and when the world feels heavy it can feel hard sometimes to find the laughter that is also here, and I suppose maybe part of this is allowing that. Acknowledging that, I feel really drawn to see what my darling girl has to say.

Speaker 1: 8:01

Actually, I'm going to go to volume two. Well, here's one. Let's try this one. I just opened it at random, so it's page 51 of my Darling Girl, volume two. Oh, the places you've been, the things you have seen, the joy you've convened when you gathered with love. Oh, the times you have had, the good and the glad, the joy through the sad, when you lived them with love. Oh, the things you have felt, the cards you were dealt, making challenges melt when you saw them with love. I mean, it feels so perfect to me because it's really. You know, this is what I'm talking about, isn't it? I think you know that when we turn toward things with love, it makes them so much lighter, so much easier to carry. It makes challenges melt, and it really reminds me, actually, of the group that I'm working with right now in the Change with Compassion group coaching course that's running at the moment.

Speaker 1: 9:25

And you know this, this, the subtlety to self-compassion. There's a simplicity to it, and then there's this like subtle complexity to it, which is that we can, when we allow ourselves, really embrace every part of our experience with compassion. We can embrace every part of us with self-compassion when we allow ourselves to do that. And and really fundamentally, that's the work that I do with people I I help them step into a space where they love themselves more deeply. Um, maybe that's something, um, I need to be more overt about, rather than talking about it being about making changes. Really, it's about this, this inner change that happens within us, this softening and you know, my experience when I look around me is that is something that so many of us could benefit from.

Speaker 1: 10:42

When we are bombarded by news, by devastating news, by all the stuff on social media, I feel that something that can be of such deep benefit is being able to hold that space within us where we are safe, you know that inner sanctuary. And actually I shared a quote, a Rumi quote, with the group today and a really lovely meditation. It felt really lovely to me anyway, um, and the quote to live out beyond ideas of wrongdoing and right doing. I want to be able to stand in that field and hold it all with equanimity. And that doesn't mean condoning, um, you know, things that are incredibly challenging, but it was. What it does mean is being able to move forward, um, with compassion and with love.

Speaker 1: 12:16

Um, so I feel drawn just to see. Does she have anything else for us? Um, let's see what there is. Oh, I think I've shared that one before, the one about settle to the morning, bring your soul home from its midnight flight. Oh, what else? Oh, you see, now I've started looking. It doesn't work. Then I'm gonna get the first volume off the shelf and see what that says. Um, let's see. Um, does she have anything to share with us in here? Oh, yes, okay, let's. Um, let's go with this one. I saw you move today. I saw you run into the sun. I saw you dance without a backward glance at who was following your lead. I saw you step toward the mountaintop with a jump, skip hop. I saw you breathe to relieve. Today, tomorrow and yesterday. I saw you smile and it made my heart sing. I love that one. It makes me feel like a little girl, you know that free child of transactional analysis. So, yes, there we go.

Speaker 1: 13:53

This is a call for lightness in the deep work. The deep work, um, and an invitation to you. Actually, if the work has been calling you but you've been afraid of what it might entail, which is completely understandable, particularly with everything you know that I've touched on earlier in this episode, you know if, if something's been kind of holding you back because you've been uncertain about whether it's really the right step for you right now, I invite you to step forward, to allow yourself the freedom that comes with that. You know, this work is an adventure, this work is a joy, this work is a way of falling in love with yourself, and how can that not be a wonderful thing? So I open up my arms to you if you are ready to step forward and to do this beautiful work, all right, my darlings, I send you a hug and a wave, thank you.