The Joy of Making Something You Love (S17E5)

This is a full-hearted, creative, slightly giddy episode - recorded just after I finished the first piece for A Piece of Quiet, my new private, subscription-only podcast.

There’s so much newness stirring right now. The LoveWords cards are out in the world, my year-long group coaching programme is quietly filling behind the scenes, and now my new weekly pause - in audio form - for reflection, stillness and self-connection, is almost ready to enter the world.

In this episode, I reflect on the power of creativity - why it matters so much (especially now), and how it doesn’t need to be complicated or grand. I share a poem I wrote recently, which many of you responded to on Instagram, and talk about the joy of creating something we genuinely love.

This one’s a celebration of everything that's softly blooming.

In this episode, I talk about:

• The three offerings I’ve been birthing - and why they matter so much to me
• The story behind LoveWords, my simple oracle card set for intuitive reflection
• Why creativity is a core human need - not just a nice-to-have
• A new poem (that I’ve fallen a bit in love with) and the joy of sharing it
• The quiet power of A Piece of Quiet - and how to be part of it

Chapters

• 0:00 Introducing New Offerings
• 4:05 Love Words & Group Coaching Program
• 7:15 A Piece of Quiet Subscription Podcast
• 9:58 The Essential Nature of Creativity
• 14:38 "When?" - A Poem About Aging
• 16:37 Final Thoughts & Invitation

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:02

Hello, my darlings, I'm feeling a little bit giddy right now. I have just recorded the first I suppose we could call it a trailer episode for the new offering that I'm sending out into the world. It's going to be well. I'm going to start really talking about it next week, on the 10th, which is a full moon. It feels like a really beautiful time to be shining a light on something new.

Speaker 1: 0:41

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, um, yeah, I you might have. If you've been listening to the uh podcast for the last few months, actually, you'll hear that I've been kind of birthing these new ideas and um, and then seeking to sort of exit my chrysalis and then realising that I had to go back into the goo and all of that. So all of that has passed, which I'm really, really pleased to say, and the three things that I was well, that were forming within me, are all now almost all out in the world. So the love words, um, which you might have heard me talk about in the last episode. Um, they are now um being ordered and some are about to wend their way to their new owners. That is deeply exciting and I'm so grateful to everyone who's already sent me an order for them. It's really, really marvellous.

Speaker 1: 2:18

If you're curious and you haven't heard the last episode, love Words are a basically modern oracle. Cards are very simple deceptively simple, I would say and they really are an opportunity just to use these words to help tap into your own intuition, your own inner wisdom. So if you have a challenge or a problem or you just want a little bit of extra guidance on something, you choose a word and you see what it says to you, because each word can be interpreted in many, many ways, and one of the things that I've been really enjoying is listening to how Sorry that's Ronnie in the background, listening to how some people come up Did you hear that it's Ronnie trying to talk on the podcast now? Yes, how sometimes people will come up with an interpretation of a word that hadn't occurred to me at all when I was creating them, so it's like they now have a life of their own. I created the love words doesn't mean I know all of the meaning that is held within them, because the meaning is actually held within you. So that's really exciting.

Speaker 1: 3:58

And then the other thing that I have been birthing has been a year-long group coaching program. I haven't really started sharing that much about it, I've only sent it out to people who've already flagged an interest. If you think you might be interested, then please do email me. It's a small group, maximum of 10 people, and we begin in October. Maximum of 10 people and we begin in October. So if that's something that you'd like to find out more about, year-long group coaching beautiful experience, a really wonderful opportunity to, to you know, do some of this deep coaching work which is ordinarily only available one-to-one um, and to do it in the company of some other wonderful humans, um, so yeah, so that feels really exciting and um, I kind of finalized all of my thinking around that over the last few days.

Speaker 1: 5:05

And then the other thing is um, a piece of quiet, which is this new um private subscription only podcast. So it doesn't change the henny flim podcast. That will remain free. This remains free. Um ad free, subscription free, it's. So a piece of quiet is actually um, something that um is a completely new offering and it's essentially a chance for a weekly pause and, and like I said right at the beginning of this little ramble, um, it's something that I have just been, uh, doing a piece of recording for and, oh gosh, honestly, my darlings, it's so beautiful. I, I just can't wait to um, to get it out into the world, and one of the things that I've said on this, uh, this piece I've just recorded, is this kind of ripple effect. You know it's.

Speaker 1: 6:18

I'm already noticing the benefits of creating and and beginning to share um, or, you know, beginning the, the steps towards sharing. And, of course, when you create anything, the minute it goes out into the world, it stops being yours, um, it starts becoming a shared thing, a bit like I said about the love words really, you know they're not mine, they're a shared offering now and and it's the same, with a piece of quiet, that um, you know, the minute it goes out into the world, that um, the impact and the energy that it starts to hold within it and that starts to ripple out from it, that becomes a shared thing and it becomes a co-creation and that's so beautiful. And I feel that way about all of my books about my darling girl and the heart of change, and all the ways I tell myself I love you and in the flow and letters of love, and you know. That just feels really wonderful. I feel really kind of filled actually with that creative energy and I'm there's something about being able to also enjoy these kinds of moments too, even in the face or, yeah, even in the face of of um such devastating news as we see around us.

Speaker 1: 8:05

Um, because I I saw something really important, actually a post on I think it's a TEDx or a TED talk about how vital creativity is for us as human beings. As human beings, it's not about consumption, it's about creation, and when we are creating, we stop needing to consume in quite such a way. That was basically her premise, the speaker's premise, and I I think that's really interesting. I need to go and watch the actual whole TED talk and maybe it's something that would inspire another episode. Um, yeah, I mean, and I think creativity looks like many, many, many different things.

Speaker 1: 8:56

You know, it can look like cooking a beautiful meal. It or, you know, cooking a meal. We don't need to qualify these things. Um, if it's, if it feels like an act of creation. For us then then it is, um. It can mean, um, you know, sort of planting something. It can mean, um, you know, uh, you know sort of cutting somebody's hair. It can mean, um, you know, creating something out of clay or paint or paper, or you know colored pens or you know anything. If we are immersed in it and we're operating from that deep place of intuition and instinct, it's like, oh yeah, this feels good. Then for me, that's really tapping into that creative part of us and I agree with this TED speaker that it is absolutely essential.

Speaker 1: 9:57

I've shared before on a previous episode, goodness knows when it was about there's a really interesting it's not really a psychometric, but it's a really interesting tool that can help us understand our needs and how satisfied we are that our needs have been met. And it's actually I've included it with permission. I've included it in my book, the Heart of Change, because I just think it's such a useful exercise, and it's called the Human Givens. And in the Human Givens there's a whole institute devoted to the Human Givens, to the human givens. Um, they, there are nine, um sort of key, uh traits or needs that, um, the researchers identified every human being has. And when I first came across the tool, I thought, oh gosh, this is so brilliant. I found it such a simple and, you know, incredibly deep and insightful tool and I couldn't quite understand why creativity wasn't one of these human givens, like, for me, it's an absolute given that creativity is a core human need. And so, um, if you do come along and join the year-long group coaching program, um, we'll be using the heart of change as the, the sort of the framework really, for you know, working together, and, and you will see that in that exercise, I have included creativity again with permission, because it's so, it's so vital, I see.

Speaker 1: 11:58

So, anyway, I suppose this is an episode about creativity. I've just realized I didn't even know what we were going to talk about, other than I wrote a poem. I often write poetry, and for many years they seem to always begin my Darling Girl, and that's what led to those first two volumes of poetry, the my Darling Girl books. But lately that's been happening less and less and I've begun or resumed I'm not sure writing poetry that feels like it's not necessarily written to me, but feels like it's written with me. Hopefully, that makes sense Like it's not from me but it's definitely written with me. It's like all my parts are aligned and coming together to kind of sit and look at the poem and work out what the words are and how to express what it is that's rising within me. So, yeah, it's written with me. I haven't had that thought before.

Speaker 1: 13:25

Anyway, I shared this on Instagram. I quite often would just pop them into my stories. I think that's a, you know, it's a way of putting them out into the world without them being too front and center and sitting on my grid, as it's called, on Instagram, and I've had so many comments from people, so many people saying how much they liked it for want of a better word and I thought I would share it here with you. And yeah, so yes, this whole episode is about creativity, isn't it? Because this is a piece of creativity that I'd like to share with you, and I've written, I wrote on the um, on the story. This is an early draft, but I liked where it was heading and I haven't changed any of it because I've decided I like where it's landed. I mean, it doesn't mean it won't change in the future, but, um, here it is.

Speaker 1: 14:38

It's called when With a question mark, and it begins when did we get old, you and I? When did our hair go grey and skin begin to wrinkle in places? Only old people have wrinkled skin. When did we stop minding that we make noises as we stand up and sit down and move around? When did comfort become queen and the thought of those heels I used to wear obscene? When did we stop bothering about what others thought or forgetting? We used to think worse things about ourselves than others would have ever thought, to think worse things about ourselves than others would have ever thought. When did we start to accept ourselves as flawed and fabulous creatures who will only walk the earth in this life, at least for a few long years that at times can feel so short? When did carpe diem start to actually mean something we finally understood? Oh, my friend, when did we at last become the people our younger selves always hoped we would?

Speaker 1: 15:54

I've read that so many times since I posted it.

Speaker 1: 15:56

I think it's really rather good.

Speaker 1: 16:04

I love it when I write something, when anybody writes something or creates something, and then you step back and you look at it and you go gosh, that's really rather good. I much prefer that to the kind of you know the anguish of oh, modesty. Yeah, I'm not talking about arrogance. I'm just talking about being able to enjoy something that we've created. You know that's a nice thing, isn't it? Anyway, anyway, I think it's that.

Speaker 1: 16:37

That's it, just that for today. And if you are in the mailing list, expect to hear more about A Piece of Quiet. And if you are in the mailing list, if you're already in my email community, then you'll get a very special subscription offer, and so if you would like to know what that is and you're not already in the mailing list, then please do join up. There's a link in the show notes for this podcast too, and it would be utterly gorgeous to welcome you to a piece of quiet. I really I can't wait to begin sharing more with you about it, and I am sending you a hug and a wave. Thank you, thank you.