The Day 34 Women Said Yes with Lynette Allen

One radio interview, a lost celebrity review, and a cheeky line that basically dares the BBC to give you a chance can change the direction of your whole life. I’m Natasha Joy Price, and I’m joined by author and publisher Lynette Allen, founder of Gather the Women Publishing, to unpack how she went from first-time nerves on BBC Radio 2 to creating collaborative books that bring women’s voices to the page.

We talk about Sister Circles and why women often find it easier to speak their truth when they’re witnessed by other women. Lynette shares how an online circle during Covid turned into a book almost overnight when 34 women volunteered to write chapters, and why that hunger to write is not about being “a writer” but about having something real to say. We also dig into the craft side: how a good editor helps you find the gem in your story, move it forward, and let the meaning land without losing your voice.

From there, we zoom out into storytelling across generations: the family memories we never think to ask about, the power of writing someone’s words down while we still can, and the beautiful idea of a grimoire as a living book of wisdom, recipes, remedies and lived experience. Lynette also speaks candidly about reinvention, menopause, HRT, and what it means to have a whole second lifetime to create, travel, retrain, and start again at 50, 60, or even 70.

We finish with what’s next, including When Women Need Space and Unfiltered, a bold project about women’s relationships with their bodies as they age, plus Lynette’s simple daily practices for staying centred. If you care about women’s publishing, creative writing, self-expression, and honest conversations about ageing, press play, then subscribe, share, and leave a review so more people can find us.

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My new novel The Red Magus has recently been published in conjunction with the Unbound Press.  An entralling mystical adventure set across time and space, where past and current lives converge.  Find it on Amazon and Barnes & Noble.

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Transcript

Welcome And Meet Lynette Allen

SPEAKER_03 0:02

So, welcome everybody to another edition of Balm to the Soul. I'm your host, Natasha Joy Price, and I'm an energy healer, I'm an author, and of course, I'm a podcaster. And today we have a lovely new guest, and her name is Lynette Allen. So, welcome Lynette. Thank you for supporting the podcast. It's lovely to have me here. Thank you. So, Lynette is an author and a publisher. She has Gather the Women Publishing. So let's start there, really. How did you get into publishing and why Gather the Women?

SPEAKER_01 0:42

Um, I got into publishing in 2004, I think. I got myself on Radio 2, which was back in the day, was Steve Wright in the afternoon. Steve Wright's now passed away, of course, but I was a huge fan of Steve Wright in the afternoon, as millions were. And I managed to get on his show. It was the first time I'd ever been interviewed on a show of any description. Um, and I had a fantastic time. And from that show, a lady called Caroline messaged me from a publishing company and she said, I really liked what you said today on the show. Have you ever thought about writing a book? And I said, Well, I've already started writing a book. And she said, Oh, send me a manuscript. Well, that wasn't true. I hadn't started writing a book, but I did have a list of notes on, I think, the back of something, like a back of a receipt or something, about what I would write about if I was to ever write a book. And I had no idea how to write a manuscript, so I Googled, how do you write a manuscript? And then I came up with some guidelines that I was provided with, and then I kind of started writing. I put things together and I managed to come up with 36 pages. Wow. And she said, Can you write some more? Would you really like to publish it? So that was it. It was a very easy in. I had none of this, you know, years of rejection letters and trying to find agents. I got given an agent by them, and I had my first four books published with them. And then I

The Accidental Route Into Publishing

SPEAKER_01 2:30

had a long gap, 10 years. I changed a lot. I did a lot of traveling, had my daughter, had a whole family, and um it was really at that point I thought I want to write again. Um, but I was going in a different direction to the publishing company at that point, so I started to self-publish. So that's what I was doing, self-publishing my poetry books. Um, I was meditating a lot, I was working with cacao and plant medicine, and that opened a whole new different side to me up that I didn't know was there. And then someone told me about collabs. I didn't know about collabs, I didn't know that that was a thing, and someone told me, and I thought that's so interesting. And then during COVID in 2000, obviously the world went online, including me. And I started holding Sister Circles online, and it was one of the best things that we did. So nourishing and helpful to have women gather online when nobody could be in person. That um at the end of that first year, I said, Who would like to write a book about what we've done? And overnight, literally that day, I should say, 34 women said, I'm in. Wow. Literally, it was within 12 hours. 34 women, I just put a message out on WhatsApp just to the people I'd sat with that year. Listen, I'm thinking about writing a book about what we've been doing with ritual sister circle. Do you want to write a chapter? And they all went, Yes. So I had the first book. It was easy. And then somebody turned up at my house for dinner, and I and I told her, I said, We're writing a book with 34 women on ritual. I just sort of came out of my mouth. And she said, What's it called? And I said, The Women Who Gathered. That was the title just came out. I hadn't planned it. But I said very confidently, there was like a a second pause, and I went, The Women Who Gathered. Because we did, so we gathered, and so that was gone. That was it. And and then, of course, we've done many, many more since then. And we're now in June, which you're writing with.

SPEAKER_03 5:01

Yeah. We're writing to be part of the next one, which is very exciting.

SPEAKER_01 5:06

We're writing the next one, which is when women need space. But there's been so many. We've talked about sister circles, menopause, and um our wisdom. And uh was gonna be talking about manifestation, intuition.

SPEAKER_00 5:26

Ritual.

SPEAKER_03 5:28

It just feels like uh, you know, a lot of the steps on your path are just fate. They sort of just happen. You have got yourself in the right place at the right time, possibly by just going with your flow, if you like, the flow of your energy and just making decisions intuitively. Do you think that's probably the case?

SPEAKER_01 5:52

Very, very much so, because I never planned any of it. Like that radio show that I went on uh I mean uh many years ago now. How many years ago? 22 years ago? 2004 or three, maybe, because the book was out in 2004, so probably 2003 actually. I had sent out a whole load of flyers to women in publishing and magazines from the book, The Writers and Artists Yearbook, which is still out. It comes out every year, and it's a thick old book if you've got it or have had it. It's fantastic. It gives you every newspaper, magazine, radio station under the sun. And I have sent every one of those a flyer. Um, I was at that time a life coach, inviting them to have coaching with me. And um that's really where publishing company got my card on her desk. And then I happened to be on the radio. She was in the car and happened to be listening to the radio, and she thought, oh, that's that girl who sent me that flyer. But I wasn't clever enough to be strategic enough about it. It was just like two things that collided for me. Yeah, I thought that's a good idea, let's do that. And then out of the blue, this radio interview came. So it's very much so. I wasn't in control of any of it in terms of planning. Oh, how do I get a publisher interested for me? Yeah, I couldn't have made it up. So, did anybody else answer your Jamie Lee Grace from Radio 2, which is how I got onto Radio 2. So that's interesting, isn't it? So Janie Lee Grace, who used to be in um Wham, of course. Well years before. Um, I offered her a coaching session and she took it and she's she loved it. And um, she sent me a raving review, which I then lost. I couldn't believe I lost it, but I did. It was like my only celebrity review back then. It's like prized, like, and then I lost it. So I messaged her again and I said, Hi, do you remember me? Um, I wonder if Steve Wright would interview me on the radio. And she said, Well, he only interviews celebrities. I said, Well, tell him to interview me and then I'll be a celebrity. That was how my mind worked. And she laughed, and then she told him that exact thing, and he said, Bring her in, we'll rip her to shreds. So the next week I was in opposite William Haig in the green room. No, he didn't. He was very nice. I was so extremely nervous. He gave me a glass of water, and I just remember sipping it constantly because my mouth was so dry. I'd never done an interview or anything, and then here I was in London, the green room. I was set opposite William Haig, who I think was our deputy PM or something at the top. And so I was like, Oh my god, this is so surreal. And then I came out, and my brother had come with me, and I came out of the studio, and my brother said, What was it like? Was it okay? And I walked down the corridors because you get escorted out of the BBC, of course, you know, all the corridors left, right, to the back door. And I said, I can't remember a thing. I don't know what I said. I can't remember a thing. I was so nervous. And then I got home, and it had air, it was airing that day. So I literally got off the train, got home, sat on the floor of my office. Thinking, literally like this, going, Oh my god, I could be really bad because I started telling people by text I was gonna be on the radio that day, and my brother said, Lynette, you don't know what you said, you might have been shit.

SPEAKER_03 9:52

That's what my brother said. Bring family ready to bring you back to reality.

SPEAKER_01 9:58

So I stopped texting everybody and sat in my on my office floor with my head in my hands, like, was I okay? And I was okay. I was okay. I did well. I mean, I'd never done that. But I got the publishing yeah, yeah, I got the publishing deal from that. In fact, I don't even know if Steve ever knew that. I probably should have told him, but I I don't think he knew that.

SPEAKER_03 10:22

So, why do you think um, you know, you got 34 women after COVID saying, I want to write a chapter? Why have do you think all everybody has got writing creativity in them? You know, because I meet so many women who just love writing. What is it about writing and women?

SPEAKER_01 10:45

I think women are naturally very communicative. I think we like to talk things out. I think that's why Sister Circle works and why I love Sister Circle much, because if you give a woman the floor, for instance, you know, the talking stick or the you know, the the time, a few minutes just to speak about how she's feeling with her hand on her heart or what she's going through or what she's worried about or what her dreams are, she will just talk and talk until it's all out. And I think writing is a way that women, I think women very naturally gravitate to to do that on personal time. I mean, I talk to myself, particularly when I'm driving, I talk to myself all the time, but only really when I'm driving, probably in the shower, I probably talk to myself in the shower. But otherwise, I write, I write it down. I think a lot of women like that, are like that, and I think we have things to say, and I think we have wisdom and we've learned things, and we've learned through mistakes, we've learned through things, you know, happening to us that we think that was unfair or uncalled for or hurtful or for. But I think there's for most of us we can find the gem in that. I think everybody has a story, and I think there is a gem in everybody's story, and and I see my job now as editor to help women find the gem. Yeah, because I can read the stories that they send me for these books. And read it and read it and read it, and I think no, no, no, no, gem, the gem isn't there. And then right like maybe at the end, I'm like, oh, that's the gem. That's it. So then I can talk to them and go, can we put that a little bit further up? Because that's the thing. Tiny little thing there in which you learn, which is so deep. And I love helping them find the gem because sometimes they don't

Why Women Write And How Editors Find The Gem

SPEAKER_01 12:50

always know and see it.

SPEAKER_03 12:52

No, until someone else has that other perspective on it.

SPEAKER_01 12:56

Can you see that right there? And they're like, oh, I didn't see that. I really, really love that.

SPEAKER_03 13:02

Yeah. And I think women like being with other women actually as well. I think there's something about, I think there's really an ancestral thing about sitting around the fire and telling storytelling, you know, but and that's how we used to teach people, isn't it? By storytelling. And I love that concept, and I think it's ingrained in women, really.

SPEAKER_01 13:28

I think we do love storytelling. I had a friend here that I've known for 15 years or so last night, and you know, she walks into my house and she's just light and love, and I haven't seen her for over a year, and we're straight into storytelling. Yeah. And then this happened, and then that happened. And the good thing now I see from that is that you know, there's there's always a gem, thinking everything. I think you can find the gem.

SPEAKER_02 14:00

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 14:00

I love to be able to help women to write and articulate themselves. And I think everybody would love to write a book.

SPEAKER_03 14:08

Yeah, I think so too. They say that, don't they? There's a book in all of us somewhere.

SPEAKER_01 14:14

I think that's so true. And if you find like my daughter's husband's grandmother, is so that think about that. My daughter's husband's grandmother. So she's like my mother's age. Um she is the the family are writing down her stories out. She's talking her stories out.

SPEAKER_03 14:36

That's lovely, isn't it? And they're writing an ancient thing, isn't it?

SPEAKER_01 14:43

Well, we we don't do it now.

unknown 14:45

No.

SPEAKER_01 14:46

And I was sat with my mother-in-law who's 80-something, and she said to me, Do you know what I did for work before Mark was born, before we had children? And I did know bits, but I didn't know very much. And so Libby, my daughter, is there listening to grandmother talk about what she used to do for work and and what my mum did because they were together. But we don't know about that.

unknown 15:12

No.

SPEAKER_01 15:12

Because we don't sit around fires and talk and learn from each other in the same way. And I think these books, I like to think that these books are the fire. Yeah. I do think it's an invitation to sit around the fire and listen to stories, read stories. And the interesting thing about women is we can be listening to one story, one woman's story, which apparently is got nothing to do with our life at all. Different age uh concept, subject to what we would usually maybe think about, or our life. And yet there'll be something that they say that resonates, and they go, Oh, okay, I just picked something up there. I now know what to do with an issue in my life, or there's a mirroring thing there. I can see myself that even though that woman is from a different background, different cultural relationships, everything. We see ourselves in other women's stories.

SPEAKER_03 16:20

Yeah. And we resonate with the emotions, don't we? It might not be completely the same facts, but when they talk, start talking about frustration or grief, or we can relate to those. We've experienced those.

SPEAKER_01 16:34

In our own ways, yeah. So there's lots of similarities, I think, with women. And and I started talking to women in groups a long time ago when I was coaching, and I would go to the city, and I would be paid by companies to sit in their glass offices with their corporate women, and we all wore the uniform of the time, which was suits and high heels and shoulder pads. Shoulder pads, well, yeah, shoulder pads, big earrings. And I would sit there and they would tell me their deepest stories. And we would either have tears or raucous laughter. In fact, the CEO of one major utilities company, he was a bit like Alan Sugar. Lovely, lovely man, but quite, you know, people were quite scared of him in some ways. But he was an older man with a grey beard. And we we all got together with about 12 of his top female staff on his floor in a got one of the glass offices, and we were all sat around a corporate table, and one of the ladies said something, and we all were in fits of laughter. We were all nearly on the floor, just as he happened to walk past. And he said to me after see Paul and said, Lynette, can I have a chat? I said, Oh yes. You know, like the big boss is asking for a chat. The CEO, Lynette, can I have your a word? I said, Do I need to worry about something?

SPEAKER_00 18:10

And I said, I don't think so. Well, it's just everybody was laughing.

SPEAKER_01 18:17

I said Yeah, that's kind of what happens when you get women together, but who don't have anything to write, okay.

SPEAKER_03 18:28

Quite concerned about the laughing.

SPEAKER_01 18:30

Yeah, but the nice thing about that is for some re somehow I did get them to leave their business cards, their pay grades, the car they drove at the door. Yeah. When we entered that room, I said, we are women. We're all on the same level. It doesn't remember how sorry, how old you are, how much you earn, what car you drive, what house you live in.

SPEAKER_02 18:54

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 18:54

What job you do, what your title is. We're women. And they just really talked to each other like that.

SPEAKER_03 19:03

Embrace it.

SPEAKER_01 19:04

It was really nice. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 19:07

My um father

Storytelling Across Generations And The Grimoire Idea

SPEAKER_03 19:08

always had amazing stories about his childhood. He was one of 13, and there was always um brilliant tales, and he wrote it down. And now that he's gone, it's lovely to have his writing and in his words and to put photos with it. And it is a lovely, lovely thing to do that and be able to pass on to my kids, their kids now.

SPEAKER_01 19:35

Well, have you heard of a grimoire? Of a a grimoire.

SPEAKER_03 19:41

A grimoire, no?

SPEAKER_01 19:42

Yeah, a grimoire is a book. It's a big book, uh, traditionally, really, of um spells and recipes that a mother would pass down to the child, to the daughter that would pass down to the child, to the next daughter. A grimoire is more of a kind of, I suppose, a witchy spell book, but it's essentially it's the stories, the fables, the recipes, the medicines, the wisdom, all in one thick book.

SPEAKER_03 20:16

I love that name, a grimoire. A grimoire.

SPEAKER_01 20:20

G-R-I-M-O-I-R-E, I think. Grimoire.

SPEAKER_03 20:24

That'll have to go in my book word book.

SPEAKER_01 20:27

Yes. And I bought one in Bali. I saw one and I was there, and Livy, it's this massive book, it's very heavy, and it's recycled paper, it's bound in leather in leather. And Livy didn't look at it and said, Mummy, that's a grim one. So I'm like, darling, you're right, it's coming home with me.

SPEAKER_00 20:51

So I've got it. I haven't written in it yet. It's like this gorgeous, big, thick, heavy book. I dare write in it. I'm like, my writing has to be perfect. And what would I write that is suitable for such an amazing, beautiful book?

SPEAKER_03 21:08

It has to be a good one. I'm having trouble studying it. It has to be beautifully imperfect because life is just not perfect. So I feel like I need a fountain pill or something.

SPEAKER_00 21:21

A grill, a fountain like something.

SPEAKER_01 21:24

I can't use a nick on it. Like a big fire, that's not gonna work.

SPEAKER_03 21:31

Oh no, I love that. I love that idea. Maybe uh well, my dad's book will go down to my kids, so maybe I need to add to that as well. That's lovely. That's a great idea. Yeah. The other thing that I noticed um about your work, and you know, you often and some of your previous um collaborations, often with older women, and like they've started another chapter quite late late on in their lives. And I love That. That's I think there was a a woman there, you know, you talked about an 80-year-old woman who'd gone off traveling, or you know, that sort of you know, slightly towards the end of their time, but you you know, it's a lovely message that it's never too late, is it? It's never too late. Often women have got rid of their kids, they've retired, you know, and that then they've got the time and space to do something completely new.

SPEAKER_01 22:29

Well, I'm gonna tell you about Sally. So if she ever listens to this, but she might well do, because I'll tell her talking about that. Sally has been on many, many, many sister circles with me, and she wrote for that book, um, The Women Who Gathered. And as part of the sister circle that we did, we wrote about the state, like the stages of our life. I think I can't remember exactly actually. But she wrote down, she decided to write down everything she'd achieved from 50 onwards. And she was then coming up to 70. She's just over 70 now. And after 50, she trained to be an air hostess and started flying around the world. And and then there was this whole other series of things that Sally did post-50. And I was just approaching 50 then. And I was like, okay, this I want to be Sally. This is who I want to be. She's a great inspiration for and she just keeps going. I mean, she's just opened recently a retreat center in Egypt. Wow. At 70. And so and she's not stuck, you know, she's serving cacao, she's she's running men's circles in the pyramids in Egypt. Wow. She's amazing. So I think we need to see those women. Yeah, we do. And I do get younger women as well. I think the youngest woman who wrote with the women who gathered was probably mid-twenties at the time.

It’s Never Too Late For Reinvention

SPEAKER_01 24:11

Um, the oldest woman I've written with is probably 80 something. So I think it's important that we have the stories of older women, you know, that we talk about it all the time, that they're not on our screens. You know, we have Emma Thompson. She talks about being an older woman on screen. Or we have um The Devil Wears Prada, Mel Street. Yes, yes. She's 70 and is playing a major role.

SPEAKER_02 24:41

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 24:42

She thought she was doing well playing the major role 20 years ago at 50 in the first Devil Wears Prada. She said she never imagined in 20 years' time she'd be able to come back and play her again.

SPEAKER_02 24:55

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 24:56

So she looks amazing on it as well, doesn't she? They all look amazing. That just that's another thing. It's about not aging how you expect the you know, culture expects you to age. We don't need to age into granny sort of look, do we?

SPEAKER_01 25:13

I mean, no, we can express ourselves and they are the the shining examples of like what we can achieve now. What we can achieve. In fact, I've actually just gone on to HRT through going through the menopause. And I went to see the doctor the other day, and it's part of um the Newsom Clinic. I went to the New Synth Clinic um because they are very, very well like uh researched about just the menopause. That's what they work with. And I went there and she was saying that you know, at 50 ish now, when your periods of menstruation stop, that's when we used to kind of wither and die leads away that was the end of our life cycle. We're not producing anymore. As nature goes, we are pretty much it's okay to decline, you're you're gonna leave soon. But we're not leaving soon, we're actually living till 80, 90, 100 years old fairly well, actually, from 50 to 100. So we have like an entire lifetime to do again. Uh and what she was saying is for those who where where HRT works very nicely, it's giving them a quality of life that perhaps is more energetic. That's what she was saying, and that's why I'm trying it actually. But the point is we're living longer and we're living longer well, yeah. With energy, with quality with a different career starting at 55.

SPEAKER_02 26:51

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 26:51

Um, but I mean I started my publishing company formally last year after having done it very informally since the year 2000. So you know, we're we're really only just starting now in our 50s.

SPEAKER_03 27:08

Yeah, I love that. I have just turned 60 and I have just retired from the law, and in my wisdom, I decided to train to be a yoga teacher. I've only dabbled in yoga, in it. I was not, didn't do it every day. And so I've been doing it for three months, and the improvement, I mean, I would when I first arrived at the first weekend, I was terrified because I was thinking I'm really not flexible or physically up to this. Um, but in three months I can see myself improving, and I'm actually quite hooked now, and it's something that I could see myself doing, you know, for the rest of my life. It's and it's a whole, it's not just physical though, um, yoga, it's very spiritual as well, and it's yeah, it creates such a strong family.

SPEAKER_01 27:58

Have you seen um have you seen sword yoga?

SPEAKER_03 28:03

No, sword yoga.

SPEAKER_01 28:06

Oh my god, you have to look up sword yoga. You have to. It's in America, it's not in England yet. I have sent a message to them saying I'm interested in the training. I've never done yoga either. I mean, I was in dancer many years ago, but I have I haven't ever really done yoga. Sword yoga, I want a sword, Natasha.

SPEAKER_03 28:28

You want to be a warrior.

SPEAKER_00 28:30

I like to be Dirga Warrior be a sword and learn how to do the wrist thing.

SPEAKER_01 28:35

Yeah. I wonder if I can do it. I broke my wrist last year. I th I Livy's like, Mummy, you've got to have a strong wrist. Well, I don't know if I can do it, but I want to try. I want sword.

SPEAKER_03 28:47

And that's the thing, isn't it? It's about trying. You don't know if you what you can do until you try.

SPEAKER_01 28:53

No, you really don't. Yeah. Yeah. So I'm with you on the yoga front. Totally.

SPEAKER_03 29:00

So what what's what's coming up for you? What's your next project?

SPEAKER_01 29:05

Well, we're just about to start the writing, of course, of when women need space, but I'm a creative. There's always another project. Just just there. Um, I think this project will come off. I think it will. I'm holding a photo shoot uh the week after next with an amazing group of women, and we're gonna do an underwear photo shoot, and we're gonna talk about the the circuit bits and the cellulite and the thighs and the tummies and the boobs and the it's called the book is gonna be called Unfiltered, and it's about women's relationships with their bodies as we age, yeah, as we go through, you know, past our teens and twenties, and then having children and how that changes our bodies, and then going into menopause and how that changes our bodies and our relationship with it. So we actually have an underwear photo shoot with a very gorgeous group of women.

SPEAKER_02 30:05

Wow.

SPEAKER_01 30:06

And we're gonna be showing the bits that we don't usually show. And um I hope that one of those photos will become the front cover.

SPEAKER_02 30:15

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 30:16

So someone will will likely have their bottom on the front cover.

SPEAKER_03 30:22

That's a great book. That's a great topic though, because we're all very body conscious. And for women, we change constantly after childbirth. Men are poor, it's all about your physical changes that you can see. That's one aspect.

SPEAKER_01 30:39

We have to normalize that.

SPEAKER_03 30:40

Yeah. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 30:42

We have to normalize the fact that bodies change. Absolutely. We have to. There's so many women who are just very depressed and anxious about their bodies, and we have to start talking differently.

SPEAKER_03 30:56

We have to learn that change is a constant. Yeah. That's life, isn't it? That is an absolute life. Like the seasons, nothing stays. A flower doesn't stay blooming beautifully forever, you know. So it's a constant. I love that. That that sounds amazing. So I think it's if it works well.

SPEAKER_01 31:19

I think it will. I think it will work. Well, I haven't advertised it yet as the book. Uh, I think if we if the photo shoot goes well,

New Books On Space And Body Confidence

SPEAKER_01 31:28

how I think it will in my head, I think uh we're going to launch it for the sign-ups in July. And I think we will start writing in either October or November, maybe November. And we will be writing unfiltered about our relationship with our bodies. So that's the next one. Excellent.

SPEAKER_03 31:46

And we'll see this book. The photos.

SPEAKER_01 31:49

Livvy's going to. I've actually got a photographer that I've worked with several times uh in England here, and he's really fantastic at doing this kind of thing. And he's got that an amazing studio with great lighting and a white backdrop and everything that I need. Um, Livy's going to be shooting as well. She's going to be taking the shots of Dan, taking the shots of the lady. She's going to be doing the background shots. Brilliant. So she'll be right there. Yeah. Good for her. She'll be photographing the bits that we won't see of the photo shoot.

SPEAKER_03 32:22

Excellent.

SPEAKER_01 32:23

And I'll probably be photographing her, photographing him, photographing them.

SPEAKER_03 32:28

Well, can I just say I I'm joining you for Sacred Space? I feel more comfortable than that, than unfiltered. I'm just saying. That is that's actually very brave of women to step out and do that, I think.

SPEAKER_01 32:44

I think it's very brave. I put a call out. Does anybody want to have an underwear photo shoot? It's all very, you know, it's very arty. It's not there's nothing, you know, we're here to be positive for the image that's already. Um but in the actual book, nobody will have their photos taken. We will just be writing about our relationship with everybody.

SPEAKER_03 33:05

So great topic, Matt.

SPEAKER_01 33:08

Thank you.

SPEAKER_03 33:09

So um it's been great talking to you, Lynette, but one last thing, and I often ask most of my guests this what's one it doesn't have to be spiritual. I my question was always one spiritual thing you do every day, but it doesn't have to be spiritual. But what's one thing that you do every day that really helps you to stay centered and balanced?

SPEAKER_01 33:32

I think there are two things, and the reason I know that is because I wrote notes this morning about my introduction for the for the book, When Women Need Space, about what I'm gonna say in my introduction. And I think there are two things. One is I meditate every day. Every day, and when I say meditate, I'm sitting for maybe 20 minutes. Sometimes I don't go very deep, like nothing much happens, but I at least get to kind of sit in silence. Other days I go very, very deep, and I could sit there all day. I don't, but I could I feel like I've left my body, and I think I get a great um relationship with my own self through doing that. So that's one. And then the other thing that I've noticed I do, I think every day when I when I can, which is most days, is I get a shower about three o'clock in the afternoon. I work, I get up early, I'm an early riser, I'm very focused in the morning, active on all my projects, organizing everything, writing, and actually by three o'clock I'm pretty shuttered. So I work for myself. So I nip upstairs, I have a hot shower, and I just stand under the shower for a while, decompress, and then usually I put my sluggies on or my pajamas or something, and then I send and I do work in the evening sometimes. Yeah. But often I'm in my pajamas, working online at that point. Yeah. On the sofa, makeup off. So I think those are the two things I do. So the one to get me started in the morning, the meditation, and then to decompress, hot shower, yeah, change of clothes, freshen up. Brilliant.

SPEAKER_03 35:22

Thank you for that. Excellent. It's been brilliant chatting to you. Thank you so much. Um, and good luck with all of your projects.

SPEAKER_01 35:35

Well, you'll know how one of them goes because

Daily Practices For Calm And Closing

SPEAKER_01 35:37

you're good, wouldn't it?

SPEAKER_03 35:38

I will. I will. The listeners will know as well because I'll be telling them.

unknown 35:43

Yes.

SPEAKER_01 35:44

That's going to be out in October. I think October is a good month for that to come out, or being well. It should be out in October.

SPEAKER_03 35:53

We will have to have another chat again when it's out there. I would like that very much. Thank you. That will be brilliant. So thank you, Lynette. Thank you so much for joining the podcast. So if you've enjoyed listening to Lynette and myself, please like and share. You can support the podcast and you can subscribe to the podcast for extra episodes. So thank you very much for listening, and I'll speak to you all soon.