How She Turned Childhood Trauma into Creative Healing | Jenny Siddall

A single moment can shape a lifetime… but it doesn’t have to define it.

In this deeply human conversation, I sit down with Jenny Siddall, mom, creative, and performer from Nova Scotia, whose story moves from childhood trauma to a grounded, hard-won peace through art, music, writing, and play.

Her philosophy is simple: keep running. Not to escape, but as proof that you made it, and you still get to choose what comes next.

In this episode, we explore:
 • Healing trauma through creativity (art, music, writing, play)
 • Why creative expression works when words fall short
 • Inner child healing and reparenting yourself
 • Letting go of “being too much” and embracing emotional truth
 • How trauma can live in the body (tension, stress, feeling stuck)
 • Simple, real-life routines for hard days
 • Building confidence through small creative acts
 • Why releasing others’ opinions is a powerful form of self-respect

If you’ve ever felt like your emotions were something to manage instead of something to understand… this conversation will shift that.

Your feelings aren’t the problem.  They’re the message.  And maybe, just maybe, they’re pointing you home.

Connect with Jenny:
Facebook Group:  https://www.facebook.com/groups/852791401722063 

Facebook:  https://www.facebook.com/jennifer.robicheau.5          

 TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@jennaysiddall

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After you listen… what’s one small creative thing you’ll try this week?

If this conversation stirred something in you… good. That’s where change begins.

Make sure you’re subscribed, share this with someone who needs it, and if you’re ready to tell your story, step into your voice, or build a life that actually feels like yours… You’re in the right place.

I’m Julie Fairhurst, and this is where stories turn into power.

Go to my website if you would like to be a guest on the Women Like Me Stories & Business in the toolbar click Let's Podcast

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Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:16

Hi everyone, welcome to another episode of Women Like Me Stories in Business. I'm your host, Julie Fairhurst, and I have a very interesting, wonderful lady with us today. And I hope that you tune in because she has dealt with some stuff in her life, but she's found all sorts of ways to deal with it. And so you just may learn something from her. So let me just uh tell you a little bit about her and then we will dive in. Okay, so let me get going. I'm sorry, I lost my track. Okay, here we go. Today's conversation is for every woman who has ever held something inside for too long. I'm joined by Jenny Sedal, and her story is one of resilience, creativity, and the quiet power of healing from within. Jenny didn't just move through trauma. She found ways to express it through art, through music, through writing. And in doing so, she discovered something many of us forgot along the way that healing isn't about becoming someone new, it's about reconnecting with who you were before the world shut you down. Jenny, thank you so much for being here. I appreciate it so much.

SPEAKER_00 1:37

Thank you. And the way you describe that was like, oh, thank you.

SPEAKER_01 1:44

You're welcome.

SPEAKER_00 1:46

So do you want to tell us a little bit about yourself, where you're located? And uh well, I'm located in the lovely province of Nova Scotia. I am a very happy mother of two, a very lucky wife, and I am someone who had a lot of feelings, and then I realized that I could turn them into something. Oh, that's fabulous.

“Keep Running” As A Lifeline

SPEAKER_01 2:15

Yes, perfect. Okay, well, and that's what we're gonna get into. And I'm sure that everybody who's listening is gonna pick up a few little tips for them because you have you do things a little differently, and I love it. I absolutely love it. So we'll jump in. So, Jenny, let's start talking about you and your story. So, when you think about your journey, what does keep running mean to you?

Early Trauma And Learning To Laugh

SPEAKER_00 2:43

Keep running will always bring me back to the comfort and direction I found watching the movie Forrest Gump. I watched that movie, I will comfortably say I've seen that movie 30 times. Oh my goodness. It it was an escape for me. And one thing that I noticed about Forrest is no matter what happened, no matter how people saw him, he just kept going. And all he said was the simple message, and sometimes it's the simplest message that you need. Keep running, you're here. You made it through all that stuff, and it's like the the the more you look back and see everything you went through and realize you're still here, when you start learning the lessons, you learn how strong you have been, and you weren't giving yourself any credit, yeah, yeah. So you kind of like you move through the feelings of sadness and woe is me, right? You need to validate those, right? But once you do and you become friends with them and you show them everything that you can do, because I envision my feelings as like people in my head, which I also love the movie Inside Out too, right? Okay, oh yeah, right, yeah. So that movie really connected to me as well. But like we all keep running, we all work together, and you know, it just the simple message keeps me going. Yes, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 4:15

Can you share a little about your trauma? Just what you're comfortable that you experience, just you know, if you're comfortable sharing anything, just and how it impacted your life.

SPEAKER_00 4:25

Okay, so I have a few different ones. Okay, so this one I don't really tell people a lot, but I think this could be very impactful. So keep in mind before I tell you this, that the people who were involved, yes, they were adults, but as I'm noticing, being an adult that doesn't know how to move through trauma or deal, it can be hard to make decisions, especially when you're under influences. Okay, so just keep that in mind. I've forgiven these people, yes, don't hate them, okay? Yes, but when I was four years old, I was in a situation where we lived with someone who was under the influence of alcohol and drugs, and normally they weren't someone who expressed emotion. So one night they came home late from partying and they were crying. And I came downstairs and I heard, and I was the type of person that if you're crying, I'm gonna cry too. I don't, you know what I mean? I felt it, so it made them upset that I was crying, and they started to yelp me to stop crying. Well, I'm gonna cry more. You're yelling at me, right? So they said, I'm gonna give you something to cry about. And they went into one room and they came back out and they had a shotgun and they pointed it right at my head. Like I could remember, I don't even remember if there was one or two holes, I just remember looking up and it was dark, and I was sitting on my mother's lap, right? And whether or not the gun was loaded, I don't know. But like if it was and it was shot, we all three of us would be dead. Right, and the crazy thing is I'm not afraid of guns. I learned to be afraid of the feeling that made the gun come out. So whenever in future times, even now I have a hard time with it, if I'm crying, I feel like I gotta get out of it, I've gotta smooth it out. So I will laugh myself out of crying. But I've never been afraid of guns. It was the I can't think of the word the emotion that connected it. Yeah, it was like I wouldn't stop crying, it didn't bring us together, it ended up literally putting something between us. So coming through life when people would say it thought like there's a gun pointed at your head, you know how people would say that? Yes, I wouldn't get it's so funny to say the word trigger when you're talking about a gun, right?

SPEAKER_02 7:14

Yes.

SPEAKER_00 7:15

So I didn't get triggered by it because I thought of a gun. I got triggered by it like, okay, I'm gonna make the situation so there never has to be a gun. We're gonna laugh. I'm gonna take you into another completely different direction. So, like me wanting to make people laugh came from that.

SPEAKER_01 7:37

Wow, that's amazing that you can connect that, especially if as a you know, uh when it happens to a four-year-old child, how terrifying.

SPEAKER_00 7:47

Yeah, yes, yeah, and then that was like the same, that was also the same year that I was drunk for the first time. Wow. So what happened was as you can tell, I probably was kind of a hyperactive kid alone. A little kind of hard to get me to sleep. So I would be given a little glass of wine by the grandmother watching me, you know. So one night, I guess I needed a an extra glass, and this is kind of funny. I hope you laugh at this. Okay, so I'm sitting in the living room watching TV. She's got the news on. I'm so excited. Four-year-old watching the news. So she's saying, Jenny, you gotta go to bed. And being as I was obsessed with the movie Land Before Time, I called her a flathead. I said, No flathead. And then I swear to you, the lady on the news stopped her interview completely dead in the middle, looked at me and said, flathead, and then I started to tap on the TV and she comes in, she goes, What are you doing? I said, That woman just talked to me. So then she picked me up and put me to bed. Oh my goodness, how old were you a very busy year?

SPEAKER_01 8:59

Were you four then? Yeah, it was before I started school. Yes, wow, wow, yeah. Well, was there a moment when you realized you needed an outlet to process what you were carrying?

SPEAKER_00 9:15

The the time that I noticed I was needing outlet was in my teens. Because like I've always connected to music, I've always sang, it's always been in me. But it was in my teen years, it was around the year I was 14. That's when my Grammy had gone downhill. Because when I was 10, they told me she was diagnosed with dementia. Because years later, she had been hit by a drunk driver and it sped it up. So sadly, she was taken by dementia at 60, which is insane because that's way too young.

SPEAKER_01 9:50

Very young.

SPEAKER_00 9:51

But like she, where was I going with this? ADHD.

SPEAKER_01 9:59

I don't know where you were going. So you were you were telling us about you were telling us about when you realized that yeah, okay, so because of the dementia, right?

Acting And Art As Therapy

SPEAKER_00 10:10

Yes. Um, she was now in the the the years where she was dying. This was her last year, yeah. And my Grampy was really sick, and they both died within a month of each other. And I felt like okay, I need to do something. So I started to sing more. So I would go in my room and I would put on Celine Dion, and I put my headphones on, and or whoever was in at the moment, Dixie Chicks, I don't know. But like I my first escape was into music when I was younger. Wow. And then that was the only thing I had because in the town I live, there wasn't really any theater or anything like that. Right. So years later, like in my early 20s, is when I moved to the town I live in now when they had theater. Right. And then that's when I was like, I can take all these feelings and use them. Yeah. And put them in another character. Yeah. And so acting, at first, I've always wanted to do it, but I didn't realize how therapeutic it could be.

SPEAKER_01 11:23

Well, you used art, music, and writing. So why do you think creative expression is so powerful for healing?

SPEAKER_00 11:33

Our feelings have a lot to say, and a lot of times the voice, putting words together isn't always easy. I found for the longest time, before I could express myself deeply, I had to sit and think about it for a long time. I couldn't just come out with it. So, which is why I'm surprised that I'm able to do this, because I was freaked out about it, to be honest.

SPEAKER_01 12:00

Oh, you're doing fine. You're doing pretty good.

SPEAKER_00 12:03

But like when you and and this when you stop worrying about what other people are thinking of you, because I find a lot of people are like, Well, I can't do that because they'll say this, or what if they, or what if they think who cares about them? Who are you with 24-7? Yourself, right? So, RuPaul, who I love, says, How can you love anybody else if you can't love yourself? Absolutely, it's very true because you have to decide because we all have this deep thing inside of us we don't deserve love, we don't deserve what we want. Yeah, yeah, you do, yeah. You deserve to be happy because when you're happy, you spread the happiness around everybody else.

SPEAKER_01 12:54

Absolutely, absolutely. Well, what did creating allow you to express that words alone couldn't?

SPEAKER_00 13:03

I found that when I would let the feeling do the talking, I wouldn't worry. I just grab whatever and just let it go and then let it dry and look at it, and the picture would show me things.

SPEAKER_02 13:16

Right.

SPEAKER_00 13:17

So, like I would see a face there. Yes, that's the sadness that I was feeling. That's the turmoil, everything. And you start to learn from yourself, and it doesn't make any sense if you're not doing it. First, you're like, How can I learn from myself by looking at an abstract picture? But you gotta open your mind and not be afraid to get silly with it, too. Because I have found I have had the most wise things come to me when I'm being silly and just playing and carefree. Because you're not giving your brain the pressure of trying to look for a solution, yes, right? Yes, so it kind of frees it up. You when you have too many thoughts in the way, it's kind of like here is the solution, and you're just putting all these thoughts in the way, and it's like I can't get to you if you keep doing that. Well, you can't even see it. No, it's oh you end up blinded to it, yeah. Yeah, so I found the more I started creating and seeing that I could take these feelings and manipulate them into something else, and it made me feel powerful, then I had confidence. So now instead of feeling like the feelings are just showing up and sitting on me and weighing me down, I envision the feelings more. I turn it into being a compass. So, why am I feeling this way? Which way should I go? Am I is doing this making me feel better or making me feel worse? No, try something else, right? All I want to do is supply people with things that work for me and see if they work for you. You gotta try more than one thing, right? Yes, yeah. You might not like painting, you might like cutting stuff up and making collages, you might like working with wood, yes, throwing darts. I love playing darts.

Creating Without Fear Of Judgment

SPEAKER_01 15:15

I love playing darts, I'm a dart player, yes. Oh, I love it. Yeah, so you talk about connecting with your inner child. What does that really mean?

SPEAKER_00 15:27

Well, little Jenny went through a lot and like my parents were there, but they had there they were young and trying to figure things out themselves, right? So I felt I could go back and reparent myself. So whenever a situation came out that was traumatic, I would imagine grown-up me being there and being like, it's okay, come with me, let me show you something. We make it through this, it's okay. I'm getting chills, but you don't, you're not alone.

SPEAKER_01 16:14

Yeah. Absolutely. No, that's okay. No, no, of course, of course, no, and and there's so many people uh out there that feel the way you do. Absolutely, you're making me all choked up, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 16:32

And it's like if you don't know how to do it inside, if you have kids, yes, do what little you would have wanted, yes, be that, don't go back to well, I didn't have this and da-da-da-da-da. Who cares? Yes, did you like not having that? Yes, right. No, yes, you didn't. Yeah, so imagine little you next to your kids receiving that.

SPEAKER_01 17:03

Oh my goodness, now you're gonna make me teary eyes.

SPEAKER_00 17:06

Like, I moved around a lot when I was a kid, like I'm I moved around like 16 times. Wow, right, and the house I live in now, I've lived here for over a decade. That's a win. Yeah, my my kids. This sounds terrible because I love my mom and I'm not ashamed. But my kids have the same father, we all have the same last name, we haven't moved around a thousand times. They have parents that are together and like show an example of loving and being there for each other, yeah. Like my husband and I, we sing together, we do theater, we there's so much art in our house and creativity that I feel rich.

SPEAKER_01 17:54

Yes, I think I think that's so beautiful that you said that, and you know, I love how you what you didn't have, what you and and you understand that, and you're not and you're not angry or judgmental, it's just you know, generational trauma. Your parents, my parents experienced generational trauma, our grandparents experienced it. And so I'm just like you, I don't hold any anger to that. They they could only deal with what they were dealing with, and sometimes it wasn't very great. But now, when we know, that's when it gives us the opportunity to change that, like you and your husband did, and like I was able to do. And and now my kids are better, and now I have got like amazing grandkids, they're better than any of us, and so and so it's that whole, you know, that whole chain. But I think, I think understanding that, you know, it's not, I don't know how to explain it, it's not, you know, you just have to accept you're never gonna have a better past, but you can have a better future and you can give your family a better future. And I think that's that's the that's where I come from it with. So yeah, yeah, yeah. So what I yeah.

Reparenting And The Inner Child

SPEAKER_00 19:18

Sorry, go ahead. You go ahead. No, no, you go ahead. Well, I just find that if you be what you want to see, right? Yes, sometimes you just have to be that yourself. So I say this because when I was a little kid, I used to watch the cartoon care bears, and I was a little kid innocently thinking if you call the care bears, they're gonna show up. But when I realized they weren't real, I didn't get upset about it. I was like, well, maybe it's because I should be a care bear, I can do that. So when I was around anyone, even when I was a little kid, right? If you could ask my mom, she'd tell you. If somebody was in a sad mood around me, it was my mission to go over and bring them some sunshine. Yes, like when when I make people laugh, it's like it's like you're giving me a diamond ring. It's like what clapping does for Tinkerbell, it gives me life. So why do I want to use entertaining people, right? Because when I entertain you, okay, and you're laughing, that's medicine. Yes, medicine is laughter is like Uncle Albert from Mary Poppins, my inspiration floating up to the ceiling, yeah, and letting people know that they have the ability to have that impact too. Yes, yeah, right?

SPEAKER_02 20:56

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 20:57

Well, how can women begin to reconnect with their inner child if they don't feel or if they feel completely disconnected? Like, how do you how does somebody start to connect back with their inner child?

SPEAKER_00 21:12

Quick tip I do is I have a few pictures up where I can see them of a younger version of me. So I'll show you what this picture's been through a lot. So this is me as a baby on my grandmother's lap. Oh, beautiful. Look at how happy I was to be there. Yes, I can see that. And like when you have a feeling of doubt or a feeling that's similar to when you were at that phase, yeah, go stand in it and look at it and say, Look at me. You grew up to be me. We have the chance. What do you want to do today? Look at little you and ask her, or what do you want to do today? What did you want to do that we didn't get to do? And it could be something as simple as painting a picture, go buy a jump rope and skip in your living room, whatever. Like, do what little you would have wanted to do. It's okay. To be silly, the best thing you can do for yourself is be silly.

SPEAKER_01 22:20

I agree. I agree. We're all too wound up and tight.

SPEAKER_00 22:24

Yeah. And it's like, I'm gonna just one second, I'm gonna show this. So here's what you can do when you're not worrying or getting lost in your feelings or worrying about what other people think of you, okay? You can make a book with your kid. Okay. You can make a book, you can write a play with your kid. Oh you can just write a play to help you get through the fact that you lost your father-in-law, who was like one of the best people that ever existed, right? You can you can take your anxiety and say, What are you feeling today? and make something out of it. Yeah. Okay, your feelings aren't there to weigh you down. Okay, they're there to point you into the direction of where you need to go. And because I've nursed and learned from my feelings, I can trust my judgment now. Okay, so when I'm around somebody and the vibes are off, and I'm seeing seeing patterns from people in my past who hurt me, my aquariousness kicks in and I'm out of there. Cut you off. I'm done. I don't have time for energy vampires. I don't have time for people who take joy in messing with you or trying to put things up. Obviously, they have stuff they need to work through. Yes, and if they have that many walls up, I ain't got time today, I'm not in demolition. I got stuff to do.

Small Ways To Reconnect Daily

SPEAKER_01 23:59

Exactly. Exactly. So, what happens when trauma stays trapped inside the body or mind?

SPEAKER_00 24:08

100%, you get sick. Your body has what are these people that go to the doctor and they can never find out what's wrong with them? And when you talk to them, how often are they complaining? Why is me the world? Is this everyone's out to get me? Da da da negativity is one of the worst things you can put in your body, like sugar, it's bad. Yeah, yeah, and you know, the I have felt okay, so I have endometriosis, yeah. I started dealing with my stuff, I started doing this. My cramping and all that stuff, it barely even happens. I actually find I have more energy when when Aunt Flo comes to town, you know? And it's like I can't for me, it's undeniable that when you're holding on to stuff like that, yeah, where is it gonna go?

SPEAKER_01 25:11

Well, it makes complete sense, Jenny. Absolutely, be because I've always I've always thought we stuff everything down, but eventually it's gonna come out, and it's gonna come out somehow, and usually that's through the body, yes. And I yeah, I I believe that it's that when we're not dealing with things, you can't not deal with it because your body and your mind says, Oh, well, you'll deal with it like this. It's like you're gonna either, you know, you're the God says here you go, time to fix yourself.

SPEAKER_00 25:46

I'm giving you a choice. I'm giving you a choice, okay? Yeah, you can either let your feelings create disease, yeah, or you can create one of these, yes, or yeah, no, or you can go to dance class, workout, like whatever makes you feel like you're your baddest self, whatever makes you feel like you're flying. Do that, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 26:10

And we're just and and we are responsible for our feelings, you know. Again, we've all had had unwelcome gifts handed down from generations to generations, but that doesn't mean that that we're victims, it just means that you know we we we all have things. So taking responsibility for ourselves and the way we feel, and I agree with you. I think negativity is just the the worst, just absolutely the worst. Yeah, did you ever feel resistance or fear when you started expressing your pain creativity with your creativity?

SPEAKER_00 26:53

Yes, actually, and it it kind of confused me, but the more I thought about it, it made sense. So you go through life putting a mask on, pretending to be happy, but in the background, you've got all these thoughts, all these feelings, all these memories, all this weight, and then you get home and you can't even barely do anything. All you want to do is cry, right? You have those sit in yourself by your room and just cry so hard, right? Yes, and you're just like, okay, finally, I I got to do something else. I can't keep doing this because I don't feel good. And when I started to do things to not cope with things that way, it felt like I was betraying a friend because those feelings had always been with me, it had always been there, and it it it those feelings come to you quicker than the than the positive ones. You ever notice that?

SPEAKER_01 27:55

Yes, they do.

SPEAKER_00 27:56

Yeah, yeah, it's like they're sitting there waiting for you. She's down, let's get her, right? And I was like, okay, you guys got to stop. Yes, I literally like referencing inside out again. I picture my feelings in my head as different people, yeah. Sometimes I narrate my life with uh Samuel L. Jackson to get me through it, you know. Yeah, but like yeah, once you confront them and say, listen, if we're gonna get through this life, okay, we're gonna do a different system. So instead of making disease, instead of making more knots in my back, instead of putting more knots in my hips, okay, because I like walking, leave me alone. Yeah, let's make art. Let's okay, this this is a perfect quote that I found, and this is what I want to do because my main goal in life, my biggest dream to fulfill is to be an actress. But that would be cool to make a living doing what your joy is. But while I'm doing that, I want to do this. Jimmy Carter. Okay, I found this because I was making a vision board, and it says, one of the things Jesus taught was if you have any talents, try to utilize them for the benefit of others, and that's what I want to do.

SPEAKER_01 29:23

That was Jimmy Carter said that Jimmy Carter, yeah. Love that.

When Trauma Shows Up In The Body

SPEAKER_00 29:27

So I like I've not heard that quotes and stuff, and it's like whether you believe in Jesus or whatever the religion is, I'm an omnis, I find truth in all of them, babe. Yeah, they all have the same message, yes, we're all here together, yes, and I actually wrote a poem about that that I want to turn that into another book, but it's how the earth, when it was first formed, it was all one giant chunk of land, man. Yeah, imagine if tectonic plates never existed, we'd still be one giant piece of land, yes, yeah, yeah, and I think the true thing of everybody here is we're supposed to act like it was never separated, right? Because it's the same thing over and over and over again. Mine, mine, mine, mine, mine, mine, you, you, you, you, you. Yes, we babe. We yes, yeah, oh, for sure. Absolutely. I agree. I did DNA, I did an ancestry DNA, okay? You won't even believe this. Okay. I've got Greek in there, okay. I've got Colombian in there, yeah, and Iberian. Oh, yeah, okay. And I also got German and Irish, so that explains why I can't tan, right? But we're we're all from everywhere, we're all connected to each other, yes, and it's literally been repeated over and over and over. We're always against each other. Yes, and what you're doing here with sharing the women's story, because it's usually women who are hardest on other women, yes, and I like the fact that this is turning it around, yes, yes. Oh, thank you. Because we gotta stop competing with each other, yes. We have totally different vibes to give, yes, totally different things to offer.

SPEAKER_01 31:28

Yeah, we can all learn from one another, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 31:32

And if we like come together and collab, that's like way better. Yes. So I saw what you're doing with these books and stuff. I'm like, she gets it. Aw, thank you. I appreciate that.

SPEAKER_01 31:43

Yeah, so how do you keep moving forward on the hard days?

SPEAKER_00 31:51

Well, now I pretty much have a canvas on the go all the time. So whatever my feelings are, I go grab the colors that I feel like doing, and in between chores, I work on that. Of course, music is a big thing, yes, which is why I started doing a little radio show in the community to share songs that I listen to when things are hard. So, like Let Go the Line by Max Webster, that song, Let Go the Line, and it's like uh there's like so many songs that I could list, I could go on forever. Yeah, but music is big, and of course, if you got a feel-good movie, escaping the story. Yes, I've escaped in movies most of my childhood, which is why acting is so big to me. Yes, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 32:45

What changes have you seen in others when they start expressing themselves with their own create creativity?

Resistance To Healing And New Habits

SPEAKER_00 32:54

More of a lightness, like a bounciness. I notice bounciness because I always always called myself a bit of a tigger, you know what I mean? Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. And just like a more confidence in them, like it's just nice to see. You can see it in their eyes. It's bright. Yes. Like you don't you don't want to look at somebody and see that the sad in there. Yes. And if they have it, I mean, talk to me if you want to. I've had complete strangers open up and talk to me. Yeah, and I love it. You needed to say it, I'm here, babe. What do you need to say?

SPEAKER_01 33:37

Yeah, yeah. If if someone's just beginning their healing journey, where do you think they should start?

SPEAKER_00 33:47

That is a good question. If you want to heal, go do something that makes you feel. I'm not gonna, I'm not gonna try to rhyme because that happens sometimes.

unknown 34:02

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 34:05

Whatever makes you feel happiest and carefree. Like if you're someone who likes to escape in a video game, imagine whatever your trouble is is the objective. So if it's like, I don't know, Call of Duty, you know, yeah, use the aggression in the game to be whatever the problem is. Imagine your problem is the dart board and throw the darts at it. Yeah, like start small. You could even write out writing out what you feel is good too. Yes, if you don't mind writing, don't think, just do. Yes, don't think, just do. That's it. That's where you gotta start. Sounds simple.

SPEAKER_01 34:42

Yes, it does sound simple, yeah, but it is, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 34:46

I started doing it what was it, three years ago, and now I have so many paintings and everything all over my house. Yeah, I need a lot of therapy.

SPEAKER_01 34:55

How can women give themselves permission to feel without judgment? Or how do you do that?

SPEAKER_00 35:02

How can we do that? Biggest thing is because as much as people say they don't care what people think, they're always in the back of their mind caring what people think. You don't need to care what people think because in the end it doesn't matter. This sounds harsh, but they could be dead tomorrow. What's their opinion gonna do then? Yes, yeah, nothing, yeah. So when you stop asking for permission, wherever that comes from, and do what feels right to you, obviously, as long as it's not hurting anybody, but it's like if you like to go for walks and dance periodically on the sidewalk, do it. There's a song Big Hit dancing in the street, people should start dancing with you. Yes, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 35:49

I I heard um I read somewhere years ago, which has really stuck with me. And it's and it what what this person said is while you're worrying about what people think of you, they're worrying about what you think of them, so we're all just caught up in this ridiculousness.

SPEAKER_00 36:09

Yeah, I'm just like I'm ridiculous on purpose, yeah, yes, I'm always out for a good time. And if I'm entering the room, be prepared to laugh. We're gonna have a good time. But I wanted to do this because I usually have not the best time being vulnerable. I always like to laugh out of crying, yes, yes, and I I had been talking to my mom about sharing my story, and then your ad came up on Facebook, and I heard the voice say, This is where you need to go. Arrow, arrow, arrow.

SPEAKER_01 36:52

Yeah, yeah. Well, you know, don't be afraid, babe, just do it. Yeah, yeah, yeah. If your inner child could speak to you today, what would she say?

SPEAKER_00 37:03

How did you get such a hot husband? No, she would say, I'm just kidding. She would say, Um, wow, I can't believe you actually had kids because I I was afraid to have a family. I thought I would screw them up. Aw. Right? Because I but now I little Jenny would say, You're don't cry, you're a great mom. You're you're doing what we wanted to do. Little Jenny saw a four-year-old in an Elvis Presley movie, and she thought, kids can act too. I want to do that. Yeah, yeah. So at 40, not four, I'm going for it, but I've had her doing theater for the past over a decade now. Wow, wonderful. We're making dreams come true.

SPEAKER_01 37:59

Yeah. What message do you want every woman listening to walk away with?

SPEAKER_00 38:07

You're worth it. You are definitely worth it. You deserve to go back in time. You're your child, your inner child deserves it. She's waiting. Yeah, she's sitting there waiting for you to help her come to this day. Yeah. Because the the more and more those feelings come back and those thoughts come back, that's her saying, hey, I'm stuck here. Right. I'm getting chills. Go get her. Yeah. Yeah. Okay.

unknown 38:42

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 38:43

And I I just, you know, there's so many ways for people to heal in the world. There's you know, intense therapy, there's soft therapy, there's so there it's not like it was when our parents were younger. I, you know, there was there was like shut up, stuff it, and just carry on with the world. But now, luckily, we live in a much more open society, and and and we all understand generational trauma, we understand about healing ourselves, and and yeah, I I think that it's um we're in a good place.

We’re Connected And Women Stop Competing

SPEAKER_00 39:23

We are because more and more people are realizing that yeah, it starts inside. You can't look to somebody else, yeah. Yeah, because in the end, and you have to be ready. If somebody's not ready, yes, they'll listen to this and be like, what are you talking about? Oh my gosh, go away with your woo-woo, whatever, right? That's okay. But the way you're not ready, the seed gets planted, the seed gets planted. Yes, you plant the seed, yes, and like the way I go is I love you until you give me reason not to. I start with love first. Because too many times we approach each other with you know what I mean, like yeah, for sure, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 40:04

And you know, you Jenny, give people the other side of healing, where you know, they can still go and and have therapy and all whatever they feel that they need to have. But I know for myself, because I was in business for many, many, many years, I felt the like I wanted to be creative. I wanted that some sort of a creative outlet. And funny enough, here I am. I've retired two years ago from my real job. And now I what I do is I help women with visibility and with books and and and I help them to heal through writing. And but they can look over at you and you can help and and and they see, oh, not only can I can I go to a therapist or or you know, whatever I need in in that clinical setting, but I can also write stories about my life. I can also, you know, express myself through art, express myself through stage presence. There's just express myself through speaking. There's there's so many ways out there in our society today to heal. And I I just think that and we and we and everybody's different. So for some people, they might look at writing and go never. They may look at what you're doing and go never, and that's okay as long as they find their journey.

SPEAKER_00 41:30

Yes, find the journey. I just want to give you options, ideas, right? Because you could be sitting there like, because I went to talk therapy, yeah, and that was fine. You know, I went for six months, yeah, and then I got that worked out. But I said, I just I need something because I've always wanted to be expressive and create, because when I was younger, we moved around a lot, and I didn't really get the opportunities to do that. That sounds silly, but I didn't. No, I understand. So later on in life, I was like, well, instead of wasting all my energy being stuck in these feelings and worrying about what other people are thinking, I'm gonna take that energy and put it into stuff I've always wanted to do. And in doing that, I learned and healed, and I wanted to have messages in everything that could help someone else heal too. Yes, right? So when you're listening to Happily Ever After Life, it's a story about ghosts and they move on at the end, and it's a story about friendship and how we're connected no matter how crazy the story is. Beam me up Stanley. It's about moving on after someone's passed away and how you can still laugh and live for them, you know.

SPEAKER_01 42:55

You know, as I'm listening to you, I'm thinking I watch TV to zone out. Like that's my that's my like zone out. I like you know, sit in front of the TV set. Sometimes I don't even know what I'm watching, sometimes I get into it, but you live it, you're like jumping into that TV set, you're like on you are like in that story. I love that.

SPEAKER_00 43:16

Oh my gosh, I watch, I put on TV shows in the background, and depending on the mood, if the TV says something and the song pops in my head, I'll start singing it, or I answer back to them, or yeah, because I'm practicing, you know.

Hard Days Routines And Starting Small

SPEAKER_01 43:34

No, I know you are, yes, but I just love that because you do, you just you you just you you take, I remember one time I was on an airplane, I don't remember which flight it was. I've done some traveling, and I watched this movie, and the very end of the movie. Now I can't remember the name of the movie because like I know you could, but and I can't even remember what this what this one scene was, but it moved me so much. Like just that one little clip at the end of the movie that stuck with me for a very, very long time. And I, you know, and I can see that you. And that's part of your who you are, of course. But I think that it's beautiful. So there's so many different ways. I'm going to start watching TV differently. I'm going to start looking for the messages and the lessons that are in those.

SPEAKER_00 44:28

There are so many. And you can watch the same movie 10 times and find a different message depending on where you're at that time.

SPEAKER_01 44:36

Yes. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 44:37

Yeah. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 44:39

Well, Jenny, this has been a spectacular conversation. And I appreciate you doing this with me. I just love your energy. I love your honest, you know, how honest you've been with some of your past and your struggles. And and I know that whoever is going to be watching this, they're going to find, they're going to find some help. I'm going to do something. I've always wanted to try painting. What? Yeah. I but you know, I I've just, it's one of those things I just set aside, but I'm going to do it. I'm I'm excited now. I want to try.

SPEAKER_00 45:10

I can teach you. I can teach you how to turn your brain off. I actually thought about doing like an art therapy class. Oh. And I would have this the easel turned away. And then I would just tell you what I'm doing because everybody interprets things differently, right? Interesting. A class to teach you how to not think.

SPEAKER_01 45:29

I'd be great at that. You would be great at that. Well, let's talk about that. So I want everybody to know that in the show notes, we're going to have information where you can reach out to Jenny. So if you want to find out more about what she does, if you just want to chat, if you want to have a wonderful person's ear just to listen, don't be afraid to reach out to her. She's a lovely lady and full of love and warmth. And she might make you giggle. Oh, I hope as well. Yeah. So thank you again, Jenny, for doing this. I appreciate it very much. And thank all of you for being here again and supporting women like me with stories and business. Take care, everyone. Bye bye.