Breaking the Blocks
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Thanks for stopping by! Life is tough, and I think this podcast might offer you some relief. My aim? To inspire you to overcome some of your own blocks through the inspirational, honest, and at times, downright raw conversations with some wonderful guests, not huge celebrities, regular people like you and I. Let’s see how they have overcome the difficulties in their lives and offer you some advice and more importantly hope.
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Breaking the Blocks
Quilting Emotions: Lucy Engles on Art, Therapy, and Creative Resilience
What if your quilt could capture a century of emotions? In this spellbinding episode of Breaking the Blocks, we sit down with the talented quilter and artist, Lucy Engles, to discuss the metamorphosis of her artistic style and the personal journey behind it. Lucy reveals the importance of saying no to regain energy and headspace, and how the pandemic reshaped her creative and professional life. We also explore the intricate balance of maintaining a studio and the pressure that comes with growing a business, offering listeners a fresh perspective on the natural evolution of art over a decade.
The conversation takes an enlightening turn as we explore the intersection of art, social work, and therapy. Lucy shares her unique insights into how the skills needed for art align with those in social work, especially in challenging areas like mental health and substance misuse. Discover the profound impact of her "Vanishing Act" quilt, a powerful visual record of 100 days of emotions and societal events. Lucy’s experiences in art therapy and dance movement therapy highlight the therapeutic potential of creative expression, offering a compelling case for combining her art and social work degrees to benefit mental health.
We wrap up with an inspiring discussion on self-discovery and the courage required to follow one's artistic path. Lucy candidly shares her transition from a prolific quilter to embracing a slower, more intentional process, and her dreams of exhibiting her quilts in art spaces and collaborating with big brands like Adidas. The episode challenges traditional perceptions of quilting and underscores the importance of taking risks, as encapsulated in Lucy's motto, "just do it." Join us for an episode that promises to reshape your understanding of creativity, resilience, and the art of saying no.
Well, hello and welcome back to another episode of Breaking the Blocks. I'm your host, rachel Pearman. It is lovely to have your company. Just to let you know, this will be the last episode of Season 1 of Breaking the Blocks, but don't worry, because Season 2 will begin again in September. We're taking a little breather in August, but of course there are plenty of episodes for you to catch up on from the past few months. So who is my guest today?
Speaker 1:A fantastic quilter and artist called Lucy Engles. I worked with Lucy many years ago because I saw her work, couldn't resist it, asked her to teach with me on Crafty Monkeys and she said yes, she's one of those people who is just so cool. She just epitomises cool. Her work is really beautiful. But her work has also changed over the last few years. I noticed that there was now a softness to the work. The spiky edges were kind of missing in action and I wanted to know why. Turns out that Lucy has made quite a few positive changes in her life. She's overcome some of her own blocks. What are they? Well, if you keep listening, you might just find out. So sit back, relax, and I do hope you enjoy the episode. Lucy Engles my goodness me. It has been years, years since we last spoke, ages. What have you been doing in that time? I'm thinking quilting.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I say no to lots of things.
Speaker 1:It's what I've been doing quilting, yeah saying no to lots of things is what I've been doing. Interesting, interesting. Well, we are going to talk about all of that, of course, in this interview. I'm really looking forward to catching up with you, actually because you and I work together. Do you know?
Speaker 1:I saw this little picture yesterday on Instagram and it was a picture of Olivia and John and John Travolta in greece. And then underneath it was um, john travolta and uma thurman in some movie, where they both look wrecked in this car, and underneath it said, the greece one was 2019, so we're all kind of innocent and kind of happy. And then the next one was going into 24, where we all look like we've been through a car crash. Um, and I, and you know, I looked at and I thought is it just me that really gets this picture, or is it everybody else? Because I don't know about you, lucy, but since you and I work together, I feel like my life, my beliefs, my structure of my life, my, my personal development, everything is just turned upside down. Yeah, what do you think? Because I know you've gone through a lot of changes.
Speaker 2:Yeah, oh yeah. It's totally changed since then. That was back. It was in the panic, the panic modes, the panic six months maybe, when everyone was like, oh, we're all online, let's all go online, and everyone tried new things and was trying to be incredibly upbeat about lots of things. I'd shifted studios and I'd got things up and going and then things were online and I had a studio I could do that in, and then it was a bit overwhelming and then, just as I was getting back into the swing of things, they were like, oh no, we're just gonna, that's your studio gone and I thought don't have the energy. So a lot of this year has been kind of claiming that energy back a wee bit. I'm just saying, actually, I don't have not time for things, I just don't have the headspace. I'm being quite mindful about that. So I've said no to lots and lots of things that were actually going really well, but I just can't, can't deal. I mean, you're a one-woman operation. Yeah, it's hard.
Speaker 1:So so what? How do we? There's a lot. There's a lot, lucy, there's a lot okay. So why have you said no then? Because I know you just said there you said no to lots of things that they were going well, because you haven't got the mind space. So let's go a little bit deeper into that then. So what was it about? I mean, because I think, to say no to things that are kind of borderline not sure if I want to do that is that down the right, and it's quite easy to say no. But if things are going well wow, what's going on there then why have you had to say no? And what can you say? What you've said no to? All the kinds of projects you've said no to.
Speaker 2:Well, I've been doing this 10 years and I think I can believe every 10 years you reinvent yourself and you become someone else. You know that kind of seven to 10 year mark and you just you kind of evolve. So yes, I think that kind of happened 10 years past. I kind of shifted from social work into quilting and that kind of overlapped each other and then I started in the quilting. You put things in place and your business becomes. It becomes a business. You start I was doing the kits and I was adding things and I was adding fabric and I was doing this and the next I was printing my own fabric and doing the quilt patterns, doing all the things, doing the talks, doing the teaching, and that's all fine.
Speaker 2:But you need to have the energy to keep all that up. And I think after the pandemic, and it was fine and business was going great, it was, it was okay, and then just that knock of oh, we're taking away your studio and then you start looking for places to rehouse all these big projects that now you need space for because you need the stock and the place to put them together and all the kind of practical logistics, and rent has quadrupled and rates have gone up and electricity's gone up and you think I don't have the energy to. You'd have to explode the business. It would have to become something bigger. So then there's that moment of self-reflection and then the kind of 10 years has passed and you think hold on, what did I? What was it 10 years ago I wanted to do, and 10 years ago it was do a bit of social work and make art. That was it.
Speaker 2:And quilts happened to be the art form I was drawn to and I thought I'm not doing either. And I'd actually kept being asked to go back to social work. So I'm doing that half time now. I know, I know. So I'm back doing that and it was just perfect timing. They contacted me, they need people back, found the right position, so that's happening and that has freed me up to say no to all of these things. Shut down the kit, shut down the fabric, do all the things. And now we're making art. That takes ages. I've been doing this all all year. The whole year I've been making this, but I have the freedom and the space and I'm not using my creative brain for other things. So that's kind of what's happened this year.
Speaker 1:It's really interesting because I speak to so many quilters who are working and then their quilting is their hobby and I say to them, so what's the dream? And they all say, well, eventually to make it full time. But, as you've just said there, I think if you then become a quilter full time, well, we all have to eat, so you've got to make money. So then you make money from a business and then it becomes business and it's not art and it's not creating. You kind of lose that edge. It's a really difficult balance. It's a difficult balance to scale, isn't it, if that's the right word.
Speaker 1:I feel that with this business, I'm just kind of finding my way. Now. It's like we're doing this podcast, because I've always been really interested in people and obviously you know my background presenting and although this is pushing me to my limits in terms of timings, but I thought, no, this is, this is important to me, it's something I really want to do because I enjoy it, but it is so difficult when it is your business, but that I think, for you to make that move, to go back to that social work, well, I think social work is a it's vastly underpaid and underappreciated for the kind of work that you do, so I think it's really commendable what you're doing. I don't want that to sound patronising. I think it is amazing you've made that step.
Speaker 2:And it's not that I didn't enjoy it, it was just it didn't just become a business either. It's a difficult thing because I did enjoy all of it, but my creative brain was not as creative as it was five years ago and I think my work's more interesting. For me to be able to teach interesting classes, I need to make interesting work, and if you're not having the time to make the interesting work, nothing else follows on from that. Eventually you get to a point where you're just like it's like writer's block, quilter's block, if you like. You know, you know it just doesn't, it just doesn't work. So being able to not worry about money and have that half my week, just I go, I do that job, I've done it before.
Speaker 1:It's quite nice because I'm not using the same part of my brain and, as you say, what happens is well, you take that pressure off having to make money from your art, so now you are just creating for fun and more art is created.
Speaker 2:Yeah so that's yeah well.
Speaker 1:So if ever there was a time to interview you for breaking the blocks, well we're just talking about it. There aren't we? You've kind of broken that block. That block was it? Ironically, that block was working on art full-time. That was the block. That's interesting.
Speaker 2:I just I'm just gonna say no to things I can't. I can't take on you. That's what I felt. I can't take on new things. I have to really be careful. I can't just say, oh, that's fine, I've got the space. It's not that I don't have a studio. I've got a space with a charity in Edinburgh outer spaces who take over empty office buildings, but that's temporary and they can ask you to move out at a moment's notice. I kind of think everything was just conspiring against me and saying you're just squeezing out part of the quilting business and shoehorning me down the art route again.
Speaker 1:Well, you see, I mean, you seem happy, you know.
Speaker 1:So it's obviously the right move do you feel I'm sure I think I know the answer to this, just the way you've been talking there but do you feel, lucy, that the universe or something, what is it? I mean? Sometimes I wonder if it's like, you know, truman's show with Jim Carrey. Sometimes I wonder if we are actually on a big tv set and someone up there is just laughing and they're just moving us around like let's see what they'll do next, let's see. But I feel like we're sent lessons, we're sent tests, but that is when you absolutely grow that that pain and the torment you go through. Do you, do you believe that you can look back at those times and go ah, that's why that happened, because I had to learn that lesson and do that thing yeah, I think so.
Speaker 2:I think so, um, half the problem is remembering it. Isn't it what you've done? But yeah, I think, um, I've always been something. I'll try what some? I'll give something a go. If somebody asked me like, when you came along, says you want to, I'd never talked online, didn't know what I was doing, and I'm like, yeah, why not, let's see how it works. And actually it just I think anything, anything. At that point I would have just been this is too much, this is too much. Right at the beginning of the pandemic, I was like, yeah, it's fine, you know, like part of my social work training kicked in. It's all right, you know we'll manage that. But there comes a point where you burn out from it, and I think that's what happened. Yeah, later on in that year I can't remember what I was answering.
Speaker 1:I can't remember either. It was about the universe. Do you believe the universe sends us lessons to learn from and then, and we end up with our soul's true purpose, really, which for? You seems to be the social work and the creativity. I'm interested to how those two are linked. How are they? Do you think they're linked, do you? Yeah, yeah, okay, how are they linked?
Speaker 2:the type of person is that does goes to art school, is generally quite open-minded. You have to be a good problem solver. You're very accepting of whoever in society um, you don't really judge. And artists I can't remember who it was that did the quote about how artists are like most dangerous of people because they can slip into any class level. You know you can go into like the highest of classes and just go.
Speaker 2:I'm an artist and you kind of you get away with it. So I think there's that kind of acceptance within artists and creative people in general that they're non-judgmental and that is the crux of social work. That's it. I always kind of worked in substance misuse and kind of mental health area. So I think you have to be quite creative in your approaches to how you work with people. And also there is the therapeutic what's the value of artwork and mental health and all that. You know they just kind of sit side by side and they seem very separate, but they're not. They're not and I think it is the type of person you are rather than anything else.
Speaker 1:I think one thing that is incredible about social workers and people who work in my area and you must be, you must not be this.
Speaker 1:To be able to do it, lucy is to not be judgmental, because you will see a lot of stuff. I mean, my mother-in-law used to be a nurse within the social care system and she saw a lot of abuse and I used to say to her how did you not want to pick up the person who was doing the abusing and, you know, grab them by their shirt, whatever you know? And she said it was very, very difficult. And she, you know it did affect her with her own children, because I think she used to look at her own children and think do you not know how lucky you are? So in a way, she was kind of quite a little bit harsh at times with her own children because it was like she was seeing this other side of life. It was very difficult for her to deal with on an emotional basis. So I think for you to take on that that's quite incredible. You must be so non-judgmental as a person. Well, you have to.
Speaker 2:Part of your job is to make judgments. That's the thing to make judgments about, whatever situation, because everyone has prejudices, their stereotype, and I think being aware of them and aware of your pre-conceived ideas is half the battle to not being judgmental. You know, it's not that kind of first reaction. It's like, oh, I think that, being self-aware enough to go, oh, I'm thinking this because of a past experience I had, but that's not this person, you know. And just taking a little step back, it's training, though.
Speaker 1:You still have to make judgments, but they're based on on evidence. Yes, yeah, yeah, you know, let's talk about your art then, lucy, and in terms of so you've said that now it's kind of opening this creative avenue for you. I mean, there's two things I one I'm interested in. Would you ever go down, do you think, the art therapy route where you're combining the two?
Speaker 2:I actually did a part-time so maybe a year long part-time course in art therapy, so it was. I had to try them all and, weirdly, dance movement therapy was the best one and I am not a dancer, not a mover, so that was the other option. It was either I was going to be an art therapist or a social worker and actually there was less jobs as an art therapist and it was my plan b.
Speaker 2:It was my backup. I've often thought about art psychotherapy, which you need an art degree and a social work degree for, yeah, which you have. So I have those um and that would be a route that interests me, but it's training.
Speaker 1:I don't know if I want to again, but that area does really interest me, really interest me so how is this new soul's purpose, this path that you've put yourself on, that you felt you should have been on 10 years ago? How is that affecting your work then? Because I was always drawn to your work. You know, as I said to you, I just look on Instagram. If I see something I like, I'll reach out to the person and say will you teach it? I still do that.
Speaker 1:I did it with Ben Millett the other day. I had a lovely chat with him. I really love I mean I, as I said to you at the time, I really like modern art. So I loved what you did because it was so crisp, clear. But there's a real cool edge to you. There is a cool thing about you that I've never heard about me, but you know, you are just. I just see you as a cool person. You've got yes, get in. But when I look at yours you know obviously we've got the dots behind you there, the circles and, can I just say, the quilt that your children held up on the wall.
Speaker 2:Oh yes, vanishing Act, that is just an amazing piece, that's my perimenopause quilt. Menopause quilt Angry, really angry.
Speaker 1:Wow Okay, that's interesting because there is a lot of spiky things in there Very spiky, wow Okay, wow Okay. Okay, I'll put a picture of that in this chat.
Speaker 2:I like it. I like it. Yeah, I had an open studio and I was hanging that up and I was talking about a naive melody, one which was the lockdown quilt, the kind of sister quilt to that, the first one, and then the next one and it's another 100 day project and I think seven days into that the boring Ukraine started. And you know, I just thought I don't have the emotional energy to put that in a quilt. So, anyway, so I kept doing it for um, because it's a record, it's a kind of visual record of the 100, whatever happens in 100 days.
Speaker 2:Anyway, as I was going along, we realised the old, I started HRT basically, and I was like, oh my God, this is what's been going on for this whole time. It was just so angry and I was like I cannot go for another thing. I mean, I think that's also, I think, part of this whole 10 year, 10 year cycle and the kind of shift into the next phase of my life. Um, but vanishing act and part of that is why it's called vanishing act we all women seem to kind of vanish into middle-aged and you know I'm not.
Speaker 1:Yes, yes, how dare you? I know, do you know? That's a whole other podcast in itself right there. But yeah, no, I it is such a difficult transition. I mean I do apologize to the men now who are listening, but we have got a lot of sensitive men listening, so it's fine, um, but it's very true that it is a very difficult time for you because I think, just purely from a physical point of view, you know, there is something that has has been there all of your life this fact that you can have children, or if you're lucky enough to be able to have children and you've had children, I have and then that's like taken away from you and it's almost like you feel like someone is going right, we're going to take a big chunk away from you, and do you know?
Speaker 2:Oh, it's freeing, though it's freeing, I've enjoyed it. I was just like wow, great Done, really.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I don't know what it. Do you know? Do you know for me what my problem was? It't the losing the childbearing thing? Uh, because I was. I'm very pleased to have had the one, and she's now 18 done job done for me, it's the societal you know you sort of vanish, because I think we're all about youth and beauty.
Speaker 1:Beauty is youth was not, you know but also as a, as you say, as a woman. It's kind of like losing your power, somehow, like you say, vanishing, disappearing from society. What's your use now? What's your use? You don't have children anymore. Your face is full of wrinkles, you know. Boobs have dropped 15 inches from where they were.
Speaker 2:What is the point of you, which is?
Speaker 1:so wrong yeah.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I'm just going to say and then some women are going to get this, but fortunately I have had my GP. Surgery is amazing and the nurse practitioner I work with is amazing. But I've had the confidence to go and say this is what's happening to me and I'm ticking all these boxes, so we're going to try this and if it doesn't work then it's fine. So I think I have gotten early. I have nipped it in the bud and had not had as bad experience as others have, even trying to convince them to entertain the idea that that might be happening.
Speaker 1:And you're like I'm mid-40s now, you know yep, but all I will say is I'm with you. I mean, you know I I might to change doctors, though, because my doctor, well, I mean all I'll say is he was a young male doctor, and when I went in I said I know, this is perimenopause.
Speaker 2:And I was 43.
Speaker 1:He said to me it can't be the menopause because you're 43. I said no perimenopause. And he went there isn't a perimenopause. At which point I left that surgery, I know I.
Speaker 2:At which point I left that surgery I know, I left the surgery. Good for you, good for you, yeah. So that's what that quilt's about, that's it.
Speaker 1:I'm going to go back and look at that quilt in more detail now. I love it.
Speaker 2:I just made a conscious effort this year to go. No, I'm going to do what I want. And also, I actually feel better. I'm less sore, I have more energy, I sleep.
Speaker 1:Yes, I sleep, yes, I know. Isn't that amazing? Isn't that amazing? There we go.
Speaker 2:But it makes such a difference to your life. Just that little bit of self-care, if you like, yeah.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah. Are you really sensitive now to when the balancing is not quite working? So, for example, if the social work starts taking over the quilting, you haven't got time for the quilting. Or if the quilting starts becoming more important than the? I'm not sure if that happens, but are you aware of that balancing now more than you were in the past, before you made that leap?
Speaker 2:Yeah, I started quilting as a kind of stress relief from to have something else to focus my head away from what was quite an overwhelming. You know, I think five or six years and I think working in that area you can only do five years and you have to. You have to change position, otherwise it really grinds you down. So I started quilting as that kind of stress relief and now I think I have the balance, because I've half and half and I'm very good now at putting it in like compartmentalizing it and say like I go and I'm focused on it for like two and a half days and then I stop and I leave. See, by the time I get home I actually can't remember people's names. I have perfected the skill of just emptying it out and leaving there. As soon as I walk back in the office, it comes straight back and I'm into it.
Speaker 1:So that's handy, yeah yeah, yeah, but that's good. It is that self-development, isn't it? It's that knowing yourself and listening. Do you find that you it's like listening to your inner soul? Do you feel like sometimes there's a voice inside you that says no, no, no, no, hang on yeah it's thinking people don't think enough, they don't sit down and go right, this is what I want.
Speaker 2:How will I get there, what are the steps I need to take to get there and how can I still be happy when I get there? You know, it's that kind of what do I really want.
Speaker 1:But it's also bravery as well, lucy, because I think what you did was a very brave move. I mean, you probably don't consider it as bravery because you think, well, that's what I wanted to do and I did it. But other people go, wow, that's a brave move, that's a bold move, because they would see it as taking a step back from the quilting world. But what you're seeing is as a step forward, because you're able to to put better work out there.
Speaker 2:Quite a lot of the quilters don't produce a huge amount of quilts in a year. They're not churning out a quilt every month, it's maybe one or two, or when you see somebody you know them for a few quilts and that's possibly years of work. So I don't think you have to, and perhaps it's a confidence I have now that I didn't have before. I'm just not running business the same. The business is being an artist and that takes time and that's fine, and maybe you produce two or three quilts a year.
Speaker 1:But you know, what I think is really interesting is okay. So the piece behind you on the wall I could sort of see like a curtain of discs and the wind blowing through them and and then this, these discs going like you know if someone goes like that yeah, across the discs and they also go and that'd be a nice installation winter, yes, but it's all sort of relaxed, chilled, flapping in the wind.
Speaker 1:Your colors are, although you've still still very much got your strong color sense. There's a kind of gradation that goes through it as well. When I was looking at it and that was what came to mind this kind of like wind, soft, like soft little bells that you can hear a beautiful summer's day, someone with their fingers just touching these lovely discs, and there's discs going like that, whereas before, when I looked through your previous work, which is what I saw, you and you've mentioned the spiky, spiky. So we've got strong triangles, strong graphic, and isn't that interesting that that has kind of gone with you.
Speaker 2:this one's a digital manipulation of vanishing at. It is, if you hold them side by side, it's a spotted pixelation of vanishing at. This is like a quarter of it. So yeah, so they're all going to hang together, do you think there is a progression that it's got.
Speaker 1:Oh yeah, Because that's what I feel.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I'm less angry. I'm not as tired. I get more than four hours sleep a night. It has been life changing.
Speaker 1:So what is in the future for Lucy then? What's, what would you now? Knowing what you know, you've got to where you want to be. So what? Now is the next challenge that we need the universe to bring.
Speaker 2:I need the universe to bring, just being able to exhibit work, um, not necessarily in a quilt show, as I've learned in the past, I make quilts, but when you enter a quilt into a quilt show, they're judging you as a quilter and not an artist. Do you know what I mean? It's just different Technically they're judging you rather than aesthetically. It's just different, just about. Yeah, technically they're judging you rather than aesthetically. So probably putting my quilts in different places and seeing what happens and possibly putting on an exhibition, and I would love to collaborate with Adidas, anyone, okay, putting that out there, put that out there, why them? Why them? And not Nikeike? I could you know, I love the colors. I love the colors they use. I love the colors, the tracks, it tops. I love the 80s 70, just really nice, love it. Every time I see one it's just like oh, that's nice, yeah oh well, we'll put it out there.
Speaker 2:Now, that's it.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I know yeah, I think of. I think of like a bright yellow when I think of um ideas or ideas. You know that popping yellow and.
Speaker 1:I, and I think it is interesting, like you say, I was saying last night to someone about this quilting world that I inhabit and I said I think people do instantly think, oh, you must be hanging out with 80-year-olds with lap quilts on their knees. There's nothing wrong with that, there's nothing wrong with that at all. But I do think the quilting world has completely or is transforming and is shifting now, and there are so many amazing artists out there.
Speaker 2:I don't see you as quilters, I see you as artists yeah, totally changed and their stuff, um, maybe about five or six years ago I was making small color studies and they were English paper quilt prints. I called them and I did this whole series of quilt prints. People were not. I don't know if they were ready for them. I couldn't sell them at the price they should have been sold. And now I kind of see people selling framed textile pieces and it's almost like they've accepted that that is an art form. Yeah, whereas when I did it they were like, oh yeah, I can do that. And I and I'm like, well, you didn't, you know you didn't.
Speaker 1:This is what I said last week to Cindy Grisdella. We had the exact same conversation. I remember this is the thing about modern art. I remember going to a gallery with I took my dad to a gallery I think it might have been the Tate or something and there was an exhibition on and I can't remember who it was.
Speaker 1:It might have been tracy emin or something, I don't know but it was some artist and in the middle of the floor, I mean we could talk about her bed, she put her mattress, yeah, but at the middle of the floor for this one there was a pile of bricks and the way the bricks have been placed, the artist had done it and he was, and he wrote a piece about his life, um, breaking apart and and what happened to him. But it was a pile of bricks and I remember dad saying well, I could do that, I could do that, get a wheelbarrow and chuck some bricks in with yeah. The thing is, I turned around and I went, but you didn't did you. That was my exact response, but you didn't did you. Yeah and yeah, and that's the thing. So what is art? Do you think it's in all of us, lucy? Do you think we can all create it?
Speaker 2:Oh yeah, everyone's creative, everyone's creative. Some people just spend more time doing it in practice and think about it and want to do it. Some people hate doing it, but you know it's either either I don't know baking or telling stories, or singing or dancing, or like it's all part of that um, expressing yourself package, uh. So yeah, everyone can do it in some way.
Speaker 1:Why did what? Why do you think people choose not to do it or tell themselves they're not creative? Because you have heard that millions of times oh, I can't do that, oh I'm not creative, oh, I'm not. Do you know what? I even said it at the beginning of my business oh, I'm not the creative and I'm deeply creative. I think I was just overawed by all your talent. You know people like you coming out and actually doing it. Um, but what is it when, when someone you meet, someone who says, oh no, I'm not creative, I'm not creative, what is it? Why have they, why are they saying that?
Speaker 2:oh, it's confidence. Generally, you find out it's. Someone made a comment when they were five, you know, um, or they didn't color in the lines. That's the, that's the common one, um, I don't know. It's just that, maybe just recognizing what creativity actually is, maybe people aren't creative, but maybe they're very good at other things. Maybe they're very good at athletes or moving or you know. But even with that, I suppose you have to be creative with how you train yes, yeah, that's how you bend at the block and set off. Yeah, and which?
Speaker 1:rhythm and then how quickly the body comes up. Exactly, yeah. So what frightens you, lucy? Is there anything that frightens you about the future?
Speaker 2:No, I know I love it. Honestly, I can't, yeah, I can't, yeah, I can't Off the top of my head. I think I've just made my life really easy in this past year. It's almost. I'm kind of it's like normally at this time of year I'm like, oh right, I need to start, can I take some time off? You have to launch back into January full steam ahead to make sure you stay ahead for the. And now I'm like, oh, this is nice and it's just so. Yeah, I'm kind of enjoying it. So no, I mean, there's the usual ill health or natural disaster or war, you know, but they're big things that generally you can't control. So why?
Speaker 1:that's good. I like this Lucy. I mean, I like the previous Lucy, but I like you. There is a lot less stress. Exactly, I did see the stress.
Speaker 1:I did see the stress, but it's lovely to see you know the change in you and and how relaxed you are now and still loving what you do, and I'm still loving what you're doing and seeing that change in your work as well. So on a final note then, lucy, I always ask this question. I always ask this question what is a motto of yours? If you have one, what is your motto?
Speaker 2:it is ever since. Um, I did my social work training and you just had to get on and do it. I think that has been it. It's like just do it, just do it. What is the worst that can happen? Just try it out, you can always just say no, yeah, you know, just do it. Yeah, just do it.
Speaker 1:Nothing's that bad generally which, ironically, is the the tagline for nike and not adidas.
Speaker 2:I know any sports brands are welcome, as long as they do that pleasure we are.
Speaker 1:Well, I'm happy that you're happy and it's lovely to see and I look forward very much to seeing you just do it. Yes, let's see what comes out of the new Lucy Engles, who is still so cool, so cool. Thank you, it's been lovely talking to you.
Speaker 2:Thank you, lucy Nice, speaking to you as well, thank you.
Speaker 1:It's been lovely talking to you. Thank you, lucy. Nice speaking to you as well. Just before you go, lovely listener, can I ask you a favour If you have a friend who you think would enjoy listening to this podcast, would you mind please telling them about it?
Speaker 1:It helps me to spread the word and, you never know, they might get a life lesson out of it or, at the very least, just have a lovely 40 minutes of relaxing time for themselves. The second thing to say is that if you have enjoyed this, it would really help me if you would give me a little quick like or a comment, especially if you're listening on one of the podcast platforms. It just means that when anybody lands on the page, they can see that people have reviewed it, they've liked it, enjoyed it and got something out of it. So if you wouldn't mind leaving me a review, that would be amazing. And the final thing to say is that if you are a business and you're thinking how do I get my message out there, well, you could do it on this podcast. All you have to do is reach out to me, rachel, at breakingtheblockscom. The details are below in the box. Thank you so much to everybody for listening and enjoying and saying the lovely things that you're saying. Thank you,
