Let the Verse Flow: Personal Growth Thru a Creative Lens

This affirmation meditation accompanies episode #23 on overcoming overthinking. Along with tools like journal writing, affirmation meditations can help you engage calmly with gentle thoughts meant to return you to more reasoned thought patterns. This may take time, as the mind has to be redirected to these ideas repeatedly. Return to this meditation often to help allow the power of affirmation and...

This episode is on overthinking, those patterns of automatic and often negative thoughts that drain our energy with mostly lies and what-ifs scenarios that never happen. I’ll discuss the differences between rumination and worry (those twin overthinking processes) and touch on automatic negative thoughts as well. Once we can define them and identify our unique patterns of overthinking, we are ready...

This affirmation meditation accompanies episode #21 on cultivating creative flow.  Creative flow, that wonderful feeling of innovation, freedom and creativity, is the ultimate self-care activity. More than that, it is a pathway to finding purpose and meaning in your life, and supports your journey to know yourself and your interpretation of the world around you.  In this affirmation meditation, I&...

This episode is about what we know as children: that play and creativity are the building blocks of a joyful soul. It’s also about what we should carry forward as we live our “grown” lives, an understanding that the impulse for play and creativity still lives inside us, waiting to be unleashed through creative flow.  I’ll explore what creative flow is, how it works, and why we need it, and then la...

This affirmation meditation accompanies episode #18 on keeping your dreams alive.  I believe strongly in the power of setting intentions as a guidepost for taking action to work toward goals and dreams. First, we speak our dreams into existence through visualization and by setting an intention; then, we take action to move toward our dream.  Along the way, we have to adapt, pivot, and grow, but ke...

During my trip to Morocco this past summer, I expected some culture shock; I expected beautiful landscapes, incredible food, and curious interactions with strangers. What I hadn’t thought about was how awakening my spirit and mind to these new experiences would return me to my deeply-held beliefs. That travel to North Africa would reaffirm the way I see the world, and help me contemplate those thi...

This episode is about giving our dreams space to grow and take shape. Dreams can come alive, if we feed them like fires, stoke our internal flames. We keep our dreams alive by: ·   Cultivating a positive mindset ·   Taking small actions consistently to work toward goals Knowing we need these two ingredients is one thing, and doing them is another. In this episode, I'll inspire you to cultivat...

So you've decided to journal or resume a journaling practice. You may be a beginner or an old pro, but you're finding yourself in need of some inspiration. Perhaps some structure and tools to get your journaling off the ground. Why do a 30-day challenge? Because writing in a journal is a practice and practices are built on habits. We need to make time and space for our journaling, built...

In today's bonus episode, I'm making a case for journaling. This simple, timeless act of writing down our feelings and thoughts is one of the most authentic reflective tools that humans have as they think their thoughts, love their loves and build their dreams.  Journaling never goes out of style, because journaling is the human condition in words. Your words. Journaling is flexible and...

Grief and gratitude can be two sides of the same coin. They do a sort of dance, especially as we contemplate the loss of a family member or loved one during the holidays.  Find out how a simple fingertip pulse oximeter box sparked great sadness in me, and then deep gratitude. As my mom transitions into advanced dementia, I’m struck by how often my sadness turns to gratitude. For if we love deeply...

What do I mean by a personal growth practice? What are the components of self-growth and how do we build our capacity for it? Personal growth is not a one-and-done, it's a practice that we build over time and in stages. In this episode, we’ll think about where we are in the journey to knowing ourselves, dealing with our struggles, and taking those first steps to look for better days. Those be...

Dealing with a loved one’s dementia, or handling other difficult transitional times in our lives requires that we give ourselves some grace -- and create a formidable community of support. We may have to handle the logistics of moving our loved ones out of their home, arranging for care, managing finances, and caregiving. This is adulting with a capital “A.” Here are some inspirational tips and re...

Comparison, especially comparing ourselves to the images we see on social media, can rob us of the ability to hold court with our personal strengths and abilities. We compare ourselves to a facade of perfection and find our lives lacking. While small amounts of comparison may help motivate us or provide a standard of sorts with which to reflect our growth, most times, it makes us feel less than. W...

As we talk about all things aging, let’s remember that while research shows that we may experience a mid-life dip in happiness, there are benefits to getting older that are valuable in the way they can lead us toward our purpose.  Mid-life can be a time when we’re burdened by caregiving, health problems, and financial worries. It sounds all “doom and gloom,” but there’s also a “flowers in bloom” s...

This episode is personal and passionate, as I explain the core beliefs behind this show – how to build resilience and inner strength as you increase your capacity and internal resources to call forth a more joyful life. Finding brighter days and cultivating positivity is more about building resilience than fooling yourself into “happy thoughts.” In this episode, I break down why I use the tagline...

Everything begins with the breath.  Today we’ll explore ways in which breathwork, exercise, music, and creative grounding help calm our response to stressors (triggered by our fight or flight response). We can use tools to go beyond the rational mind to tap into the mind/body connection. Once you slow your breathing and embrace stillness, your body relaxes and the overwhelm and angst start to diss...

In this episode, I’ll discuss the adage “time heals all wounds.” We may not want to hear this, especially if it’s said off the cuff, but ultimately, time gives us a cushion to process our feelings. Engaging our senses in mindful acts also creates some space to heal. Time passes, priorities get rearranged, and new options start to appear. All these factors can help us get from a painful place to a...

We’ll connect the threads between how making space and time for friends (and actively tuning into our interactions with them) helps us build more meaning in our lives. To do this we have to clear the cobwebs—get rid of the dead weight and make sure we can distinguish between people who we should journey onward with as friends and those that we can leave behind.  By actively listening, we can learn...

In this episode, I talk about how we carry our loved ones (and all their teachings) with us when they aren’t around anymore. The distance could be from illness, death, or just geographical location, but we miss them and want to feel close to them even though they aren’t physically present in our lives.  We are amazing humans, and we are capable of carrying our vision of other people’s essence insi...

As the saying goes, “Life is not for the faint of heart.” We may worry about this or that, predict obstacles and roadblocks, and ruminate about the next challenge, but most of the time none of that stuff happens. Life has other plans for us, and we may not see any of them coming!  But after you’ve been knocked down a few too many times, you toughen up. Yes, you get stronger from the unpredictable...

Today I’m talking about shitty days. We’ve all had them, but some of us (yes, I’m talking about myself) don’t tolerate them well. We act out over them, ruminate over them, and buy into our bullshit thoughts that tell us these uncomfortable feelings will be with us forever. They won’t. They will pass. Shitty feelings always pass, but not before we feel them. That’s the rub. How do we get through ou...

You control your perception. Yes, you control your perception. For anyone who’s struggled with that idea (yes, I’m raising my hand here), this episode presents a case for small, manageable meditation sessions and mindful moments in nature. Before you think, “Oh no, I can’t meditate. I can’t rest my thinking for more than a nanosecond," or “I don’t live close to nature and mindfulness is such...

Struggle is a teacher, and while we may not want to learn what it has decided to teach us, it’s coming for us! Truthfully, we need it, because how we respond to struggle determines our life’s purpose. It is in response to struggle that we do what needs to be done to find our strength. And one of the most brilliant and pleasurable pathways to this fountain of inner strength is through creative expr...

There comes a time in life when the shit hits the fan. Where you look around and wonder, is this all my life will be? How did I get here, and why am I not doing more joyful things in my life? Why am I not more creative, self-aware, and positive about my life and where it’s going? When Kendrick Lamar began his masterful song, United in Grief , with a line about how for 1,855 days he’d been going th...

Living on autopilot may keep things going. The trouble is, we rarely want to go where it takes us. I’m Jill Hodge, a writer who loves a good beat. I created this new, immersive personal growth podcast, Let the Verse Flow , to put the fun and creativity back into my life (and yours). Lovingly dedicated to my mother, this podcast is about finding more purpose through creative exploration, mindfulnes...