the Henny Flynn podcast

Tap to send me your reflections ♡ " Our body and mind have the capacity to heal themselves if we allow them to rest. Stopping, calming, and resting are preconditions for healing." thich nhat hanh Rest is a theme we often return to here.  How we can often feel we 'should' just battle through - we don’t need to rest. But, for me, my sense is that this is really the Ego talking. We’re denying the bas...

Tap to send me your reflections ♡ My guest today is the wonderful Susan McCulley - always a joy to welcome her back to the podcast. During the show, she shares a line from a song: " To question is to grow ". This feels like a beautiful summation of where our conversation took us. We explore the impact of the phrase 'Because I said so' , going deep and wide. Taking time to understand the essence of...

Tap to send me your reflections ♡ We often learn that resilience is our best course of action. That it’s weak to turn back, to change course, to do something new. But, of course we all also know that having the courage to end something can be the wisest action we can take. So, today I’d like to explore what can get in our way of ending something - and what can help us find the courage to take the...

Tap to send me your reflections ♡ “It is literally neurobiologically impossible to think deeply about things that you don’t care about” Mary Helen Immordio-Yang of the University of Southern California*. Of course. This statement feels SO obvious! (Like the truest things often are) If you’re like me, you’ll see so many situations where it applies - school, jobs, even the books we read. AND With th...

Tap to send me your reflections ♡ I’ve been pondering the idea of ‘success’.  What is it?  What does it mean when we do or don’t achieve it?  How does our perception of it change, as we change? When I consider what I used to consider being successful meant, and how I look at what I consider to be success today… there are marked distinctions. Though I expect that if I’d drilled in when I was younge...

Tap to send me your reflections ♡ At the most recent Journaling Gathering in June, one of the areas we discussed was how our journal can become a wise and trusted friend. Someone we can turn to in times of doubt, loss, crisis, pain - as well as times of energy, excitement, ambition, hope and joy. I work with my journal in much the same way I work with those I’ve asked to walk beside me at times in...

Tap to send me your reflections ♡ This season feels largely inspired by statements we may have absorbed as children & the impact they can have in our lives. This one (Too big for your boots) may sound like something you’ve heard in your time? Or maybe you recognise the essence of it in the judgemental things you have perhaps heard yourself say to your Self. It’s also tied to ‘pride comes befor...

Tap to send me your reflections ♡ How dare you? I overheard someone saying this to their child the other day. You can imagine the tone of voice, the outrage, anger, shame and blame that filled the words. I say this without judgement on that parent. I suspect it was something she had heard said to her as a child - normalised through conditioning, it had become something that felt like ‘something pa...

Tap to send me your reflections ♡ Here’s a slightly alarming statistic - 40-60% of women will struggle with sleep during menopause. This statistic is something we shared in a piece of work I’m currently collaborating on. It’s part of the corporate work I do, delivering a whole range of menopause support into organisations - in this instance, a company that’s chosen menopause as a key well-being fo...

Tap to send me your reflections ♡ When we are rigid, fixed in our thinking, we become immobile, stuck in our ways. When we are fluid, flexible in our thinking, we become open; more aware of the options available to us. And so change and growth become part of the natural order of things - rather than something to be feared or geared up for. This isn’t a new theme for us here. But it is a new reflec...

Tap to send me your reflections ♡ A little bonus episode to bridge the gap from season 10 to season 11. A reflection on Wisdom from Within - on how we can tap into it whenever we need it - and a letter written from my wisest inner self. To explore your own Wisdom from Within, and meet your wise Inner Guide, take a look at this special ImageWork recording https://hennyflynn.ck.page/9ca85eeaaf This...

Tap to send me your reflections ♡ A foray into procrastination - inspired by a conversation, a realisation and a faltering intention. There is so much richness to be explored about the whole topic of procrastination and the friend I mention at the beginning of this episode is someone I'd love to bring onto the show, so she can share some of her reflections on it. To connect with Saranne - find her...

Tap to send me your reflections ♡ This is a meander through a theme that connects three poems from My darling girl 2. The theme of being seen. But this is not about being seen by others (though that can feel vital at times), it's about seeing ourselves, as we truly are. In all our pain and our magnificence*. With love. *I owe credit for that phrase ' pain and magnificence' to my teacher Dr Dina Gl...

Tap to send me your reflections ♡ I debated about whether to call this the art of forgiveness OR the art of SELF-forgiveness - and the second one won out… for reasons I’ll share. We’re often told as children that we have to forgive another child for hitting us, hurting us, taking the toy we really wanted. We’re taught we need to be the bigger, better person and RISE ABOVE the lowly behaviour shown...

Tap to send me your reflections ♡ My guest today is psychotherapist, writer, international trainer, and world expert in imagery based therapies, Dr Dina Glouberman.  The co-founder/director (since 1979) of Skyros Holistic Holidays, Dina is also the founder/director of the Aurora Centre in Southern Italy; training therapists, counsellors, and consultants in ImageWork. This is a frank and generous e...

Tap to send me your reflections ♡ At times self-compassion can feel like a hard thing to find. We may have been conditioned through our life experiences to see it as something unimportant or selfish and yet, our deepest wisest Self has an innate understanding that it’s something we all need. I’ve recently created a short course for the InsightTimer App that offers up 3 deceptively simple tools tha...

Tap to send me your reflections ♡ Today's episode is a romp through wordy things. Headlines are: We bandy words about and use them without thinking Words can have multiple meanings - including ones we haven't been consciously aware of The words we use influence our behaviours and the choices we make The word 'should' is a shame-based word (maybe not always - but it's an interesting perspective) Re...

Tap to send me your reflections ♡ Change lightly - it doesn’t mean don’t change or don’t change a lot, it simply means change with grace. Often when we embark on change it can feel like a heavy thing We fill it with all kinds of rules and denials and strictures. It becomes a burden perhaps. In this episode, I share 3 things that can make us feel change MUST be DIFFICULT…  Our tendency to see chang...

Tap to send me your reflections ♡ Sometimes we carry beliefs or stories we think belong to us.  But sometimes we’ve picked them up from others along the way of our life.  Perhaps inheriting them from care givers; adopting or adapting the stories and beliefs they, in turn, inherited from their care givers.  And so we can see how things get passed down the family line. Each generation believing it (...

Tap to send me your reflections ♡ By stepping away we create space for ideas to form. This is in direct contrast to the culture of HUSTLE, which can make us believe we HAVE to keep going. Keep up with the OUTPUT and never minding the INPUT.  But that way not only exhaustion & burnout lie - also our creativity suffers. And that's what we're exploring today. I could have called this: Procrastina...

Tap to send me your reflections ♡ Today we're doing something a little different. And you'll hear I'm a little nervous! I have asked Susan to be my kind guide, to help me explore and share the source and meaning of the My darling girl poetry(ish). She asks questions that help uncover the deep sensitivities within these pieces of writing - and we explore how often the things we create don't feel li...

Tap to send me your reflections ♡ Today we return to an old, and never-ending, theme: Change . And embedded within that theme, we can often find our old friend: Fear . So, today I share an entry from my journal. Something I wrote several years ago, in an attempt to understand what I was going through at the time. It's a meditation on what it means to release our fear sufficiently that change becom...

Tap to send me your reflections ♡ We all carry a set of beliefs about what the NORM is and about how we’re ‘meant’ to think, feel, act, look in order to fit in with that (possibly narrow) view.  And these beliefs inform how we see ourselves. The challenge comes of course, when we see ourselves through a critical lens - which can (of course) be a far more critical lens than we would ever use to see...

Tap to send me your reflections ♡ Many of us feel we’d love to rid ourselves of the things we are afraid of… yet, often they’re the things we cling to - a foundational layer to our limiting beliefs, they often form part of what we believe makes us, US.  And getting to know them - really seeing what they are, where they spring from, who we inherited them from or how they have built over time is a p...

Tap to send me your reflections ♡ Do you meditate? If yes, then it's very likely you've experienced the wandering mind. For me it's my almost constant companion when I meditate! The wonderful Tara Brach offers us guidance to simply say to ourselves: "thinking thinking", every time we notice our mind wandering.  This episode was inspired by another technique (unfortunately I can't recall who it was...