Rebuilding Energy

Thank you and welcome for being here today. Today we are talking about when you're creatively blocked, burned out, or wanting to rebuild energy, set mindfulness boundaries, cultivate sustainable creative expression. How do you do this? Like how do you get past that funk

Welcome to Wellness. In every season, we talk all things wellness, to help you align yourself, align with your goals, find balance in your life, and just recalibrate yourself if you are listening for the first time. Welcome, welcome. I'm so glad you're here, and let's get started in the rest of the podcast.

today I have with me jenny Lee Hodgins. And we were just talking about this before recording and this is such good timing to be talking about this because this is going on all around us. Within ourselves. And this is, we're just getting through winter solstice where.

It's hard to really feel energized when we don't have enough sunshine. So I am so excited you're here. Let me introduce her just a little bit further and her business and so her business name, if you wanna go look it up at any point during this and you don't wanna look at show notes, it's your creative chord and it's spelled like musical chord.

But she is a creative empowerment coach, author, poet, pianist, composer, and podcaster. So a little bit of everything sounds like the perfect person to talk to, right? And she empowers others with creating their creative flow, inspired living, helping people rebuild trust in their authentic process and restore energy.

We were talking about vibes, that's not quite the word that she used, but how she could tell that we were gonna have this kind of vibe because we were both low key and very much about energy work and creativity. And I feel like that's all the listeners that are out there as well. This is what we want, this is what wellness should be, is living in that kind of enli alignment.

And when we're not. Of course we're burned out and we're struggling, but I know that it can be so much deeper than that. So I'm very excited to have you on, and first of all, welcome for being here. Thank you. I'm happy to be here with you. That was really lovely to hear. Yeah. It's nice to find your people.

Yes. And I think that leads to burnout to begin with. There are places where I've worked where, and I was thinking about this randomly the other day. There was and it was right before I was moving out of state, otherwise I would've stayed working there.

And they wanted to hire me on full-time. I started on a temporary basis with them. But these three women worked so well together in the HR department. And I know my husband's had places like that too, where it just functioned so well. And that just deals with energy level. And there are so many times where we're in social situations or with work or within our family or whatever, and we're not aligned in that.

And that can be draining. And what do we do if we can't get out of that? We can't change it for some reason. And so many of us are going through that. And I love that you hit right on the burnout thing, because it's a cliche term these days. I mean, it's like, it's just everywhere.

Yeah. And I didn't know that. I mean, I just have been experienced and I'm in burnout, recovery, and I think one of the critical things is that people recognize it before it's happening because I didn't, so I want to just bounce around a little bit with you, autumn, because you hit this so well in what you do.

I've been listening to your podcast. I get your emails, and one of the quotes that I got from you, I think it was in your email, was Calm the system rebuild trust, create sustainable rhythm. That's an Autumn Carter quote people, and it's very aligned with what I do to help overwhelmed creators or caregivers or just really busy, creatively curious adults that wanna, excuse me, maybe explore creativity.

But they're wiped out. They don't know if they can do one more thing, but you asked, what do we do? And really your quote hits it on the head. I start with, resetting our energy. You know, that's the pillar of all my digital products, all of my, signature coaching program, and it's literally what I'm practicing myself daily.

It has to be a practice. I think because we're in a society, and you talk about this with other, guests that you've had and in your own solo content that I've heard on your podcast about how. We are just constantly bombarded and we're constantly, overwhelmed and in overdrive, and we're in that hustle culture and so we have to really proactively, change that, and it is a practice, a daily practice. So what I would say to your question is, what do we do is exactly what you do. And a lot of what you teach, you practice more. From comparing what I do to what you do, I sense that you practice a lot more of the somatic you call, physical, getting in touch with what you're feeling in your body, which is very useful for people like me who are hypervigilant, overthinkers, ruminators.

Highly sensitive, and I don't necessarily gravitate to what's going on in my body, but resetting energy from my perspective it really does tie into that because what I do is simply pause and focus on getting, ask yourself what you need right now. That's the bulk of it, and starting with your energy and what are you feeling and it really ties into what you do.

I just never thought of myself as being. That focused on, somatic or physical sensation. But what I focus on is, and I always start with reset first because we do have to reset our energy, otherwise we're going straight like a beeline towards burnout if we don't align ourselves with our values and our goals.

And that's why stopping and pausing and asking ourselves, what do I need right now is. A very simple first step and then I go through a lot, you know, the reset is a, is an acronym, R-E-S-E-T. And, and you know, regularly rest essentials only. We do a lot of stuff we don't need to be doing, so honing in on what is really essential.

I'll give you an example of that. I just went through this yesterday. Essentials only for example we, I, I have our thank goodness, thank you to the pandemic for bringing grocery delivery to my life.

'cause I don't want to go shopping. But we always get our deliveries. I'm a caregiver for my 86-year-old mother, so we always get our deliveries on Friday. So you have to order it before that. And I intended to do that today, but my mom, I was just winding down last night, perfectly relaxed, ready to go to sleep, and she brings me her iPad, can you finish the delivery order?

And I failed my reset module instead of essentials only saying, I will do that tomorrow afternoon when my energy's, recuperated instead I did it. And I thought it was gonna be like a few items. It's like this long. Massive list, you know, amazing amount of groceries.

So those that moment of overextending myself. To accommodate my mom instead of staying in my lane and saying, I will get to it tomorrow because I'm going to bed soon. Instead, I looked at that screen and dealt with all of her issues and then I couldn't sleep all night because the screen time kept me up,

so this is a really simple example of essentials only. Was it essential for me to do that last night? No. So learning how to, at least I'm aware of it now. And I'm learning a lot of these things as a new solo caregiver, in an estranged family dynamic, I'm having the full brunt of it on myself.

And I, I never, I've never been a caregiver. I'm not a parent, you know, so I mean, I taught 600 kids a week and 80 member courses twice a week, but that's the extent of my motherhood. And so teaching myself, okay, what did you learn from this? I learned that I can't be looking at screens. When I'm winding down to go to bed, that's like, it's like a no brainer.

It's what I normally do. But because my mom came to me, my old habit kicked in instead of being aware that I was overextending. So simple things like that, you know, staying in your lane is, the S of reset. And then it's r regularly rest e essentials only. We just talked about S is staying in your lane.

That's a big part about healthy boundaries internal. Interdependent workflow, external all of these boundaries. And then the next e is embrace what nurtures you. And I think we don't do enough of that, and that's why we get into burnout, right? So questioning, what do you love to do? What lights you up?

What is your dream? You know, what do you enjoy doing? What makes you feel your most authentic self? Do more of that basically. And then the t I'm just running through quickly is team build for accountability and support. And that's things like meeting your people, and getting good feedback from other people like you.

Or even just listening to podcasts like yours. Is fueling, you know, nurturing things that put what you put in helps nurture you, right? And then a coach or a therapist or friends, or in my case, a robo vac and mop, you know, so I can just push the button instead of physically doing the, things like that.

Just set up what you need. So I think this is just in a roundabout way to say that's basically my reset framework in a very high level overview. But I think these things are so. Life skill based, very common sense based. But even myself as I'm practicing it and teaching and working with people, I still forget things like, no, Jenny, you don't need to do the grocery order at 9:30 PM at night.

You can wait till the, you know, just so really being aware of what is essential, what is not essential. And I'm learning a lot about what really isn't essential comes with. Interconnected with that same territory of learning how to set healthy boundaries. And that's a very broad many pronged conversation, you know, that we can have.

But hopefully that answered your question in a very meandering way. I think, yes, and we'll drill down into it in a little bit, but two different questions came up for me during this. What about the don't put off for tomorrow, what you can do today? Mm-hmm. Let's tease that apart and tear it apart a little too, because for me it's having to undo that because there's certain things and it goes down to what is actually essential, right?

And oh, I have the energy level, so let's just shove everything else in there and then I'm burned out the next day. Like, how do we prevent this? And like how do we. Undo that thinking because so many of us were raised that way. Don't put off for tomorrow what you can do today. Especially women. Yeah.

Uhhuh. Yeah, a hundred percent. I, I was gonna say, you said let's tear this phrase apart. Don't put off today, which, don't put off tomorrow or what you can do today. Let's throw darts at it. Let's not just tear it apart. Let's like throw darts at it. And what I mean by that is I'm not trying to minimize, we do have priorities.

We do have critical things that have to get done, but I think part of it is kind of zooming in on, what really is necessary when I'm looking at, it goes hand in hand with the boundary thing. Am I overextending myself? I don't want to do things or meet with people or give my services or energy unless I'm really my best.

So am I my best if I am doing everything for tomorrow? Today, I don't think so. I think we really have to use more discernment. I practice this every day and I think a lot of it is weeding out old habits, in my case, hyper vigilance. Thinking that I have to reach a level of perfection.

You don't need to, it doesn't need to be perfect. Maybe you do have to get something done for tomorrow, but you know that phrase done is better than perfect. Sometimes. Not even doing it can be okay. Do we really need to do it? Is it critical to our values? Is it critical to our long-term goals?

And I think when we keep looking through that lens of, am I aligned with my values, am I aligned with my goals? Part of that will help get rid of things that aren't really necessary that we're piling on there because of old habits. But also what I build into what I teach and what I build into my own life through the reset is taking mini breaks.

And scheduling in more white space and creating buffer time and mini breaks. Things like just stretching, standing up and stretching, taking a five minute walk, breathing deeply for a few minutes, looking out the window throughout your day, going to get a cup of tea, whatever. And I think by taking those breaks, it kind of kicks us back into being a little more mindful.

Of what we're doing. I think sometimes we have a mile high list and we're just checking it off and we think we're being productive and look how many things I can get done. But when you take breaks and you start to really continue to question what your values are, am and am I aligned with those values?

You start to realize when you come back to the work after the break, you're looking at it differently and maybe you have a little more wisdom from that, and you can say, actually these things are the priorities. The rest of it can wait. So I think it's a practice and aligning with our values, slowing down enough that we can tune into them,

people aren't taking breaks, people aren't using buffer time and time away from things and shifting things to do things that nurture them. That, that's a very critical part of the true ability to be productive. Right. And then lastly, just having those breaks creates more of a mindfulness around recognizing the habits that we're doing.

To give an example, I'm hypervigilant. I grew up as a middle child enabler, in a very toxic family dynamic. I'm estranged from the mall right now. So my go-to is get everything done, you know, so everybody's happy, nobody's like at odds with anything. And that's just a learned response.

And I think our whole society kind of functions that way most of the time. So learning to stop. Learning to pause again, asking myself, what do I need right now? That goes a long way, and it sounds very simple, putting in mini breaks to allow yourself to reframe and be a little more mindful.

Really focusing on what's the biggest priority and letting the rest of it go. Those are basic life skills and common sense, but not very many of us do it well, I would think, which is why we're in a burnout, culture. So those are the things that I practice. Those are the kinds of very basic things that we take a look at.

Let's take it a little bit deeper. What about for those who are neurodivergent and they get that hyper focus going on and they're afraid to lose that hyper focus by going and taking a break, let's talk about these people to make it more realistic, because like in theory, yes, but will that work for me if I have these hyper focus periods and I need them?

Yes. So let's talk to that group of people. Well, I wanna preface it by saying i'm not diagnosed as neurodivergent. And I'm not qualified specifically to speak to just neurodivergent, but that's very what you just described about how neurodivergent people are hyper-focused.

I'm definitely that, and I think any creative person I've ever worked with or met or collaborated with, we are exactly like that. Once you get into a creative zone, there is no stopping us you know, and, and we can go bathroom break. What's that? Exactly, exactly. Days, hours, weeks without showering, taking breaks, you know, eating, you know, you forget all of that stuff.

Even though it is common sense and it's research backed to do mini breaks and to hydrate and to eat well, we do know that apparently neuro divergent behavior is very similar to most, especially, professional creatives when you get into the zone. So what do you do? I would say it really depends on the person of course, and the specifics.

But for me, when I'm in those moments, for example, if I had to compose music for a film score, I got in that zone and it took me two weeks and I didn't talk to anybody and I barely ate and barely went to the bathroom because I was in the zone. But after that. I make certain that I bake in white space, for example, now that I own my own business and I coach and I have my own podcast, I take the full month of July and the full month of December off all work.

I don't guest appear, I don't work with clients. I still have automated, things going behind the scenes, but knowing that this is a period of build or I'm in an intense creative zone and I can't necessarily. I wouldn't say afford, but because I don't wanna let go of that focus of the creative zone, which I think is what you're describing there.

Okay. I allow it to happen because that's authentic to my process. But then I bake in. You've got to recover. You've got to have something in there. When you're done with that, whatever it is, whether it's a day off in nature or weeks of a nap or a vacation built in, whatever it is, you definitely have to do that.

But the mini breaks I'm talking about. In my reset. That works overall when you're not in that zone quite yet. But if you incorporate mini breaks throughout the day, throughout the week, throughout the season, and after a heavy build creating that white space or that buffer. You have to adjust it of course to where you are.

But definitely that what I've learned is that creativity, and I've talked about this often has an ebb and a flow. The flow part is great. When you're in the zone, we're outputting like the dickens, right? But you cannot keep doing that sustainably. At some point you will hit the wall, and I've been there.

And so what I've learned from that is I didn't respect the ebb and flow of the creative process, which is what I'm talking about. It's great to be in the zone. It's absolutely perfect if you want to stay there and focus. But if it's causing you, to not be able to sleep well, you don't physically feel good, your ideas are frustrated or you're blocked about something, that is an indication you need a break, and so teaching myself, and this is a big one that I'm practicing that rest equals productivity. Rest, equals creative flow because if you don't have that energy, how good is it gonna be anyway, you know?

Do you feel that way? Yes. What was coming up for me is my husband and I went on our couple's vacation with another couple, and we left our kids at home with somebody else watching them. It was amazing. But it made me think about being on the beach with the ebb and flow, and there's times in our lives, especially after we've had this creative flow where we need to stand back.

And just absorb it and just be there. Be present for a little bit and then walk away. Maybe walk away and then come back. But it's that idea of, look, there's the beach again. Yeah, there's all this here. And it goes with, here's now my new task list, which is the fun task list, because it can be really fun.

You could be, of course, totally right there, flowing in your hobby, but then it becomes a job if you continue forcing the flow. Mm-hmm. Right. So we need this other task list, and I'm putting in quotes here. Of like, here's my child, like stuff that would make me happy. Go out and rest in the hammock.

Enjoy the sunshine. Yes, go for a walk. Go and just sit with nature and listen to the birds and the squirrel in the tree. And if you are anywhere near a forest like the deer, whatever other wild animals are around there, just absorb that. Go and be near a beach and absorb that. It's that chance to, it's kind of like the ocean, where the ocean is absorbing all the water back.

Go take a bath, go read a really great book that is not for learning and it's just for fun. Yes. We forget the fun. Yes. And that's something that I've been putting back in my life and it's been so fun hey, are you guys doing that to the people that I'm coaching?

Are, what are you doing for fun? I'm finding this for myself and that's the way that I love to do coaching is I'll try the things on first. Before I'm like, have you tried this? Yeah. Like, oh, this is working for me. You should try this too. Oh, that's working for you, that I'm coaching.

I'll try that too. So that, well, women are very great at sharing and collaborating that way. What you just described is exactly what's on my keys to nurture your creativity. These are basically science research backed and experiential and embodied, ways of boosting creativity.

And, for example you mentioned a lot of it basically doing things that nurture you. You know, doing fun things, but the keys to nurture creativity. For example, if, because we were just talking about if you're really hyper-focused and you're really struggling with wanting to take the break from it, and we talked about, well, that's okay when you're in the zone, do what works for you, but then make sure you recover from it.

And some of the things to recover are these strategies like that you just described going out in nature. Other things on there, of course, getting more rest. Practicing more stillness, like you said, reading books or going to see a movie or even having a great conversation with, a friend or a like-minded person.

And the other keys that I have on here are the top one is develop self-belief. And it is a practice, reframing negative self-talk to trusting yourself and acknowledging and, praising and treasuring your life and what's good in your life and what you've got going for your strengths, and even your weaknesses can become the catalyst for of course, creative.

Projects or process and also meaning, and learning and becoming more resilient and all that. So really focusing on your life, personal growth. And another key to creativity is practicing self-care, which is a lot of what you just mentioned, yoga. For me, I practice as a Buddhist of chanting regularly, which is a vocal meditation that I practice.

And it's breath work and it, automatically scientifically kind of. Restores my nervous system. It gets that vagus nerve, calm it down because it's a repetitive mantra. And so it's kind of like a breath work and it's a vocal meditation, so that's just on the surface of it.

It's much more than that. But practicing things like that, resting, exploring other people's creativity, especially if you're blocked. Okay, that's a great way to first of all recuperate from your exhaustion, but it also gives you inspiration. Anything that gives you awe, you know, whether it's nature, spirituality, the arts, whatever it is, or even a conversation.

'cause sometimes that just rejuvenates something in us. These are all like science backed ways to nurture creativity. Another one is leave your comfort zone. And I'm not saying, like, I talked about this on another show where I explained that I lived in Japan for five years. I moved, first of all, I'm from Kentucky.

I moved to Florida, put myself through school there. I've taught music, piano, chorus, everything for like 30 years. I moved to Japan as, part of that season of life. And then I came back to Florida again, continued teaching, and now I'm back in my hometown as a caregiver for my mom.

You know, you don't have to do something as drastic as moving to a foreign country where no one speaks your language and you can't find the food. I didn't even know how to speak Japanese when I moved. I just went, but leave your comfort zone is scientifically proven to, boost new neurological pathways.

And so even if it's something as simple as if you drive to work, go a different way. If you normally cook a certain thing, do it in a different way or a different pan. If you're a musician or a composer or an artist, use different materials or, just shake it up basically even a little bit.

It will kind of rejuvenate, especially if you feel like you're stuck or if you're in a funk and the last one of my keys to nurture, creativity besides the getting awed and getting out in nature, which is a big part of mine getting awed, is to be better. And it comes from the Maya angel. You know, once you know better, you do better.

That was her quote. That's, you know, be better is this constant personal growth journey that we're on. Just keep striving because the more we're striving to improve a skill or trying to overcome a weakness it's the things that we do to improve ourselves.

Actually it boosts, all those good chemicals, in our system. And that typically will lead to inspiration. Finding deeper meaning all of that stuff will rejuvenate your creativity. So I love that you talk about, 'cause they're literally on my case to nurture creativity, all of those things that you mentioned.

And I think we need to do more of the stuff that feels good to us. Maybe I'm making an assumption, but I think women in general, particularly parents or caregivers we tend to overlook bringing ourselves joy, and that I've noticed that that is such a critical component.

How can I help you if I'm not taking care of me? That's that whole. The cup has to be full. Right. So I'm really kind of getting to that in my stage in my life, from the journey that I've had, I've had a, as I think most women do, a long journey of hyper vigilance and overextension at the expense of myself, erasing myself.

So everyone else is happy. And some of that was good because it literally trained me to be a great leader, I handled 600 kids a week and 80 member courses, and you can see balls moving in every direction very quickly. But that's not sustainable in the long run. I, I've really learned it's, you know, really important to stay in your lane and part of staying in your lane is nurturing yourself.

And it goes with essential, right? We forget that we are essential. Self-care is essential. And we talk about self-care, but it's, well, what is it? And it goes back to what you're saying, what do I need right now? Yeah. 'cause that talks about what are you missing?

When you go into, I need this right now, it's usually a, I've been depleted of this for a while, if I'm saying I need this right now. And I think it also, what came up for me is. What is something that I've done for myself that you've always wanted to do or that you've told yourself you're, you've never been good at.

That's true. This is a really good indication of this is what I should start doing to form those new neuro pathways, which is very important to, and you can take baby steps. Yeah. And you can do that in baby steps. You don't have to, you know, all at once. Right? Yeah. And you, you're not gonna be a Picasso just, well, you might from one day to the night.

You never know. That's true. More than likely you're not going to be. How's that? Don't expect it when you think about that. So many. Was it, it was Grandma Moses. I think, if I'm not quoting wrong, she didn't start painting until she was like in her eighties or something. And she was phenomenal.

And I knew a Japanese woman, she's late now, but, she didn't learn to paint until she was in her mid seventies, and she was phenomenal As a portrait artist of animals and wildlife and all that, I was like, whoa. And my mom is, she's a taught artist. You know, she does pretty much everything.

But my point is you just don't know what's in you people, you know, we all have this creative, amazing voice that's in every single human being, i've had some training in music theory or piano skills or vocal skills or whatever. That's great. That's a skill that's not the creative flow is in all of us and you can tap it at any time and skills can be built.

That's something we can all learn. I just want to kind of bang on that a bit because so many adults think they're not talented. When we start painting, we likely won't be coming out like a great artist in the first place, but you never know it might really tap something in you and then you start learning some skills and it really does go in that direction.

So the world is your oyster, right? And the way it's wide open in that way. I think it's important that we trust in that you know that, yeah, so many people have closed that door. I can't tell you how many people have told me I'm not talented or I can't sing, or I can't, I just don't have any rhythm or whatever.

That is incorrect. No, that's not correct. Everyone has it in us. It's a matter. Finding, I'm sure you understand this, a learning style that is best for you and a, a teacher that really listens and hones in on that learning skill so that you can build the skills that you need, finding out what the hangup is on a certain skill.

And working with it. There is nothing we can't accomplish creatively from my personal experience, but also I've taught thousands of people, that thought they couldn't do a thing and then they come through this process and realize. It's like an awakening, we all have, it is my point. And that's why that self-trust part is a big part of my program. Learning to trust your own creative voice. It's authentic to you. It's different than anybody else. Just trust it and go with it and it will bring you so much joy and so much meaning, and you never know what direction it's gonna take you in.

I'm just harping on it because I don't want people to. Think that it's a closed door. Creativity is unlimited and it's always open to every single person is my point. For me, for the longest time it was, and it was because of parenting gone wrong, that I need to be perfect. The first time I tried something.

And then being married to my engineering husband and using the way his brain works and the whole engineering process of. No, it's the process of learning it and perfecting it and having it be perfected for you, not for this thing in your lane thing, not for everybody else.

Yes. Like, this works for me and it's lovely done in my tune, my colors, my whatever. Like this is built for me and then if I wanna replicate it to work for other people, great. But it's really having it be. Mine. Having it be my process, my learning, and once I figured that out, I have such a thirst for learning and it's so fun and finding ways to apply it to me, apply it to my family life, apply it to coaching, apply it to help other people with it.

I love that looking at it, it's not just the way my parents raised me, it's the way their parents raised them. And looking at it further, it's very much society. If I'm not perfect at it the first time, then forget it. But you should enjoy the process of realigning it and staying in that curiosity and staying out of the judgment as much as you can.

Yes. All of that. Yes. And I wanted to add to it, first of all, there is no such thing as perfection in terms of, in creativity. Perfectly, flawless technical performances for me, they leave me empty. I want to see the humanity in you. I wanna see the struggle. I wanna see the imperfections because that's how I feel it, that's how I relate to it.

Also, I wanted to say that a hundred percent. I'm, I'm like you in the perfection syndrome. And then I think it's so prevalent in our world, and especially for women, we think we have to fight hard. I mean, there was some, statistical study that had, been done about, but it's all, all over the place where men who.

Apply for a job. They look at the job description and think, eh, I might have, maybe I might be 60% ready. Okay, I'll apply for it. I can do it. And women are like, wait, let me get to 9, 10, 9 point. Yeah. And you know that that's the nature of women and that, I think that comes from a lot, you know, historically.

Especially women are so hard on ourselves is the point of that and the part of creativity and not just creativity, but personal growth in general, but is that we have to recognize failure is actually data. You think about Thomas Edison, that, you know, he took supposedly like a thousand tries before he got the light bulb invented.

And some reporter said, how does it feel to know that you failed a thousand times before you got here? He said, no, I found a thousand ways. This doesn't work. So he knew that it's just data. Failure is just data. And for me, as a creator, as a creative empowerment coach, when I quote, fail or make a mistake whether I'm composing or writing poetry or whatever, I.

I don't fault to that. I trust that that's coming from my inner voice and it's taken me somewhere. So I just go there later, like you said, we wanna get rid of that inner critic later. We can bring the inner critic in after we've let ourselves trust our inner voice. We can bring the inner critic in to do what it's meant to do and edit it and make it better and improve it.

But I think the big hiccup for a lot of people, myself I had a hard time with that initially, but. I'm over it now. Like I've learned that failure means something different. Like something new has entered the picture, there's data, and I can look at that and think, where's that taking me? Where did that come from?

And oftentimes it'll take you in a completely different direction you would never have thought of if you hadn't allowed for that to happen. So I'm hammering this so hard because. We're in a society, especially when it comes to being creative, where people think making mistakes not being perfect, not being flawless is the end all.

It is really not. It is any, if you talk to any professional, creative mistakes are part of. Solution finding, to make it better, to improve it or to, to bring it wider. And you've just really gotta hone into that. Again, hammering back to self-trust and working on your authentic voice and trusting it.

And if it comes outta nowhere and instead of immediately thinking, ah, that's not perfect, or, you know, that's not what I intended. That's not good enough. No, it is coming outta you for a reason. So follow that breadcrumb and see where it goes. And later, after you've been in that process for a while, then you can look back and bring your inner critic into the process.

But don't do it in the middle of the process. Let it flow and don't question it. Just trust yourself is the bottom line there. I like that. I'm learning that. It's so wonderful because it frees you up to enjoy the process. Instead of, bringing that baggage and beating yourself up through that process, you can really enjoy the therapeutic benefit of creative flow.

It reminds me of some friends of ours when we were in college. His car broke down and my husband, we had a house and a trailer and all of that thanks to in-laws helping us out. So we grabbed the trailer, no, we were not able to put it on the trailer. The car was too low. But anyway, we were towing it

my husband could tell that there was a difference in trying to tow the car when the parking brake was on, compared to when it was off. Right. Because the friend was like, oh, I forgot. How many times do we do that though? With our creativity? Yes. We're trying. We're pressing the gas.

We're not going as far as we want to, and it's because we have a parking brake on. Yeah, I've done that. When I was first learning how to drive, I went from learning on a stick shift to learning on an automatic, and my stepdad looked down and he is like, you have both feet. Once on the gas, one on the brake.

I'm like, oh, well that's why I'm not really going anywhere. Minor details. We do this with our creativity. Yeah. And if we're gonna go back to Thomas Edison, it goes along with he had people around him. Most of us know that he did not create the light bulb, his name was put on it. He had a whole team of people.

And then the other thing that I've learned about Thomas Edison is that he would sleep, don't do that, but he would set himself up in a way, because when we get into this type of meditative state, we get really creative. When he would start to get into deep sleep, then he would set himself up on a chair so that when he got into the deeper sleep, it'd wake him up so that he could get hurry up and get his ideas down.

So it's that idea of, we need to step back and then we can have the ideas when we're stuck in that really frustrated state. That's our time. Go take a walk, whatever, step away. And let us totally unplug from it because our brain will still be working on it. But just kind of kick it to the back, the subconscious and focus on something else for a little bit.

Focus on, you need to rest. Right? And we live in such a society where we think rest is sitting on our couch, scrolling or watching a movie that is not rest at all. That's not rest. Right? We need the rest where our brain is totally. Free. Done. Yeah. That's meditating. That's taking a nap, that's going in nature.

Go on a hike where you have the beautiful waterfall at the end. Beautiful scenic view at the end. Like get out and just remember that there is more to this life than whatever your little world you've decided it is. And the other thing that goes along with what you were talking about is it goes back to.

This job, does this job align with what I'm doing? Yeah. Do these people in my life that I'm spending time with align with my energy level, with my goals? Right? It's that reminder of do I need to be doing these things? Is this hobby still fulfilling me? Yeah. Is this relationship still? Yeah.

Meeting my needs and am I still meeting their needs? Yeah. What do I need to change about it or should this relationship continue? There's so many things that we are spending time in this grind that we're not connecting with ourselves to go, yeah, is this still right? And that pause and asking what do I need right now can really illuminate a lot of that,

and what you said about Edison. It struck me that I didn't know any of that, about him sleep depriving himself No, I agree. Don't, let's not do that. But sleep is I see. What he was kind of getting at was, You know when people that work well at night, for example, when you're really tired, you can be very creative because all your inhibitions are gone, and that may be where he was going.

And also, just a reminder, and to piggyback on your thought there, that getting a good night's sleep. Edison was onto something. Sleep can solve a lot of those problems. Like, and everything you described can solve if you're up against a wall with a creative block or trying to solve a problem or even questioning your life in those ways that you just mentioned, and you're kinda lost or stuck taking time to really get a good sleep.

Sleep on it is, you know, an old maxim that really works. And I think it works because you're finally taking care of yourself. And like you said, your subconscious never stops so you can relax and let the sleep figure it out for you. And doing things like, that's why they talk about people getting amazing ideas in the shower because you're doing something.

Mundane and water has a great effect. You know, the soothing calming of the water probably helps that a lot. Or going out, like you said, in nature, just getting your mind away from it. Like you said, not with screens, not with TV or gadgets, going away and just, even if you're doing yoga or meditation or sitting and looking out the window for five minutes, having a cup of tea, whatever it is, those things do rejuvenate all of that.

It's amazing. 'cause creative flow basically resets itself when you take care of yourself, is the nutshell of that. But so cool though, I did not know that Edison did that. I don't even know where I picked it up. Maybe in one of my college classes, maybe on YouTube.

But it's interesting that reminder of it, there are things in our lives that deplete our energy and that give us energy, and that's that creative energy, those ideas that, oh, that extra breath out that, yes. I can do this or whatever you need in that moment, and it goes back to what do I need right now?

Maybe you need to call up that girlfriend that is really great at encouraging you or that other friend that will totally not take your BS and we'll call you out on it. What do you need right now? Yeah, take that time. Don't be working through lunch. Right. We are those type of people where. We're sitting down for a meal and it's not a family time meal.

Okay, well I can do something else while I'm eating. I totally do that. Usually it's, I'm reading a book, so I'm still unplugging, but am I really? So it's that reminder of how am I doing right now? What do I need? If I'm trying to tack on a whole bunch of things in this, what do I need time?

Then that's that indication that I need more white space. You need to align yourself better. Yeah. And I love that you brought up, don't do something else while you're eating at least 30 minutes a day. Just eat, just be mindful of what you're eating and enjoy and be in that.

That's mindfulness practice right there that we're not used to doing. And I wanted to back up, if you don't mind. I was just gonna say what you described about. Paying attention to, does this job suit me? That's exactly where I was. I was teaching in public school system at that point. And one of my friends said to me, I don't know how to take this exactly, but they said, Jenny, your personality is way bigger than that system.

And they told me that years ago. And probably four years before I left that job, I realized. It's true. And I know so many teachers that are just buckled over, from the sheer amount of tasks that they have on their backs, and I did the same thing.

I wanted to create a very quality music education program for the students, but they didn't give me the time of day to actually do the work. To accomplish that. So we take our work home every night. We work on the weekends, we work on our vacations, and I had that. That's part of the accumulation of my burnout, which is why I do what I do now.

And I recognized, wait a minute, this is not actually what I set out to do. I want, of course, I want to empower anybody, kids of all ages. I've taught from four to 90 and everything in between, but I don't want to do it. While I'm overextending and to the detriment of my own wellness, I see so many teachers who are still in that system, whose health is terrible, they've died of cancer or whatever, they're overweight, they're miserable, and they just keep taking it.

Being of service is a big thing, you know, for many teachers and for many women in society, and I'm not knocking that I think it's valuable, but what I've learned. Big wake up for me is, yeah, you can be of service and help others without erasing yourself, without the detriment of your own wellness.

And that is what I do for myself and that's what I teach in everything that I do. And I think it's so critical for women and, and very aligned and synergistic with what the work that you do for all of your clients and through this podcast because. People don't recognize that people meaning specifically, mostly women.

I'm not saying that there aren't men that overextend themselves. I'm sure there are, but the vast majority of people I've seen are women who are just expected and they teach themselves to expect to overextend at the detriment of their own wellbeing. And it does not have to be that way. And I have very inten intentionally left that job.

Came up here, rebuilt and built a business so I could be in place to help in a caregiving position for my 86-year-old mom thinking I would have some help with other family members. But that didn't happen. But I feel like. So much more aligned with what I'm doing. You don't have to fit yourself into the mold of what somebody else or some other system wants you to be.

And if you're working for a system that's not, that may not feel aligned for you. I'm not saying everybody go quit their jobs, but there are still things you can do to just really, check in with yourself and are, am I aligned with this? And if I'm not, what's wrong? Like if I had to do it over, if I was back in the.

Public school specific, job. Probably what I would do is, if I knew my program, the way I've built it now is I would bake in rest periods within the classroom itself, between activities for the kids and me and in between classes, 'cause I had eight classes a day, sometimes double or triple sizes from what normal classroom, teachers had.

So I bake in that downtime and I would definitely, let go of the idea of the kind of quality program I could design and. Still focus on the quality, but let go of a lot of the non-essentials so that I'm not taking work home, I'm not doing it on the weekend. If I'm gonna create a program, it has to be done during work hours.

If there's not enough time to do more than this, then this is what we're simplifying it to and we're gonna make the most of that. That's what I would do and that's what I would recommend, for people who may not. Want the drastic step of quitting their job and moving to another state or whatever.

But there's still things like you're saying, that we can do to check in. What do I need right now? Is this aligned with who I am and what I want to accomplish in my life? And allows you to be present in all those settings. Exactly. Exactly. Yeah. That's the, so that's thinking about what should I be doing next?

Yes. And that's the whole kind of crux of what I do in my life and with clients is it starts with energy management. How do we manage our energy? Well, we have to know what our values are. We have to align our energy to our values. And that little piece right there sometimes can be so overwhelming for people.

But honestly, it just starts with self-care. With pausing, stopping, resting and taking it in small bits and pieces, in a very self-compassionate, little bit by little bit manner, and you get there. It doesn't have to be a major, dramatic shift. I think it's amazing too that when I stop and rest.

I've learned that I'm very uncomfortable, relaxing, so I'm still practicing, saying to myself, okay, I'm uncomfortable. I feel like I should be up doing something, everything I'm doing is, as I said earlier, rest equals productivity. Rest equals creative flow. So you can't have good productivity or good creative flow if you're burning candles at both ends all the time.

What you're doing is equally as important as the tasks you're gonna do when you get back to work so just having that conversation with myself and saying, yeah, I'm uncomfortable. Get used to it. You're gonna feel uncomfortable. You're not used to sitting still. It's your hyper vigilance.

Breathe and just relax. Anyway, just simple things like that. Do you, you know, did you ever go through that when you're learning to relax? I still have those moments. Yeah. Yeah. But it's, if I am choosing to do something for the relaxation, sometimes that helps. If you're choosing something, what would you repeat that?

So, yeah, so I'm focusing on breathing instead of just totally zoning out. Very good. Or I'm gonna go sit in my massage chair for a little bit or I'm going to do a guided meditation. So it doesn't have to be, I'm doing literally nothing. Yeah. Sometimes it needs to be, I'm literally doing nothing. Yes. And sometimes it's, I'm sitting down and I'm list outside and I'm listening for the birds.

I'm gonna listen to one specific bird sound and see if I can hear that bird. Who knows, but like maybe instead of letting your mind just wander, which can be so good for you, it's so cathartic to just, yeah, yeah. Let those trains go. Yeah. But sometimes it's, I need to focus on my breath.

I need to do this specific yoga pose because I'm feeling really tight in this area, and I'm just going to breathe and just do that. I'm not doing a whole flow. I'm just sitting here and doing that for me. Earlier this morning, it was child's pose. So it could be any of those things. Yeah. Looking at the time, and my alarm's gonna go off in just a minute to pick up my little guy.

Okay. Can you tell us where to find you? I can't, first of all, thank you so much for having me and, and for ingraining in me the reminder to slow down and rest and pause and take care of myself. And I hope everyone listening is feeling that even people who are good at it need that reminder. I need to remember that.

Okay, this is still a journey and I'm still always gonna need this reminder and it's okay. Yeah. And the more you do it, the better you get at it. Just remember, it's a practice, it's not a perfection. Yeah. So, so you can find me, all my books and digital courses, my signature coaching program.

It's really for training, support and encouragement for creators or caregivers or the creatively curious. Anybody that really wants inspiration for joyful self-development and sustainable creative living, you can find, I have a couple of resources you, if you're feeling overwhelmed or burned out, you can find really practical support by getting my burnout reset guide@yourcreativecord.com slash burnout guide.

If you wanna kind of explore practical tools to, tap into your creative flow and inspired living and kind of the overview of the concepts that I talked about today. You can get my creative empowerment sampler@yourcreativecord.com slash get inspired here and you can find everything, my books, my podcast, my courses, my coaching program, everything.

Any way to work with me@yourcreativechord.com. And it's C-H-O-R-D, like a piano chord or a guitar chord. And it's in the show notes. So look there in the description. Thank you. You can just click on it. But if you're like me and you let the next podcast episode auto play you, it's right here. We told you where to go so you can press pause and you can hurry up and get there.

Thank you so much for being on and I love this conversation and I'm going to be thinking about it for the rest of the day and I hope everybody else listening does the same. Thank you so much. Me too.

Thank you so much for listening to this episode. I hope that you found the answers that you needed, and you had some amazing aha moments. Please share this episode with others because it helps us align ourselves and then better align the world so that we can seek the healing that we really are looking for as part of the legal language.

I am a certified life coach with a Bachelor's in Applied Health. That is what I am leaning on for this. This is general advice. Take it as such. See you in the next episode.