Hello! The podcast is back. Welcome to the second season.
Welcome to the second season of the podcast. In this episode, I am sharing updates, behind the scenes pre-pandemic + post-pandemic, and introducing the second season. I am also sharing some vulnerable truths and how recording this season is making me feel the discomfort. The discomfort that an inevitable part of the process and I am also inviting you to ask some deeper questions while you tune into this season.
Listen now:
Links that I mentioned:
- Work with me – 1 : 1 Coaching for creatives
- Embrace – the group offering sneak peek
- Sign up to the fortnightly letters
- Ask me a question or send me a DM and connect with me on instagram and let’s keep the conversation going.
Transcript of the episode:
Hello and welcome to the second season of the podcast. It is going to be a little different from the previous one. As promised earlier there will be bite-sized episodes of lessons that I’ve learned so far on this journey of living creatively and wholeheartedly.
This is going to be about what it looks like when we are building a creative work and life practice that works for us and what it could look like for each one of us when we take the charge to chart our own direction.
Initially, I was planning to launch it by the end of March. Everything was planned, the dates, content and all in between but then the pandemic hit and lockdown started. It all started to seem a bit pointless at first. The uncertainty and I was finding myself experiencing all kinds of emotions. It was the time when everyone was suddenly online and I myself was finding it quite overwhelming. In a broader sense, the pandemic has not changed much for me as this is how I normally/ usually work as I work from home.
Workwise nothing much changed for me but in general, well a lot of the things changed which I am sure you can relate to.
Now that everyone was suddenly online. I saw people making efforts to connect which is nice and so needed but then I kept seeing these messages pop up about making the best use of this time and being productive and I certainly don’t agree with them. There is no right or wrong way to deal with this. However, way works for you is the best for you to deal with this. Most days I found myself painting and baking. When I am anxious, I usually go inwards and sometimes completely shut down. I found myself sometimes in the burst of energy and other times no energy at all. I did what felt right for me and for my community as well. I didn’t think it was the right time to create offerings or more content for people to digest. I myself needed time to digest and be with it for a while and I figured that is how most of the other people would be needed at the moment. So I hit pause on the initial plans.
There were many plans that I needed to let go of and be okay with making new plans. For me, it always starts with grieving the old plans, a little time to wallow and get in touch with my intuition to figure out what is working or not working for me before I jump on the next thing. A few of my plans that I was really looking forward to was this second season of the podcast. It also felt a bit strange and insensitive of me to share the second season as I had previously intended to. I was planning and hoping to arrange meetups locally and that didn’t happen/ couldn’t happen but hey there will be a better time to do that.
And now that time has passed we all somehow have found a way to be with this new reality. I found myself craving content especially from the people I genuinely like to hear and it made me wonder if it was the time to start working on this season of the podcast. All that to say, here I am now, diving in and sharing this brand new season of the podcast.
This season is for you if like me you are working on building a creative work and life practice that would work for you. I am going to be sharing lessons that I have learned so far on my journey and these are the lessons that I needed to learn. A year or two younger me needed to hear these to get where I am today.
Recording it has been challenging me a lot so far. I have probably tried to record the first episode 6 times and the 7th time is when I felt a bit better about it. It is bringing up all kinds of insecurities and stories about myself and my work. I am feeling the discomfort which is an inevitable part of the process. Self-doubt, impostor syndrome, and all those sorts of things. A lot of stories that I keep telling myself to play small and not own my story in the way I would like to. Let me share the story that surprisingly I have been finding very hard to reframe and that story is that English is not my first language which is funny because I never really have had any trouble in communicating in it ever before. I learned it just like my mother language since the beginning of my school. The only difference is that it wasn’t the language that was spoken everywhere else but for sure it was the language my studies were in, all the lectures, notes, books and even presentations – everything really. So you see how it is only a story but not a fact that I don’t know or am not capable of communicating in English.
Another reason why I didn’t feel great about all those previous 6 failed tries was obviously another story that I have uncovered. When I was listening back to what I had recorded it felt like I was sounding scared and not confident. I want to sound confident but this is how you sound when you are taking those building steps towards building that confidence. So I am now giving myself permission to sound scared or that it is okay if feels like I am reading a text because the way I am saying is way less important than the message I am here to share and that message is it is messy and not perfect but it is important. It is an important part of the journey. And the fact is that I am scared. My heart is racing, my hands are shaking and so is my voice. The first season was way much easier because I’ve had guests over and I was sharing their stories and this season is solo episodes and that is scary and new but that’s okay. I’m choosing to believe that it is going to resonate with the people who are also finding themselves in the messy middle.
If I dig deep, I guess the discomfort that I am feeling is mainly because with this season I am now publicly claiming my own voice. It is not easy especially if this is not what are you raised to believe that it is okay to have a voice of your own, your own opinions, or being different. It is scary because I had this story around having opinions that good girls stay quiet and make everyone else comfortable and a lot of what I am going to share in this season is something that will make you uncomfortable in one way or another. That’s the goal really. Because our comfort zones are safe but the magic happens outside of our comfort zones especially when we are talking about building a creative work and life practice that works for us.
If someone would ask me what’s the one thing they would rather have/do to build a creative work and life practice like that? I would tell them a hell a lot of self-trust. Self-belief. It all starts with the mindset. This season of the podcast is definitely putting it all into practice once again for me too.
This is what it looks like when we are feeling the discomfort. It brings up all those stories you have about yourself that have been playing somewhere sub-consciously at the back of your mind. I will talk a lot about the stories we tell ourselves and hopefully share ways to reframe them as well. Our brains are designed to keep us safe. Whenever we are trying something new and something scary like this our mind perceives it as we are facing real danger. It brings up all these stories to keep us safe and not try so we remain safe and will not by any chance face failure, rejection, embarrassment, or ridicule. For me, starting my own business is like I took a crash course in personal development.
If you follow me on Instagram or if you have already signed up to my fortnightly letters you would know this about me already that I’m always trying to share the real behind the scenes of what’s happening and how it is making me feel, how am I learning to embrace it and all the fears that come up for me and how I am finding ways to feel the fear but show up anyway as I believe this is how we learn. By learning from each other’s real-life experiences. This is what makes us brave. It makes us feel that we are not alone and it makes us feel hopeful that it is possible for us too. I don’t think sharing the truth vulnerably makes you weak. Vulnerability is bravery. It is a strength and I guess, my reason behind sharing all this is to give you a look into what the journey of cultivating courage and creativity looks like in real life, in action.
As I said before, it all starts with the mindset. I am going to share what I perceive a mindset is and how you can develop a mindset that helps you in moving forward, actualizing your dreams, create more freedom, cultivate more confidence in yourself and your work and nourishing that bravery so you keep showing up for the work you feel called to do.
So, what is the mindset?
I like a good definition so I looked it up for you.
According to Google: it is the established set of attitudes held by someone.
According to Wikipedia: A mindset is a set of assumptions, methods, or notations held by one or more people or groups of people. A mindset can also be seen as arising out of a person’s worldview or philosophy of life.
So in short, the way you look at things, feel about them, experience them, categorize them for yourself, and how you use all the information to guide your future decisions. That is your mindset. Your mindset plays a critical role in how you cope with life’s challenges.
I believe, doing the inner work lays the foundation. We are here because we want to build a creative work and life practice that works for us. We are intentional about what we want it to look like and self-awareness and reflection become the basis of the intentional life we are craving for. I guess the message for you here is to get really specific to what you genuinely want.
Only tasks for you, while you listen to the episodes from this season, is to constantly ask yourself these questions:
- What can I learn from this?
- What can I take away from this?
- What is serving me and what’s not?
- What small steps can I take to steer it towards the direction I want to be going in?
More than anything though, I want to encourage you is to take what works for you and leave the rest.
There will be plenty of things I am sure will make you feel that you are not alone in your journey and hopefully will end up in making you feel more hopeful.
My hope is that this season will bring you a bit more clarity, a bit more courage to keep practicing your creative expression, to keep creating and more willingness to keep showing up as your most unapologetic courageous self.
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