Latest / Is Your Way In Your Way? / Unlocking Joy Through Creative Mess

Transcript

Unlocking Joy Through Creative Mess · Is Your Way In Your Way?

• 0:26
  Cassandra: A good day out there to all of my listeners and I'd like to welcome you to Is your Way In your Way and for my new listeners out there.
• 0:35
  Cassandra: Is your Way In your Way is actually the title of my book, so I thought why not call the podcast Is your Way In your Way?
• 0:43
  Cassandra: And also for my new listeners.
• 0:45
  Cassandra: It's all about what I would say individuals who are feeling stuck.
• 0:51
  Cassandra: Now let me ask you this have you ever faced a major life change, a career shift, infertility, grief, felt paralyzed by fear or uncertainty, or divorce?
• 1:08
  Cassandra: So what if I told you there's another way, a way filled with creativity, play and joy, even in the most uncertain seasons of life?
• 1:20
  Cassandra: I know that's probably hard to believe, but today, on Is your Way In your Way, I'm sitting down with a transformational coach, speaker and author by the name of Susan Hensley, a woman who's mastered mastered the art of thriving through change.
• 1:38
  Cassandra: So if you are ready to stop letting fear be your guide and stop navigating change with confidence and curiosity, stay tuned, because we talk about topics related to personal development, personal improvement, business development, and also this will enable you to do some self-reflection.
• 1:59
  Cassandra: Oh, let me bring to the stage Susan Hensley.
• 2:04
  Susan: Hi Susan, hi there, thanks for having me.
• 2:07
  Susan: It's so fun to be here.
• 2:10
  Cassandra: Yeah, we're going to talk about fun, because fun is good, as Dr Seuss always says, and sometimes we don't even have a lot of fun these days, you know.
• 2:19
  Cassandra: But before we get started, I want to read your bio to my listeners so they will understand what qualifies you to do the work that you do, and our topic today is creating your best life by making a mess.
• 2:37
  Cassandra: Now, susan, as I indicated, is a transformational coach, speaker and author who helps individuals navigate life's crossroads with creativity, resilience and joy.
• 2:48
  Cassandra: With a career spanning corporate leadership, human resources, coaching and journalism, she empowers clients to unlock their inner wisdom and rediscover their authentic selves during times of change.
• 3:05
  Cassandra: Having coached everyone from an entry-level employee to a C-suite executive, and even through Stanford's University SEED program, she brings a global, seasoned perspective to the art of transformation.
• 3:25
  Cassandra: Based in Austin, texas, after living in Hong Kong, london and across the US, she blends serious expertise with a spirit of adventure, inspiring others to face uncertainty, not fear, but with playful curiosity, and she has written a book called the Art for your Sanity.
• 3:47
  Cassandra: Wow, that's something.
• 3:48
  Cassandra: I'm looking forward to us to discuss it further, because my listeners want to have some joy and they actually want to transition with certainty and try to eliminate some of that fear.
• 4:03
  Cassandra: Um, what was, what was the inspiration behind the work that you do?
• 4:12
  Cassandra: Or, or let me ask you were you?
• 4:26
  Susan: triggered in your childhood to do anything about art.
• 4:29
  Susan: No, as a young child I loved painting, play-doh, the big thick paste and glue sticks.
• 4:38
  Susan: Loved all of that.
• 4:39
  Susan: Us get the message that that's not our thing.
• 4:52
  Susan: What did happen to me was in sixth grade I won an essay contest and got my picture in the paper, actually won a savings bond.
• 4:57
  Susan: I don't even know if they still have US savings bonds, so that set me off on.
• 5:03
  Susan: I think I'm going to be a writer.
• 5:05
  Susan: But it was really about being a journalist, which is someone else's story, not creating.
• 5:10
  Susan: So I didn't view myself ever as creative.
• 5:13
  Susan: Actually, I became a pretty intense perfectionist due to some bullying and society and expectations.
• 5:21
  Susan: So this turn toward mess and play is really.
• 5:28
  Susan: It started as I needed an outlet and then, as I really followed the outlet with my other experiences, I realized I wanted to share it because of the difference it made in my life and as I got scared about sharing it because it's not a real traditional message and I really did get very afraid, I had to keep going back to why do I want to share this?
• 5:57
  Susan: What am I trying to do here?
• 6:00
  Susan: And it was help people and helping us get unstuck sometimes is really getting at the why and play and playing with art and creativity help us move forward and we'll talk about all that.
• 6:18
  Susan: But no, I did not identify myself as creative, and still don't, quite honestly, because creativity comes in a lot of ways.
• 6:27
  Susan: I use.
• 6:27
  Susan: I use a lot of play and curiosity these days.
• 6:32
  Cassandra: Okay, okay, let's talk about art.
• 6:36
  Cassandra: Let's define that.
• 6:39
  Cassandra: You know, and I asked that because art can be like acting, yeah, you know, like I like Broadway plays.
• 6:49
  Cassandra: How would you as an as an an artist, now that I'm calling you for someone who wrote that book how do you define the word art?
• 6:59
  Cassandra: Because what I'd like for us to do is kind of kind of unpack how that can help one's self-discovery, based on the transitions that happen in our lives.
• 7:12
  Susan: Sure.
• 7:13
  Susan: So it's a really thoughtful question.
• 7:15
  Susan: I appreciate you asking it because art is a huge category, because it can be, to your point, acting music, singing clay.
• 7:28
  Susan: It can be going to a museum observing art, listening to music.
• 7:34
  Susan: You can be both a participant in it, a maker, as well as be inspired by it.
• 7:41
  Susan: When I was writing my book, I wanted to include some research about why, playing with and for our purposes.
• 7:49
  Susan: When I talk about art journaling, I'm just talking about you scribbling and making a mess, you going back to that five year old self and playing with colors.
• 7:59
  Susan: But when I was doing the research for the book as to why it's so powerful, there's this there's been a few really good studies come out, but a book called your Brain on Art.
• 8:10
  Susan: It's big and thick and well-researched, but it talks about both what happens when we do and, to your point, it could be singing, dancing.
• 8:18
  Susan: You know, at the beginning of your show, the movement, what it feels like to both play in something that's artistic as well as to watch it and to be exposed to it.
• 8:29
  Susan: So both are the case.
• 8:31
  Susan: So art to answer your question is a big umbrella For our discussion.
• 8:36
  Susan: I'm really talking about your listeners doing something, and I suggest scribbling with crayons because it's such a low barrier.
• 8:46
  Susan: People get very afraid if I say, go in a room and sing alone or sing in the shower right, there's something about a few of those or dance, but dancing alone in a room, singing, any of that also works, because what we're talking about is moving to the right side of our brains, that place of play and curiosity, where our inner critic I mean think of the title of your book, the title of the podcast is your way, in your way.
• 9:13
  Susan: When you're in your way, you are living in that left side of your brain, which we do mainly.
• 9:19
  Susan: It's the logical, it's the discerning, it's also the judgmental and the critical.
• 9:26
  Susan: It's what helps us get through our to-do lists, but it also can drive us in a very non-supportive way, the way we talk to ourselves.
• 9:40
  Susan: Playing with art gets you out of that.
• 9:44
  Susan: It truly gets you out of your way for a few minutes, and that's that muscle when I work with people you want to start building is what does it feel like to play for 10 minutes with art, to have that inner critic that's judging and has shoulds and fears and all the things we experience?
• 10:25
  Susan: We're all human, right?
• 10:26
  Susan: It's not that this goes away, but it's how do we sort of make friends with it and give it a little bit of a break.
• 10:32
  Susan: And I have found when people play with the sort of art things they love to do as a kid, it really frees them up for just a few minutes and then you start to do the work from there and then you start to do the work from there.
• 10:46
  Cassandra: Wow, I like that.
• 10:48
  Cassandra: So the brain science behind the benefits is amazing.
• 10:52
  Cassandra: And how it is the left side of your brain that can keep you stuck because you're so busy, would you say well, would you say the logic.
• 11:04
  Cassandra: Or either the right side of the brain is more fun, would you say yeah, or it gets out of your way, yeah.
• 11:14
  Susan: And it's simplest forms and the research I've done like.
• 11:16
  Susan: So there's a few really good books.
• 11:18
  Susan: We want to have a very balanced brain.
• 11:20
  Susan: Unfortunately, what's happened in our culture and the way things work very time oriented, very task oriented.
• 11:27
  Susan: You know, every day I've got my list of to do's and if you're working, that all uses that left side of the brain.
• 11:33
  Susan: So if the left side of the brain is that, that logical, task oriented, and when I say judgment, it can also be discerning Is this good for me or not?
• 11:43
  Susan: Does it right?
• 11:44
  Susan: But it's unfortunately where our inner critic can live and it's where a lot of perfectionism sits.
• 11:50
  Susan: The right side of our brain much more holistic, creative, connected.
• 11:56
  Susan: It's where the stress gets relieved.
• 11:59
  Susan: It's where we feel Sometimes if you go out on a really beautiful day or you see like a beautiful flower, you just feel connected sort of, and are you here singing or you see a great piece of art.
• 12:12
  Susan: That's what the right side of our brain gives us and part of what we want to do is just get a little more balanced.
• 12:18
  Susan: I'm not saying you're going to stop being able to stay to a time schedule, but we are so over-focused on that left side that that creativity is what leads to curiosity and invention, and it's really good for people to just spend a few minutes a day in that zone.
• 12:41
  Cassandra: I like that because for me, I actually unfortunately, and too much in the left side.
• 12:50
  Cassandra: You know my to-do list, my perfectionism, so give me a break.
• 12:55
  Cassandra: How can I get a break?
• 12:58
  Cassandra: And what you're saying?
• 13:00
  Cassandra: And we want to talk a little bit about the art journaling.
• 13:03
  Cassandra: Like what is that?
• 13:04
  Cassandra: But art journaling helps you with the right side, where you start having more fun, you become more creative, You're not so stuck.
• 13:15
  Cassandra: It's like OK, because many of us don't have fun.
• 13:19
  Cassandra: You know, if I think about little kids, children, Wow, they don't have a worry.
• 13:24
  Cassandra: And you know, and I remember being a lot younger and I'm like I can't wait to grow up, I can't wait to get on my own, and now I'm like I would love to be a child, you know.
• 13:37
  Cassandra: So I like that perspective that you have put on it.
• 13:40
  Cassandra: How can harnessing creativity, or provide some insight on harnessing creativity for your personal growth?
• 13:55
  Cassandra: How can that help you?
• 13:56
  Cassandra: Your personal growth?
• 13:58
  Cassandra: Yeah, the creativity.
• 14:01
  Susan: So it helps in so many ways.
• 14:06
  Susan: First of all, what creativity does is it opens us up.
• 14:10
  Susan: If we know we want to grow, it can be very hard to think our way through because we can get rigid or we can come up with reasons why we're stuck, all about sort of why not, or what if, or what would happen if, where you don't immediately say no, right, it's about me making a mess.
• 14:36
  Susan: And when you come at it through that sense of play, and when I talk about art journaling or play, I mean I'm talking 10 minutes a day and I know personally I will spend at least that on my phone If something happens you start to scroll.
• 14:53
  Susan: I joke that.
• 14:54
  Susan: Take one of those sessions which can suck 10 minutes out of your day instantly and play with crayons, scribble, doodle, whatever feels good, and it's just for you.
• 15:07
  Susan: You are not creating something to show to someone else, you are playing.
• 15:11
  Susan: Because when you start playing, all of a sudden you get curious.
• 15:14
  Susan: It's like how did that feel, or that felt great, or gosh, what came up, or that reminds me.
• 15:21
  Susan: You give your mind that ability to wander Then from curiosity.
• 15:27
  Susan: That's where you get creative right.
• 15:29
  Susan: And it's like in your life when you know you need to make a move.
• 15:34
  Susan: And people I know people will do endless, they'll do spreadsheets, they will do comparisons At the end of the day something feels more right to them.
• 15:46
  Susan: How many times, even with the most analytical people, do we know, and all the comparisons, they're looking for a right answer.
• 15:53
  Susan: And life just doesn't have that kind of certainty.
• 15:58
  Susan: And when you're playing and you're looking for that answer, if you will, through play sometimes I've even put different colored question marks just on a page and turned the page.
• 16:10
  Susan: I mean the insights come slowly over time.
• 16:15
  Susan: But when you stop sort of what I call grinding or over-focusing, that obsessive thought loops, those are in our left side of our brain, those loops that go round and round, you play a little, it frees it.
• 16:27
  Susan: One thing I'll ask you and I ask this question a lot is have you ever had an answer or an idea come to you in like the shower or a tub?
• 16:37
  Susan: Yeah Right, that's very common.
• 16:40
  Susan: And you know why?
• 16:41
  Susan: Because you're not thinking about it right.
• 16:43
  Susan: You're immersed, water's warm, there's whatever about it.
• 16:48
  Susan: Right You're, you're immersed, water's warm, there's whatever you know smells of the soap.
• 16:50
  Susan: That's a little bit what allowing play into your life for just 10 minutes does for you.
• 16:58
  Cassandra: Wow, interesting.
• 16:59
  Cassandra: It's just like, uh, walking, you know cause you're not really thinking and you walk and you're like, oh, okay, cause that's how I discovered the, the title of my next book, just by walking one day, and I was like, oh my gosh, you know, because I was just free spirited out there, not being very serious.
• 17:18
  Cassandra: So I love that concept.
• 17:21
  Cassandra: Now tell me about a breakthrough moment that you may have had, or or maybe um your your clients, a breakthrough moment that you may have had, or or maybe um your clients, a breakthrough moment resulting from the practice of journaling or art of journaling sure I'll share um two.
• 17:39
  Susan: The first is very short.
• 17:40
  Susan: I was doing a workshop, uh, last fall and it's.
• 17:45
  Susan: I have people do two very short exercises in this particular workshop.
• 17:50
  Susan: It was two three minute exercises.
• 17:52
  Susan: And afterwards a lovely accomplished woman came, came up to me.
• 17:57
  Susan: She's raised three children, she's worked professionally, she's got big circle friends.
• 18:03
  Susan: And she came up to me and these two three minute exercises are about filling a page of paper right and with, while some music's playing, they're scribbling, they only have two crayons and I've given them different objectives.
• 18:16
  Susan: She came up to me and she said and she had a beautiful smile on her face she goes do you know that that is the first time in my adult life that I did not try and follow my a direction or a to do or a recipe?
• 18:35
  Susan: She goes it has dawned on me and there were like tears in her eyes and, like I said, she's got three raised children.
• 18:42
  Susan: So I don't know her exact age.
• 18:43
  Susan: So, to be fair, let's assume she's somewhere maybe in that 50 to 60 range that she always looks to follow a rule and to do what someone else told her to.
• 18:57
  Susan: And in those two exercises of just play one, she said it felt fantastic to do for what she wanted to do for just a few moments, and it was freeing.
• 19:13
  Susan: Now I don't know fully what all she's going to do.
• 19:14
  Susan: For just a few moments, and it was freeing.
• 19:15
  Susan: Now I don't know fully what all she's going to do with that, but at this life stage, having just become an empty nester and making some of these changes, the recognition to not always look for what someone else tells you to do was so profound it actually it gave me chills because of how fast that realization occurred For myself.
• 19:43
  Susan: And that's just when the client, once others happen slowly or they will start to understand an image better.
• 19:51
  Susan: I had told myself a series of stories about my next career transition when I was going to leave my corporate job.
• 20:00
  Susan: I was going to have a plan.
• 20:02
  Susan: I was going to stay three more years.
• 20:04
  Susan: I couldn't just quit because I've got too much energy.
• 20:06
  Susan: I'd go crazy and well-meaning people would say that.
• 20:09
  Susan: And what I noticed in my own just playing with art practice because I had started this years before is, um, I ended up with a lot of catalogs.
• 20:19
  Susan: I think it was during COVID that this had happened and my job got very difficult and I we're checking the mail and still getting things in the mail, yes, and I had all these windy, foggy paths that I was collaging and I went back.
• 20:37
  Susan: I didn't really know why, right, and I was sort of questioning and knew my life just wasn't fitting anymore.
• 20:44
  Susan: I was feeling a lot of anger, quite honestly.
• 20:47
  Susan: I kept thinking as I was drawing these little screaming faces with my crayons and flames, and I'm thinking what has happened to me?
• 20:55
  Susan: How have I become such an angry person?
• 20:58
  Susan: You know I view myself as this positive person, but when you're just playing, it's amazing what you don't stuff down and what comes out.
• 21:06
  Susan: And I finally realized through time and this is why it can be helpful to work with a coach this was the discovery I made is why it can be helpful to work with a coach is I was this was the discovery I made is I needed to sort of take that leap.
• 21:20
  Susan: I needed to go on that windy, unclear path and be comfortable with it.
• 21:22
  Susan: Didn't mean I wasn't afraid yes, it didn't, but it was becoming too hard to stay stuck Right and that's an interesting moment for people who are stuck.
• 21:35
  Susan: There's a quote I used in my book.
• 21:37
  Susan: It's it's.
• 21:39
  Susan: You know to paraphrase it, because I'm not remember the exact thing.
• 21:42
  Susan: It's like we don't bud until it's too hard to stay stuck.
• 21:46
  Susan: That it's how resistant humans are to to change, and so you're trying to just find easier ways to get comfortable with change, and I really work with clients on what's the smallest, smallest thing you can do today.
• 22:02
  Susan: You don't have to write an entire book.
• 22:04
  Susan: Can you write for 10 minutes badly?
• 22:06
  Susan: I have a person who wants I'm working with a person who wants to write a book, but she insists on editing as she writes, and that is the death of creativity, because you are both creator and immediate judge and I'm really working with her to do 10 minutes of bad writing and stick it in a folder and say my intention is to actually write badly, where you're telling yourself I am giving my self permission.
• 22:37
  Susan: I don't need an editor to write badly, I don't need a judge, I'm just going to spew.
• 22:42
  Susan: I know it's not going to be good and then I'm just going to save it in a folder and I'm only going to do it for 10 minutes, because that's going to feel uncomfortable and that's actually the way a lot of people get stuff done, but it's so hard to get out of our way, which is once again why I love the title.
• 22:59
  Susan: Yeah, yeah.
• 23:01
  Cassandra: So let me ask you, like my listeners that are stuck and in the beginning I talked about, particularly this time when people are losing their jobs based on the administration that we have here in the White House and there's a lot of ambiguity that's out there and people are just so on edge, which they have a right to be.
• 23:25
  Cassandra: You know, these are careers and you know, you never think, I would never think that the government would lay people off because that was unheard of.
• 23:34
  Cassandra: Now that things have changed, you know, because that was unheard of.
• 23:36
  Cassandra: So, now that things have changed, you know, and that can be part of a grief, you know you lost your job, grieving like we talked about infertility, paralyzed by fear.
• 23:50
  Cassandra: So, my listeners listening to you, so my listeners listening to you, how would you walk them through?
• 23:57
  Cassandra: I guess it would be the art journaling in order to transition.
• 24:03
  Cassandra: And when you talked about the bud, it made me think about the butterfly.
• 24:06
  Cassandra: That was a worm, chrysalis, that's right.
• 24:09
  Cassandra: And all of a sudden it becomes this beautiful, it transforms, and it just like wow, wow, isn't this amazing?
• 24:17
  Cassandra: But just don't but think of what they go through, why they are worms, because I used to be afraid of them and I used to also step on them.
• 24:24
  Cassandra: I was very young then.
• 24:26
  Cassandra: It wasn't that I was a cruel kid, but I was no, I was afraid of them.
• 24:30
  Cassandra: What can my listeners do as it relates to art journaling, to get them in the right side of their brain, like, how would you navigate?
• 24:46
  Cassandra: Or tell them, like, this is a workshop, a mini little workshop, and they're liking what they're hearing, but how do they get started?
• 24:53
  Cassandra: What would they do?
• 24:56
  Susan: So the first thing I would say is there's three stages to any transition and unfortunately they're not linear as much as we want them to be linear.
• 25:04
  Susan: So there is the ending and you need to.
• 25:08
  Susan: If you have had a shock, you have been laid off and you never thought you would be laid off.
• 25:13
  Susan: A relationship has ended, suddenly Something has happened to you that is a shock.
• 25:19
  Susan: You need to give yourself some space, even if maybe you're doing other things because of economics, looking for a job, to just grieve.
• 25:28
  Susan: You can use art journaling to process that emotion, right.
• 25:33
  Susan: Like I said, you can cry into it, you can drop tears, it's whatever you're seeing.
• 25:38
  Susan: You can use it as a place to process, but it's very important to honor when something has ended Okay and to spend some time.
• 25:48
  Susan: This is what we talk about in some of the life, if you will, transformation coaching, because if you just try and get through that, you carry the grief, the heaviness with you and it can really zap your energy.
• 26:03
  Susan: So there does need to be a little bit of allowing yourself to process.
• 26:09
  Susan: Then there's this big messy middle, and we hate the big messy middle because we want to know.
• 26:14
  Susan: Right to the new thing, the new life.
• 26:16
  Susan: Unfortunately, in the messy middle, you're going backwards, you're going sideways, you do sort of two steps forward because you don't know.
• 26:24
  Susan: Right, if I'm going to keep using your analogy or your example of someone who's recently lost their, their job Right, what is the job market?
• 26:34
  Susan: What do they want to do?
• 26:35
  Susan: How do they even market themselves?
• 26:37
  Susan: All the stories you're telling yourself is this the time for a career pivot?
• 26:43
  Susan: Right, because there's all these things you want to do.
• 26:45
  Susan: You can be using playing with art and the art journal to process these feelings and seeing what comes up.
• 26:52
  Susan: Right, you can be asking yourself certain questions, like one day you could work on, what did I love about my job and career?
• 27:00
  Susan: What am I happy to not do anymore?
• 27:03
  Susan: What does this make possible?
• 27:07
  Susan: Now, after you've done some grieving In that messy middle, which can go on for a long time, you're just looking for what I call glimmers glimmers of hope, glimmers of joy, things that light you up.
• 27:20
  Susan: Yes, the what if that makes you feel sort of giddy versus afraid.
• 27:27
  Susan: Right, the last stage is the new beginning and although we all want to get there, the new beginning can come with some surprises too.
• 27:35
  Susan: It may not be quite what you thought.
• 27:38
  Susan: It may be disorienting and remembering to give yourself a lot of time.
• 27:42
  Susan: So in your caterpillar to butterfly analogy the old really dissolves, and if you think of what it would be like to dissolve that old self and then fight your way out of a cocoon to fly, that's what's happening in a major life transition.
• 28:03
  Susan: It's why I do that coaching Right, and it's why art journaling can sort of help you work, work through it.
• 28:09
  Susan: My I have a online course that really does sort of try and walk people through that with a workbook, the different stages, because, as much as we want it to be over, that's how we grow through those experiences.
• 28:24
  Cassandra: Right, yeah, yeah, and, as you indicated, like it's a process that you can't really do by yourself.
• 28:33
  Cassandra: You know you need someone to help and guide you through that process, Because in art journaling, do you have to?
• 28:41
  Cassandra: It's like like always, like what is it Sip?
• 28:46
  Cassandra: And art, like you know, you go somewhere and but I'm like I don't know how to draw, you know, so can they can be held back because they're like I don't know what to do, I don't know what to draw, so they just draw anything, just do anything.
• 29:01
  Susan: Yeah, so for art journaling.
• 29:03
  Susan: Ideally people view it as your written journal and it's whatever you feel like.
• 29:11
  Susan: So the exercise I have people start with is just take two crayons and find a song on their phone three minutes, something upbeat and just fill a small sheet of paper, maybe five by seven, just fill it.
• 29:24
  Susan: So it's a constrained exercise.
• 29:26
  Susan: You're just playing.
• 29:27
  Susan: As a kid you played with crayons and art.
• 29:31
  Susan: You weren't always following things, you just.
• 29:33
  Susan: Your favorite drawings were not the drawings where you were in a color book as a kid.
• 29:38
  Cassandra: Yes.
• 29:39
  Susan: They were you drawing whatever.
• 29:41
  Susan: I have another exercise where you think of what you used to love to draw.
• 29:45
  Susan: I know it's a lot of women.
• 29:47
  Susan: It's like hearts, rabbits, trees, house, and you do that for four minutes.
• 29:52
  Susan: You just think about what it was as a kid that you loved to draw.
• 29:57
  Susan: If it was a shape, if it was a smiley face, if it was butterfly wings right, yeah, a bird.
• 30:04
  Susan: You learned something that was really simple.
• 30:07
  Susan: What does it feel like for four minutes just to draw that Again on a page?
• 30:12
  Susan: You can throw the page away, away.
• 30:13
  Susan: You can be keeping it in a, in a book, so it's not so much.
• 30:17
  Susan: What do I, uh, what am I going to draw?
• 30:21
  Susan: You can look at the page, say how do I feel today?
• 30:24
  Susan: Maybe you're feeling really sad.
• 30:26
  Susan: How do you want to express that?
• 30:28
  Susan: It can be a sad face, it can be an eye.
• 30:32
  Susan: I mean, it could be anything.
• 30:33
  Susan: I'm just telling you some of the symbols I use.
• 30:35
  Susan: Or I've seen people use.
• 30:37
  Susan: I've seen people use clouds, a wet blanket, a stick figure laying on the ground right With a foot coming down right.
• 30:46
  Susan: That's what's sort of creative, but a little bit it starts with the.
• 30:51
  Susan: I'm going to take 10 minutes.
• 30:52
  Susan: How am I feeling?
• 30:54
  Susan: Or, or sometimes it's like what would be fun to draw on a cloudy day.
• 30:58
  Susan: Sometimes I'll just draw a sun if I want to see the sun, right, so it doesn't have to start meaningful or deep.
• 31:05
  Susan: It's that I want to just play for a few minutes versus reading the news?
• 31:11
  Susan: I will tell you, yes, if you've got news on your phone, take one of those times where you might read it today, or scroll on Instagram or whatever your social media is, and draw, even with just a pen, for five minutes Doodle something and you'll feel a little bit lighter a little bit lighter.
• 31:40
  Cassandra: Yeah, yeah it's.
• 31:40
  Cassandra: It's kind of like, how does a curious?
• 31:42
  Susan: mindset be key to transition.
• 31:43
  Susan: Difficult life transition, yeah, In a difficult in any life transition, but the more difficult when you feel like your the rug has been ripped out from under you in my Like the rug has been ripped out from under you.
• 32:00
  Susan: In the certification program I took on helping to coach people through life transitions.
• 32:02
  Susan: We call some of these like life quakes.
• 32:03
  Susan: It's one thing when we have one transition, but sometimes we end up with multiple.
• 32:07
  Susan: A job could be lost.
• 32:08
  Susan: We have to move.
• 32:09
  Susan: Maybe a relationship has ended, Maybe you're having to leave other people, and I just want to say it felt like my life got flushed down the toilet Right.
• 32:20
  Susan: So when that is going on, right, it is important to mourn what is lost, but the other side of that question is to also be thinking about what is all of a sudden made possible.
• 32:37
  Susan: What wasn't ideal about these situations?
• 32:40
  Susan: What does this allow me to do now, With people facing health things?
• 32:45
  Susan: Many times there is no upside.
• 32:46
  Susan: I will be really clear.
• 32:48
  Susan: But there is a question is who do I want to be during this?
• 32:51
  Susan: Sometimes people become freer, more open, more vulnerable.
• 32:56
  Susan: How can I get through this with grace?
• 33:03
  Susan: Sometimes that's a very motivating question when we are in a situation where we feel like we have very little control to think about what is in our control, to think about what is in our control, which can be choosing in a moment to read some jokes, to ask for help.
• 33:24
  Susan: So you know we've gone very, very broad.
• 33:27
  Susan: But I think there is something important in transitions where you're honoring what's being lost and how jarring that is, as well as starting to look, not when you're in your most sad moment, but in a moment where there's a little bit of levity or lightness about like huh, what positive thing is this bringing up?
• 33:52
  Susan: How can I follow that?
• 33:54
  Susan: How can I add a little more of that to my life?
• 33:58
  Cassandra: Right.
• 33:59
  Cassandra: So you're not saying, as soon as something happens, like the job loss or the grief for, or um, you or, or, either you want to get promoted, you're just sick of being in this job.
• 34:14
  Cassandra: We're not to say that you do art right away because you like what, you know.
• 34:19
  Cassandra: That's just.
• 34:20
  Cassandra: You know what.
• 34:22
  Cassandra: What do you mean?
• 34:23
  Cassandra: I just lost such and such.
• 34:25
  Cassandra: I just lost my job.
• 34:26
  Cassandra: But, like you said, I liked it when you said, when you have a space like, okay, you know, if you go out there and you use that right side of the brain, it may free you up.
• 34:40
  Cassandra: And then, as you are freed up and you use this, but you may discover then you know what, Maybe I'll, Maybe I'll do some art journaling.
• 34:50
  Cassandra: You know it doesn't, because you know I don't want listeners to think, OK, right, I'm not in the mood for this.
• 34:57
  Cassandra: But and I always say, do you want to get better?
• 35:02
  Cassandra: You can either be better or better, Absolutely yeah.
• 35:05
  Cassandra: You have to make a decision because we have within ourselves what it is that we can do.
• 35:13
  Cassandra: We can't make anybody do anything.
• 35:15
  Cassandra: So I just wanted to highlight that, to say that you want to.
• 35:21
  Cassandra: I mean, it's something inside you want to, but maybe not right then.
• 35:25
  Cassandra: But it could be a time that you're like, okay, I'm ready now I'm ready to get better.
• 35:31
  Susan: Absolutely.
• 35:31
  Susan: It can also be, as a person who has screamed alone in my car, made myself hoarse, screaming, screamed into a pillow.
• 35:40
  Susan: We need to release sometimes and finding healthy ways and when I say healthy ways sometimes when we're overwhelmed, times when we're overwhelmed, we can take it out on another person or overburdened.
• 35:59
  Susan: So that is also where, like I said, shooting flames, writing whatever words feel good in a dark color in an art journal page and you can turn the page.
• 36:09
  Susan: I think we need outlets at certain times when we're overwhelmed, so you can use art in that case for a safe space as the energy builds in our body when we're upset.
• 36:22
  Susan: Finding a release.
• 36:23
  Susan: Sometimes you know jumping jacks and people say I just have to run around the block, I just have to scream, right, I try and find things for anyone I'm working with that helps them feel empowered and doesn't do damage to someone else, and it's in trying to find a positive way to express it.
• 36:58
  Susan: That stays positive for you, right?
• 37:01
  Susan: Which is why I like sometimes that the screaming is hugely cathartic, not at someone Cause.
• 37:08
  Susan: The problem is when we release, when we unleash on someone, then there's a guilt loop.
• 37:13
  Susan: When you're alone, or screaming into a pillow, you may scare If you have a pet.
• 37:18
  Susan: I have definitely scared my cats, but it didn't negatively impact a family member, right.
• 37:28
  Cassandra: Mm-hmm, mm-hmm, right.
• 37:30
  Susan: And it honored that I was feeling that upset.
• 37:35
  Cassandra: Exactly, exactly, and I like this perspective creating your best life by making a mess, yeah, and because and I'm so hung up, what you talked about that right side and that left side brain side and that left side brain it's kind of like it's good to loosen up if you can.
• 37:57
  Cassandra: You know it's good to, and it's okay to make a mess because we, I know I'm I'm a perfectionist, you know I do everything, just right, you know.
• 38:12
  Cassandra: So if I do anything and it's out of the line or whatever, I'm like, oh my goodness, but what you're saying, it's okay, you know, just scribble on a sheet of paper, get that side of your brain to have a little more joy and fun, like a kid, like a child.
• 38:22
  Cassandra: You know the wonder that a child has is just amazing.
• 38:26
  Cassandra: You know like wow, and we were like oh, okay, but we were that wow when we were younger, and so I like what you're talking about is just the perspective, the simplicity and authenticity of a child's perspective.
• 38:45
  Cassandra: I think that's a wonder, wonder, wow.
• 38:51
  Cassandra: So, susan, you have a call to action that I'd like for you to share with my listeners, which is a quick starter guide.
• 39:00
  Cassandra: Would you explain a quick starter guide?
• 39:03
  Susan: for them.
• 39:03
  Susan: Sure, sure do On my website, download it, it's free, it's just one page.
• 39:09
  Susan: And if any of this is intrigued and you think, okay, I sort of from talk, I want to start art journaling, it just sort of gets you started on it.
• 39:16
  Susan: Like I said, it's free, it's just on the website.
• 39:19
  Susan: What I love about playing with art and art journaling is anyone listening to this, as long as they're not like actively driving can find usually a piece of like scrap paper and something to doodle with, right right down in a purse or in a backpack somewhere and can play.
• 39:37
  Susan: So it's a really low barrier thing.
• 39:39
  Susan: So, yeah, on my website there's a free guide to get you started okay, and what's the uh?
• 39:46
  Cassandra: what's your website?
• 39:48
  Susan: it's just susan dash hensley and hensley's h-e-n-s-l-e-ycom, so I tried to keep it simple yeah, that is simple, the simplicity of a childlike spirit.
• 39:59
  Cassandra: I love that, wow.
• 40:03
  Cassandra: Well, is there anything that you else would like to share with my listeners who have um, um, want to stop letting fear be their, their guide and start navigating change with confidence and curiosity?
• 40:20
  Susan: Yeah, so if you think of the flip side of fear, it's not necessarily bravery, it's curiosity, I think.
• 40:27
  Susan: And when you're in fear you're thinking like what if I don't want this to happen, I don't want to happen.
• 40:34
  Susan: When you flip that and you look around and it's like what's possible, it can be very motivating.
• 40:43
  Susan: When we're in fear, we shrink.
• 40:45
  Susan: Yes, right, when we are curious, it expands us.
• 40:51
  Susan: We are curious, it expands us and I think that's what I'd like to really leave your listeners with is fear keeps us so small and shrunken, whereas curiosity and you get to curiosity through play, sometimes put on your favorite upbeat song and like dance, in a few minutes you shake that off.
• 41:11
  Susan: You feel so much more open than when you're shrunken and sort of pulled within your side yourself because you're afraid.
• 41:18
  Susan: So I like people to sort of use their body and try and just flip, if only for a few minutes, because it's not dangerous for a few minutes, just to do a little bit of play.
• 41:28
  Susan: Right, we all remember as children, to your point you're talking about the awe and wonder.
• 41:34
  Susan: We remember it, we feel it and you tell yourself it's only for two minutes.
• 41:38
  Susan: Can I do this for two minutes, for three minutes?
• 41:42
  Susan: And the answer is yes yes, I love that.
• 41:46
  Cassandra: So, listeners, we have heard susan hensley and I know that many of you have heard something that has given you an awe or a moment.
• 41:58
  Cassandra: Think about that right side of the brain, that left side of the brain and we're not saying that this will take everything away immediately, based on these major life changes, but yet to know that it's all possible, and I want to thank Susan for her.
• 42:16
  Cassandra: I'm calling this a different modality on how you transition out of things for the better, and I'd like for you listeners to share this podcast with someone that you know it will bless.
• 42:32
  Cassandra: Podcast with someone that you know it will bless.
• 42:36
  Cassandra: I am definitely going to do some art journaling, because I'm a journaler anyway, but it just tickles me to just scribble on paper just for a couple minutes sometimes, so that I can get out of that the right side of the no, it's the left side of the brain and I cause I'm in it too much and I need to start enjoying life and I need to start having more fun, just like my listeners do as well.
• 42:59
  Cassandra: So, again, susan, thank you so much for your insight and, as I share with my listeners, I'll say God bless, if you like this podcast that comes on every Wednesday one o'clock live.
• 43:13
  Cassandra: Please like it and subscribe it, to subscribe to it and share with your friends.
• 43:18
  Cassandra: So for all of you I'll say God bless.
• 43:21
  Cassandra: Thanks again and bye for now.
• 43:24
  Cassandra: Thanks again, susan, goodbye.