Tuesday's Thought (S18E2)

Hey my darlings, it's lovely to be back with another episode of our experimental Tuesday's Thought. So the intention with these is just to go a little deeper with some of the themes from the most recent episode of the Henny Flynn podcast and I'm Henny if you don't already know me. So in the weekend episode I reflected on what does it mean to hold on to love when fear, hate and division seem to be rising around us? And we looked at how can we take meaningful action without being consumed by reaction. You know, there's this very kind of beautiful principle that, you know, comes from many spiritual teachings, which is about responding rather than reacting.

So responding from a place of wisdom and calm and clarity rather than a kind of high emotional push. And the high emotional push is incredibly human, it's part of what defines our humanness in some ways and part of what defines our humanness in many other ways is the fact that we are also capable of finding this still place inside us. So, that was really kind of the main theme. And then as I was reflecting, you know, after I recorded the episode, I was thinking, well, you know, I'd originally planned to speak about freedom and then had ended up talking about all this other stuff. But my sort of subsequent reflection was, well, of course we were talking about freedom.

Of course we were, because we were talking about the freedom that we have inside us to choose how we feel even in the face of truly challenging things and you know I am not in any way underplaying some of the stuff that is, know, unfolding around us. It is incredibly challenging and there'll be things going on in the macro environment that are very challenging and there'll be things going on in the micro environment, you know, the environment that is really, really close to you. I know, you know, an awful lot of people who are feeling the ripple effect of stuff that's happening, in the wider world. And, and so much of the teaching, that I have consumed, and that I see around me shows us how even in the face of incredibly challenging situations, do have this capacity to, to find a more hopeful place inside us. And I think that's really kind of the essence of what I wanted today's thought to be about.

You know, hope is the thing that helps us not only hold space for all of the challenging stuff, but also find a way through it. And as I've been opening up, you know, ever more widely to hope, I've felt many hopeful things even just in the few days since doing that episode. I've seen a number of examples of young men sharing poems or songs about unity and connection and really using their platform, their social media platform to amplify those messages. I've also watched a friend, again on social media, you know, it's not all bad is it? Walking for seven days from Birmingham to London, demonstrating the kindness of strangers.

And I've had many messages in my inbox this week from people who are proving to themselves that they are finding their way and they're doing it with compassion, with calm, with clarity and with the confidence that also comes from hope. I remember talking to my husband about hope, was sort of doing quite a lot of work, for myself around hope and I was, running a course I think around hope and, and one of the things my husband said was, well without hope we're hopeless and gosh like we know the feeling of that word hopeless, that is so weighted and yet we also know the feeling of the word hopeful, hopeful, full of hope, you know, with hope we are hopeful and even just, well for me anyway, even just saying those words, you know, I feel one drops me and the other lifts me and all of the conditions around me are exactly the same in those, you know, specific moments. Nothing else has changed apart from my internal weather. And so, you know, I feel that there is something incredibly powerful here about really holding on to hope. And, way back in season four, you know, we're now on season eighteen of the podcast, but way back in season four, I was speaking with someone who's become a dear friend, Susan McCulley, and if you've heard any of our episodes together, I think you'll agree she is awesome.

And we were talking about this concept of hope and she shared a quote from David Roberts and the quote is, hope isn't about the future as much as it is about the present. I'm gonna say that again, Hope isn't about the future as much as it is about the present. I really love that because what that speaks to is that feeling that I was just describing in my body. You know, when I feel hopeful, my body is different right now. The thing that I'm hopeful about might not yet have come to pass, but I'm preparing for it internally.

And I think that is one of our most powerful defenses against people who don't yet understand, who haven't yet found their way to seeing that actually when we respond to the world with love, everything pretty much goes a lot easier. So Susan and I were actually talking during the time of COVID, but many of the reflections in that particular episode feel just as resonant today. So if you want to have a listen to that one, I'm going to put a link in the show notes. And of course have a listen to the episode, the season eighteen episode two, episode that I've just been talking about, where I was, you know, where we looked at, you know, Love is the Way and, how to navigate, some of the more challenging things in the world right now. And I'm gonna leave you with a reflective question which you might wish to journal about or just, you know, let it wander around in your brain for a little while.

And the question is, what makes you hopeful? And if you feel doubt or your inner cynic or your inner critic come in or fear or anger, that's okay. We can welcome them and we can let them know there is room within us for all of them too. And we can ask the question again, what makes you hopeful? All right, my darlings, I will see you at the weekend with another episode of the Henny Flynn podcast, and if you don't yet subscribe then please do and I'll see you next week with another episode of Tuesday's Thought this experimental, reflective episode.

Alright loves, have a beautiful week ahead and I send you a hug and a wave.