Finding Your Clear Eye
Intro Content
Show Opener
Kathy: This is permission to play. A podcast for creatives and other humans who sometimes wonder: Where the F-- did my mojo go? My moxi, my marbles. Why am I so stuck, lost, depressed? God, how do I break free? Well, I have something I live by: Think less, play more. This podcast is your permission to play. Together we'll explore all things helpful for the care and feeding of the
Episode Intro
Hey guys. Welcome back to the podcast. This is what I call one of my little chatty Kathy, Minisodes, or sometimes I call 'em my Little Golden Nugs, which or my Little Golden Keys. I don't know. I don't know. We're gonna find out what these are called, but for now, these are my little Minisodes and I will be posting these probably once a week.
And, but no pressure on me. Um, but it'll be in between my longer conversations that I have with my lovely and amazing guests because:
Number A, it's fun. And Two: I just have thoughts sometimes that I feel I need to share.
So I just pop on my phone. Record them just for you. So, um, And I started doing this way back when I first started working on the podcast.
I'm gonna just start posting them from like the first one moving forward.
Yeah, so this one was recorded the day before my podcast launched back at the end of January. And, you can tell how freaking wiped out I was. I was so tired, and I, I think I made this, I'm sure I made this early in the morning. And, um, so I hope I don't put you to sleep, but, uh, I don't know, maybe the idea was to relax you.
Not sure. Anyway, there is a nugget of wisdom in there, so I hope you enjoy. I hope you enjoy it and, uh, you know, maybe a little whiny, uh, about how hard it is waaa to be a podcaster waa, why am I doing it?
No I'm doing it because I love it. I love it. It's just a lot of freaking work Anyway...
So they'll be scattered through here. I hope you'll pop in. Take a quick listen.
They're meant to encourage you, brighten your day, give you a little lift or a laugh, or a, huh? What the...?
So I hope you enjoy chatty Kathy's Little Nugs. I don't know, maybe you can help me figure out what we're gonna call these.
Uh, but I do wanna tell you that because I am going to post as I'm able, because I'm wearing all the hats in this project, and editing takes for freaking ever.
One way for you to know what's coming and you can pick and choose what you wanna listen to. An easy way would be to jump on my mailing list so that I can let you know.
I'm just gonna email when I've got something fun or funny to share with you, but for sure, podcast episodes...
You know, it might be that I sold myself a little bit short there. I, you know, I take a lot of time writing these newsletters. They're, they're meant to be just little love letters to you. And, um, you know, I, I th there might be stories, there might be some poems, there might be some little Golden Nugs in there.
Um, but I guarantee it won't be boring, that's all. And it won't be spammy, and it won't be selling you a bunch of shit. I mean, it might, it might someday sell you some shit.
But and, and al always in the most fun possible way, and the most fun possible shit will I sell only.
But for right now, it's little love bombs and little thoughts, and it's sort of the written version of these little Minisodes really.
So jump on there if you like getting a letter from a friend, because I'm your friend, right?
So you can do that by going to the show notes. There'll always be links there to help you get where you need to go.
Or to my website, kathymartens.com. Also my Instagram bio, Facebook bio. Other places like that, there'll be a link in there where you can find all things Chatty Kathy Martens. So enjoy and we'll talk again soon.
Main Episode Content
So I'm sitting here just finishing up a meditation time, and it's actually one day in the countdown to the launch of my podcast. So it's day minus one, I guess. I don't know how that works... but anyway.
And I've been meditating with this gal named Sarah Blondin, who is an amazing meditation guide. I highly recommend her.
You can find her on Insight Timer, which is a great meditation app. Her name's Sarah Blondin: B-L-O-N-D-I-N.
I return to this one meditation over and over because I can relate to it so strongly. She talks about finding and reconnecting your center.
I always see the metaphor of a hurricane for the way I often relate to life, and especially in the middle of a huge, unwieldy project.
This one being especially charged with emotion because it's so close to my heart and something I've wanted to do for so long, and something I've been so terrified to actually try and I'm daring to enter the arena and put myself out there despite my terror.
So there's a lot of swirling. There's a lot of hurricane force winds howling around me on many levels. Emotional, yes, but also just the sheer of putting together a project like this.
If you, you know, count in all of the marketing or social media aspects or just trying to get the word out there and all of the technical aspects of just all of it, it's huge.
Just trust me, if you've never done it, it, it's huge.
And typically podcasts, many of them have staff and there's multiple people working, but here I am with my six hats spread out in front of me on the table.
The point I'm trying to get at here is that if you think about a hurricane and that eye in the middle. That spot where it's calm. There is that place in the center of you.
And I find that place in me when I sit in meditation and get into being still and just focusing on just my breath and that current moment.
The more I do that, the more I make that a priority, especially in the face of something so consuming like this project, the more access I seem to have to the fruit of that time spent so...
When I'm actually in the midst of the boots on the ground work and I find myself swirling, like getting caught in that massive spinny energy, because I spent this time, I still kind of have a thread running back to that calm place and I can remember that and tap into it and just, you know, get a toe hold back in there and be pulled back into that space so that I have a more expansive view of the things that I'm doing; so that there's more calm in my mind to focus, and find the joy of what I'm doing, rather than spinning off into the stories and the terror and the frustration and the unknown.
And I get connected to like a more adult, grownup part of myself that's able to just say, "Everybody, calm down. It's all right. If you have to poop, go. Don't poop on the couch."
Um, I just wanted to share that when you're facing something, anything in life that makes you feel like you're surrounded by howling winds and you know, bending trees, and flying cars, I highly recommend plugging into some tool that helps you access just a few moments of connecting with that deep, deep place in yourself that is calm.
That is the deepest part of knowing yourself and knowing who you are aside from all the stuff and all the stories.
And just being being with that, connecting with that. And then practice when you step back out of your door into the wind, keeping a lifeline plugged into that space.
And the more you practice that, the more skill you get. And the more it just shows up for you, honestly. I don't, I don't e I'm not even sure it's a matter of skill. It's just, it's a weird reciprocity of: when you give yourself that space and time, the deepest part of yourself, then the deepest part of yourself keeps showing up amid chaos and amid challenging moments.
It might take time for that muscle to get strengthened, but I know from my own experience that it's a thing and it happens.
So just wanna encourage you with that, be a voice of hope if you're struggling, and be a voice of love and gratitude that you take the time to listen to these little love notes.
So be well, be encouraged. And I hope your day is lovely, and that you find that spaciousness in the center of it all. We'll talk again soon. Bye.
Show Closer
If you enjoyed this episode, please come back for more. I've got some really interesting and inspiring guests on tap for upcoming episodes.
I've got award-winning authors, plant medicine people, nervous system experts, just a smorgasboard of goodness and curiosity.
And speaking of award-winning authors coming up next week, Sarah Selecky.
Sarah Selecky is the author of the collection This Cake is for the Party, which was a finalist for the Giller Prize, shortlisted for the Commonwealth Book Prize and long listed for the Frank O'Connor International Short Story Award.
Her novel Radiant Shimmering Light has been published in multiple countries around the world. And optioned for a television series.
Sarah earned her MFA from the University of British Columbia, and in 2011 she founded the Sarah s Selecky Writing School, which has become a creative community for thousands of writers around the world.
Sarah is an exceptional writer and teacher, and a warm and bighearted human. She follows her curiosity and sense of play in everything she does.
Join us for this playful and enlightening conversation. Whether or not you consider yourself a writer, you're sure to come away with some thought provoking and helpful insights for art, wellbeing, and life.
And also, if you could please help me grow my audience by sharing with your friends, and especially by subscribing to, rating, and reviewing the show.
Here's a simple way to do that. Just click the RateThisPodcast link in the show notes, or go to RateThisPodcast.com/permissiontoplay. Follow three quick and easy steps and bam, you've helped all the people find Chatty Kathy Martens and Permission to Play. See how easy that was.
Thank you so much my friends. It means so much that you chose to spend your precious time with me today. Be well and remember to think less, play more. Grant yourself permission to play.