Stay ConnectedThe Creative Introvert Podcast is the podcast for creatives, makers, artists and entrepreneurs who prefer to work solo.
Cat Rose digs deep into the struggles creative introverts face and provides you with actionable tips every week. Topics tackled include: battling fear, increasing confidence, self-promotion without feeling sleazy, and overcoming procrastination.
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In this week’s episode of the Creative Introvert podcast I talk to Dana Kaye of Branding Outside the Box.
Dana helps driven entrepreneurs make more meaningful use of time by offering simple, easy-to-implement productivity hacks. At Branding Outside the Box, Dana draws from her experience helping hundreds authors launch their unique brands.
What we discussed:Another group activity today, this time: a Yin yoga workshop.
Why all the group activities, you might be wondering? After all, isn't this an INTROVERT'S Year of Fun?
It's true, as an introvert I do value my alone time. Oh boy do I value it. And if I don't get enough of it, yes, I become a grumpy, tired and all around unpleasant person to be around. Which works out because then I can have my alone time again.
But one thing I have become aware of in this Year of Fun (also, can you believe we're nearly half way through?) is that I ALSO get a lot from group activities.
That is, I get a lot from certain group activities. In fact my range of pleasure from group activities is incredibly limited, but it's also incredibly intense.
Like a laser beam of fun, rather than a ceiling light.
One thing that made me realise that I ought to give more group settings a try is being in ceremony back in Peru. I LOVED that intimate group setting.
Just being in a circle in a dark room that smelled nice probably did a lot for me.
However, you're also probably aware by now of some of the groups that haven't been to my liking, notably the intense and arguably unfriendly Charleston gang, as well as the happy clappy hippies of the holotropic breathwork. Not for me.
So this week I decided a yoga workshop, a yin one at that, would be more to my taste.
For one, it was an activity I was already familiar with.
For two, it was going to be in a small group, I had guessed less than 10.
Plus it checked off my classic introvert-friendly time limit of 2 hours. Perfect.
In this week’s episode of the Creative Introvert podcast I talk to Caroline Van Kimmenade of the Happy Sensitive.
I’ve talked a little bit about being a hsp or a highly sensitive person on the podcast before, and you might be familiar with the term yourself. You might even consider yourself to be one - while not all introverts are HSPs, there is a good majority, something estimated around 70% of all introverts.
And you might have read the classic book by Elaine Aron, who I believe introduced the world to the term, or at least popularised it. But my go-to girl for practical advice and reassuring words is Caroline Van Kimmenade, also known as the Happy Sensitive.
What we discussed:My interest in the nature of the mind, consciousness and all things esoteric has been steadily growing since I was at university. That said, I wasn’t exactly scientific in my approaches to this exploration. A few space cakes won’t make you an existential philosopher, even if you think so at the time.
I found yoga and through that, meditation, in my early twenties and I literally don’t know what my life would be like if I hadn’t. I’m not sure if I’d have a life.
But I never dove in very deeply beyond some Youtube videos and may be the odd class.
That was until I made my way to Brighton, where I found a community - in fact a city - of people who LOVE to have the big, deep conversations as much as I do, and who can teach me a whole lot more than a Youtube video.
So where has this led me? Well, for one it led my to Peru, which you might have hear if you’ve been following along.
It has also led me down less adventurous, but arguably as powerful for some, practises such as today’s YOF adventure: Breathwork.
I’d only come across this term 6 months ago, and since hearing about it on a podcast or two, I let it sit on my to-do list, but didn’t really take it further.
Until, I got back from Peru and decided I need to start exploring this stuff further. Partly because I think there’s a lot more to this world than what meets the eye, and partly because I’m bloody dubious about many of the practises that are offered, and I want to be able to sort the wheat from the chaff.
So last week, in the name of science, and fun, I tried a breathwork workshop.
When I first heard of breathwork, I just assumed it was some variation on the kind of stuff you might do in a yoga class. Breath of fire, lions breath - these are all different techniques that I’ve dabbled in, not without some resistance, when in a yoga class.
Much of a muchness, if I’m honest. But what I’d heard about this kind of breathwork, more specifically known as Holotropic Breathwork, is that it takes you a LOT further. And by further, I mean it doesn’t just calm you down for 10 minutes. I mean it can take you to places in your mind (or to some, other realms) and do as much work on your psyche as you could in an hour or two with a therapist.
Yikes.
Naturally, I went with an open but skeptical mind. (Yes, it’s possible to have both at once.)
To explain what I was getting myself into, i’ll read from the website that I booked the workshop through:
"What if there was something right under your nose that could change the way you see the world and offer you health, harmony and peace of mind? Wouldn’t you want to know what that was?
Alchemy of Breath is a system of breathing practices that restore your self-awareness, love and compassion. By working with Anthony you will discover breathing techniques that will have an immediate effect on your wellbeing, and can be incorporated instantly into your daily life, improving your relationship with yourself, and therefore with the world around you."
OK. Not bad considering breathing is free (though the workshop definitely was not.)
I’ll also point to Stanislav Grof, who you might be familiar with, but for everyone else: he's a Czech psychiatrist, one of the founders of the field of transpersonal psychology and a researcher into the use of non-ordinary states of consciousness for purposes of exploring, healing, and obtaining growth and insights into the human psyche.
And he is responsible for bringing holotropic breathwork to the wide world. Interestingly, he developed it as a kind of legal-successor to his LSD-based psychedelic therapy, following the suppression of legal LSD use in the late 1960s.
According to a 2009 publication from the American Cancer Association, "Breathwork has no verified beneficial effect on health, although there is some evidence it may help relaxation. However, some people find its effects distressing.”
OK. Fine. I’ll take my chances I thought...
Raise your hand if you’ve ever said that to yourself or anyone else. (Unless you’re in a public place, in which case, I’ll let you off the hook with a blink.) You probably already know on a deeper level that it isn’t really lack of time that’s stopping you from pursuing your dreams, ambitions - or just getting those little nagging tasks taken care of. There’s the old Instagram adage: “You have the same hours in the day as Beyoncé…” To which we reply, "BUT BEYONCÉ ISN'T DRIVING HER KIDS TO SCHOOL TODAY!” I’ve come to the conclusion that even Beyoncé is probably whining sometimes about not having enough hours in the day, too. This is all part of the human condition: we’re forever wanting more, more, MWAR! And it’s easy to throw our hands up in frustration because we can’t have it all, all at once (not that we’d even like that if we had it… after all, would you really want to eat ALL the food you’ll ever eat all in one sitting? Probably not. You want it in a steady stream, ideally every day.) But if we remember that we’ll get exactly what we need to get done, done, all in good time… Oh, isn’t that a relief? In today's podcast, we'll be tackling time. I can't promise you more time, but I can promise you a way to make the most of the time you DO have. Full show notes here >>
A somewhat gentler Year of Fun challenge from last week... but not without it's own risks of mild peril.
Candle making was something that wasn't actually on my Year of Fun bucket list, until a small brainwave I had a couple of months ago.
Two male friends on separate occasions expressed their irrational love for... candles.
Without going into any gender stereotypes, I'll just say that I was surprised. I like candles well enough, but really I'm more of an incense gal.
But these guys were very enthusiastic about the waxen light source. In fact one coughed up £30 for a candle that smelled of obscure trees. £30.
Pondering this mystery, the brainwave came to me.
In this week’s episode of the Creative Introvert podcast I talk to Thea Orozco of Introvertology.
Thea started Introvertology four years ago, after talking to two frustrated people on Twitter who had been comparing themselves to others and feeling broken. It was clear to her that they weren’t broken, they were one of the 50% of the US population whose strengths aren’t shouted from the rooftops.
After working for a time as a life coach for introverts, Thea realised that she got a kick out of helping her entrepreneur clients. She also noticed a pattern with introverted entrepreneurs and thought leaders – that many of them couldn’t grow their business because they were approaching social media marketing like an extrovert, so they felt overwhelmed and burnt out and with a huge case of imposter syndrome.
So now she's here, helping introverted entrepreneurs make a difference in this world by authentically sharing their products and gifts and knowledge and ideas.
What we discussed:Oh boy. Where to begin...
I guess at the beginning. On January 14th 2018, I booked myself in for the trip of a life time.
A trip to Peru... and a trip in Peru.
There was the flight, that was one part of the trip. Then there was the psychedelic trip. the spiritual trip. The healing trip. That part of the journey was with ayahuasca, a 'plant medicine' which makes DMT available in our body.
DMT is a very powerful stimulator of seretonin receptors in the brain, which doesn't normally get into the body because it's broken down by the stomach. But when you make a drink with the a plant like chacruna (containing DMT) and mix it with the vine of ayahuasca, the latter acts as a blocking agent and the DMT can get into the body, and the effects are rather undeniable.
While the plant is illegal in the UK and many other parts of the world, it is still currently legal in South America, and the most popular place for us gringos to experience it is in Peru.
I won't bore you with the backstory, but I had done my research and decided that if I found a retreat centre that looked safe and appealing, I'd go for it. Dreamglade checked all my boxes, I found some reasonably priced flights for May and off I went.
First off, I just hope I do a good job at explaining what I understand ayahuasca to be, and basically do the whole tradition justice. If you think ayahuasca is another party drug, or something to try out for the 'fun of the ride', you've got the wrong end of the vine.
In this podcast, I'm going to go in depth about my experience (so you'll notice it's a fair amount longer than usual) and I hope I can offer some help and answer some questions to any of you pondering ayahuasca use for its healing properties.
As always, if you have any questions after the show, simply send an email to hello@thecreativeintrovert.com and I'll do my best to answer or find someone who can.
The starting place for any adventure, project, collaboration, big leap, epic change, scary ass challenge that I take on is answering the simple question:
Why?
Why am I doing this?
Why am I really doing this?
Why does this matter to me?
It's not often I get asked these 'why' questions. More common is 'How'?
How do you get the courage to speak on stage?
How did you build your website?
How do you grow your lnstagram account?
These questions are pointless, without first finding your why.
But I get why you aren't asking why more.
It’s not a question we’re encouraged to ask. At one point, you were probably really good at asking ‘why?’… that was until some big person told you to be quiet and stop being so nosey.
Or my personal (un)favourite: ‘I’ll tell you when you’re older.’
My parents have a LOT of questions to answer…
Anyway, starting with why isn’t a new or radical idea. You just have to watch the TED talk by Simon Sinek to get on that bandwagon.
The reason I’m getting into it today with you, at the start of this 21 day journey into facing the Resistance, is to show you how having your grand Why will help you when it comes to overcoming creative resistance, that inner critic, and finally achieving all your dreams.
I realised some time ago the only way I can do something scary, something my inner Resistance is preventing me from undertaking, is to have a damn good reason why.
Full show notes: https://wp.me/p5bc9S-2mB
In this week’s episode of the Creative Introvert podcast I talk to Kerstin Pressler of Sparkling Creative.
What we discussed:For the show notes: https://wp.me/p5bc9S-2kY
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