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I’m recording this one from my bed. A low-level virus caught up with me after the retreat last weekend, and at the same time a couple of days opened up unexpectedly in my diary. In the past I’d have pushed on through. This time I took the space I’d been given. From there, looking out at the autumn leaves and the rain, I found myself reflecting on the bravery it takes to turn toward ourselves with love. I share something I witnessed on The Weekend of No-Requirements about what happens to our attention when we’re held well in a group, how my own feelings about group work have shifted over the years, and why I think the small moments of choosing ourselves matter just as much as the big ones. We don't always have to have the fierce courageousness of the Lion; sometimes it's the Butterfly who shows the deepest courage.  I think there's a lot more to explore here so perhaps we'll return to this another time. It’s a shorter, quieter episode, with a question at its heart. If it stirs something for you, I’d love to hear. There’s no video this week (for obvious reasons) and normal service resumes next week. Coming up: The Nervous System at Work - a four-week short course with Grace Loveday. Thursday lunchtimes, 75 minutes, beginning 5/11/2026. A couple of spaces remain. https://events.humanitix.com/the-nervous-system-at-work-4-week-course-with-henny-flynn-and-grace-lovedayIMMERSE information session - a free, relaxed hour to find out more about IMMERSE, ask any questions, and perhaps share a gentle practice together. https://events.humanitix.com/an-evening-within-the-heart-of-changeIMMERSE - my year-long small-group programme. The new cohort first gathers on 20/11/2026. https://www.hennyflynn.co.uk/immerse ★ Support this podcast ★

Tomorrow Adam Lind and I open the doors to The Weekend of No-Requirements, and as I went about my errands today - posting books, a trip to the supermarket - the question of what does it mean to care kept running through me. Initially it was a reflection centred on the beautiful souls coming to the retreat, and on how I care for myself during the weekend... and (as these things so often do) it then expanded outward, and inward. So in this episode I find myself wondering aloud about what it means to care: for others, for ourselves, and how we allow ourselves to receive care too. I share the three words I return to as both mantra and intention, something one of my teachers said about what self care can look like when we’re tending to many things, and a story from Elizabeth Gilbert about a coffee shop, a loan and a very clean thank you. Some of this felt quite tender to talk about, touching as it does on identity and how we show up in the world. As so often happens, it unfolded in directions I didn’t expect. If anything stirs for you, I’d love to hear. Coming up: The Nervous System at Work - a four-week short course with my dear colleague Grace Loveday. Thursday lunchtimes, 75 minutes, beginning 5/11/2026IMMERSE - my year-long small-group programme, with the new cohort beginning 20 NovemberBook launch - 1/11/2026 in Presteigne. If you’re anywhere near Ludlow, Leominster or the Welsh borders, you’d be so welcome. Let me know if you'd like to join us. ★ Support this podcast ★

Today was the last day of IMMERSE, my year-long group programme, and I’m still feeling the tenderness of that ending. In our final session, one of the group said, quite simply, that change is not linear. It stayed with me, and that’s where this episode began. It sent me back to one of the earliest poems I wrote for My Darling Girl, from the very start of my own long and winding experience of change. It’s a poem about the estuary: the rise and fall of the tide, the times we’re left stranded high and dry, and the times we’re swept somewhere we never expected to go. I read it to you here, and then sit with what it stirs. There’s a lot in this one I think I needed to hear myself. It touches on what happens when we drift up into our heads, the treasure we gather along the way, and a small silver necklace that reminds me I can be both the river and the tree. If the poem speaks to something in you, perhaps a change you’re in the middle of or one you’ve recently come through, I’d love to hear. If you’re curious about IMMERSE, the new cohort begins towards the end of November. It’s a small group, travelling together through a year of deep work with The Heart of Change. Do get in touch if it calls to you. Discover more about Immerse ★ Support this podcast ★

Today we're looking back to look forward - and I'm announcing the new podcast name. I'm not completely clear how these two things are related but I expect they are! This is still the same podcast, the same space, now naming its essence: everyday compassion with Henny Flynn. As today's episode unfolded, the three threads that emerged: I reflect on what it means to look back in order to look forward - not as nostalgia, and not as a refusal to move on, but as a discerning kind of attention. I share a conversation with my husband Anton over thirty years ago, sitting on a bench in Nottingham, where one of us said 'this feels more like a separation than a divorce' - and how being willing to look back changed the whole course of both our lives.I think out loud about a kind of discarding I notice in the world - how easily we decide an idea, a relationship, versions of ourselves, as though they no longer hold value simply because it belongs to the past. And how often what gets presented as something new is really something old, rediscovered. I'd love to know whether that resonates with you, or whether you see it differently.And I share that A piece of quiet is itself a living example of all this - a practice I created, let go of, and am now bringing back as something free and live, every Monday at 6.30pm (UK), starting this coming Monday. Henny x Resources & Ways of Connecting To join A piece of quiet... every Monday, 6.30pm UK, free - https://hennyflynn.kit.com/14116fc6c3To discover Immerse... grounded in The Heart of Change - https://www.hennyflynn.co.uk/immerseOn the Hilary Mantel novel... A Place of Greater Safety, if you'd like to find it for yourself (I loved this book)Tell me what resonated... I'd love to hear what landed for you - https://www.hennyflynn.co.uk/contact ★ Support this podcast ★

It's been a busy week, and I'm recording this a little bit tired, but happy. As today's episode unfolded, there were three threads that appeared: The life imitating art moment when my co-host Grace's camera failed, right as we were about to deliver a free lunch and learn on the nervous system at work - and how these moments in life can become live, real-time demonstrations of the very thing we seeking to learn (or teach)I also share three simple techniques for vagal toning that came up in today's session - a gentle hold at the back of the neck, a hand resting on the heart, and a gentle press at the inner corners of the eyebrows. And I leave you with a question: what actually nourishes your nervous system when it's activated, rather than simply soothing or numbing it?Lastly, if this work on the nervous system resonates for you, I share a little about a four-week course Grace and I are running together, starting 5 November, on understanding the language of your own nervous system.Henny x Resources & Ways of Connecting To find out more about the-nervous-system-at-work-4-week-course-with-henny-flynn-and-grace-loveday we begin Thursday 5 NovemberTo join the mailing list... hennyflynn.co.uk/contact for all the free things, including this podcast  ★ Support this podcast ★

I hadn't planned this episode - it seems to be the way, these days - it arrived instead, out of a small, quite ordinary battle with a piece of technology that simply wouldn't cooperate - and the frustration that came with it. As today's episode unfolded, there were three threads that appeared: What happens when something feels hard - not the BIG moments but those small things that thwart us - frustrating, annoying, irritating - and the choices we might forget we haveHow trying to enforce 'unenforceable rules' can lead us to 'pushing on through', when perhaps something else might serve the situation betterAnd I share my new book, everyday compassion (365 days of ordinary kindness), is published on 22 September. Pre-orders are open now, and I would love to inscribe a copy for you, or for someone you love.Henny x Resources & Ways of Connecting To order everyday compassion... https://www.hennyflynn.co.uk/everyday-compassionTo discover The Field... https://www.hennyflynn.co.uk/enter-the-fieldShare where you go... when things feel like they're thwarting you, I'd love to hear https://www.hennyflynn.co.uk/contact ★ Support this podcast ★

The response to last week's episode about fairy tales and voice notes has been extraordinary - so many of you shared your own stories with me, and I wanted to spend this episode reflecting on what came through, and inviting you a little deeper into mine. There are three threads running through today's conversation: I share the fuller story behind my own fairy tale - Little Red Riding Hood - including a sculpture that changed how I related to a part of myself I used to call anger, and how that part has since transformed from a black dog into a grey wolf who watches over me from the hillside.I reflect on some of the fairy tales you shared with me - Rapunzel, The Happy Prince, Parsifal, the Magic Porridge Pot and more - and what might be sitting underneath each one.And I share a little about the Weekend of No-Requirements, the retreat I'm running with Adam Lind this October - a space where nothing is required of you at all.Henny x Resources & Ways of Connecting Discover the Weekend of No-Requirements... with Adam Lind, 16-19 October On animal parts work... if this resonates, Charlie Mackesy's The Boy, the Mole, the Fox and the Horse and Richard Schwartz's Internal Family Systems (IFS) are both beautiful places to go deeperExplore Paul Smith's sculptures  Missed the fairy tale question... listen to last week's episode S21E1Share the Animal Parts who show up for you... by email, on YouTube, or through the contact form ★ Support this podcast ★

After our pause, I'm returning to a new season - literal and metaphorical. It's lovely to be back and to feel into what is asking to be shared. As I opened the channel for today's conversation, two themes began flowing through this episode. I reflect on connection - between writer and reader, speaker and listener, self and self - and I ask a question I'd love you to sit with: what fairy tale from your childhood has stayed with you, and what might it be reflecting back? I also share a new way I've been thinking about voice notes: the way they allow us to communicate - to connect - even more freely with each other. Inspired by a friend... who was in her turn inspired by another beautiful human. Lastly I share a little about Season Two of The Field. If you're curious about intentional change, grounded in compassionate self-enquiry, then perhaps it's a space that calls to something within you. You would be so welcome there. Henny x Resources & Ways of Connecting On voice memos... from Andrea Gibson and Megan Falley - Can I send you a voice memo - with gratitude for the inspirationTo discover more about The Field... the gate closes for Season Two on 9 SeptemberShare the fairytale that speaks to you... I would love to share the reflections that might arise ★ Support this podcast ★

A bonus episode for those who prefer listening to reading... or enjoy both. This is an audio version of the email going out today, in preparation for my annual August break. It includes a reflection on what this time of 'Summering' can mean and hold for each of us, a poem on holidays as holy days and a few things to explore during August... As ever it is shared with love. The podcast will be back in September. Speak with you soon.Henny x ​PODCAST​ If you’ve already heard them all 225 episodes, try scrolling and randomly stopping for a podcast lucky dip. It can be amazing to see how new insights emerge when you listen to something again. And... if you've subscribed to the podcast (please do!), you may have already heard I've recorded this whole email as a bonus episode, just in case you prefer listening to reading. ​FLOW JOURNALING​ See the Flow Journaling Guides in Circle. And if you want a lovely practice for the summer, get a copy of my book ​In the Flow - journal your inner wisdom​, buy it anywhere or use FLOW for 30% off, direct from my publishers. ​Mini-self-guided Courses​ Free and low cost courses to expand thinking and deepen compassionate self-enquiry. A lovely way to spend time with your Self and see what they bring you. ★ Support this podcast ★

A bonus episode inspired by a voice note from a friend, all about... Inspiration This is a stepping stone into a topic I find fascinating: where does inspiration come from?  I talk about... Inspiration as external flow, not internal genius - Touching on our potential to shift from Renaissance thinking (genius lives in the person) back to classical understanding (the muse is 'something other') Flow states as the channel - Writing, creating, journaling, problem-solving... how when we drop out of cognitive thinking, ideas emerge that we couldn't have accessed through effort alone.Inspiration as an embodied experience - Noticing how it can arrive mid-drive, drop from the sky, rise from the belly. And how it can have a physical presence that might feel like it demands action - you have to capture it, write it down... or it passes through.Universal love is easy (but human love can feel so complex) - The essence beneath the messages in everyday compassion. And the story of how they arrived.And invitation to share your inspiration - I'm inviting you to send me your questions, your challenges, your curiosities. What would you love to explore here on the podcast? I'll take the list and choose at random, live on air... and see where that takes us.With love (and gratitude for the inspiration!) FLOW JOURNALING PROMPTS When I feel the hand of inspiration...When I hear the voice of inspiration...PRE-ORDER everyday compassion - published September 2026 https://www.hennyflynn.co.uk/everyday-compassionREFERENCES Elizabeth Gilbert TED Talk https://www.ted.com/talks/elizabeth_gilbert_your_elusive_creative_genius ★ Support this podcast ★

Today we're looking at the third and final aspect of resilience that's been running through the last few episodes of this season: the inner critic. That voice inside us that can feel like our worst enemy - and yet, like all our parts, is just trying to do the important job it believes it's here to do. In this reflective episode, you'll hear: How the inner critic forms - often from experiences when we were very young - and it's role in our beliefs about how resilient we areWhy turning toward these voices with compassion can lead to deeper resilience than trying to close them downThe practice of "dispassionate compassion" - observing what's hard without either collapsing into it or dismissing itHow parenting ourselves (by modelling love) teaches our Parts that there can be a different wayWhen we stand rooted in the ground rather than placing ourselves on some impossible pedestal, we can see what true self-compassion  looks likeThis is the final episode of this season, before the summer break. I also announce the publication of a beautiful new book... everyday compassion - available for pre-order now everyday compassion  (365 days of ordinary kindness) Pre-order to receive your copy September 2026 Settle in and see where the episode takes you. ★ Support this podcast ★

A note before you listen: Adam shares a personal experience involving grief and suicide that emerged naturally during our conversation. This episode isn't focused on those themes - we're exploring resilience, authenticity, masking, and boundaries - and I'm flagging this so you can choose whether this feels ok for you. Ultimately, this is a wide-ranging conversation between two friends; an episode of tenderness, hope and connection. Balancing Authenticity with Self-Protection and Resilience - In Conversation with Adam Lind Today I'm joined by Adam Lind, author of Floating Home, for the second of our three-part deep dive on resilience. We explore what happens when we feel we need to mask our true selves - and the difference between masking (an unconscious survival strategy) and performative behaviour (a more conscious choice about how we show up). We also discuss compartmentalisation: how we can temporarily set things aside to function, and when that strategy risks becoming unhealthy. The most important aspect of this whole conversation is that there is no 'one right response' to our experience of the world. All these strategies and behaviours are deeply, truly human. And we are all learning how to navigate what life reveals to us, in our own way, in our own time. You'll hear: How masking can show up in any environment where we don't feel safe - and why it can be exhaustingThe difference between masking, performative behaviour, and compartmentalisation - all strategies that can look like resilience from the outside (or feel like resilience from the inside)Why authenticity and unmasking can perhaps begin to feel more resilient than protecting ourselves has done in the pastBoundaries as the foundation of compassion - and how clear boundaries enable resilienceHow Adam refuses to mask, even when it's socially awkward - and what that costs and gains himThe paradox: we need both authenticity AND the ability to protect ourselvesWhy self-trust comes from honouring our own boundariesAdam and I are also co-creating a retreat in October. The Weekend of No Requirements, 16-19 October 2026 is a space where you can show up exactly as you are.Find out more here: https://www.hennyflynn.co.uk/the-weekend-of-no-requirements Settle in and see where this conversation takes you. ★ Support this podcast ★

This is the first of three episodes diving deeper into resilience. Last week I explored how resilience can look like different things - this week, I'm focusing on one of the three key areas: the Self-Care Bank. It's a metaphor that's generated so much interest, and today I'm unpacking what it really means - and why what gets labelled as 'lack of resilience' is often actually lack of resources. You'll hear: Why depletion isn't a sign of weak resilience - it's a sign of low reservesHow self-awareness with self-compassion helps us notice when our bank is running low (before crisis hits)The difference between firm boundaries (that we sometimes need) and the reality of the soft, malleable boundaries we often actually live withWhy rest and pausing are themselves forms of boundary-settingHow 'staying authentic' is part of keeping your reserves topped upThe corporate culture that values decisiveness over reflection - and what it costsWhy borrowing from your future self in crisis is human and necessary (and why we need time to rebuild after)I also talk about Compassionate Resilience - from my book The Heart of Change - and why that reframe matters. Next week: a special guest episode with Adam Lind - author of Floating Home - exploring masking as a form of resilience. Settle in and see where the episode takes you. ★ Support this podcast ★

I've noticed my own emotional and psychological resilience has increased as I've aged. Things that once affected me deeply seem to affect me less. But what I'm really curious about is something different. I'm no longer willing to mask the truth of how I'm feeling. Research shows emotional resilience improves as we mature - even after significant life changes like bereavement, retirement, loss. But the way that resilience shows up might not look like we expect. It might not look like "brushing it off and getting on." You'll hear: How a loved one's hospital crisis revealed something about my own reserves - the concept of "borrowing from my future self"The Self-Care Bank metaphor: how we can invest, withdraw, and sometimes dangerously empty our reservesA story about burnout: my mother's death, a new job, nearly dying - and what I take responsibility forThe moment I felt myself return: a part of me called Joy, and why she still needs protectingWhat a mother's poem written twelve years ago reveals about resilience, courage, and dealing with difficultyThree different entry points for three different people - on masking, depletion, and the pressure to be resilientI also share why I'm no longer willing to perform, and what that means for how I move through the world. This episode is also  a Field Note on the blog - link below if you'd like to read as well as listen. Settle in and see where the episode takes you. LINKSField Note: www.hennyflynn.co.uk/field-notes/what-real-resilience-looks-like Sign up for tiny notes, filled with love: everyday compassion weekly emails Contact: [email protected] or visit hennyflynn.co.uk RESOURCESThat longitudinal research on resilience as we age: https://www.elsa-project.ac.uk/post/resilience-in-later-life-elsa-study-finds-older-adults-often-maintain-good-mental-health-after-majo ★ Support this podcast ★

I recorded an episode today that didn't feel quite right. Some of my thoughts felt a little confused, possibly difficult to follow. So I started over. And that became the theme of the episode... There's a Sharon Salzberg quote I love: 'We can always begin again, no matter what happens, no matter how long it's been, no matter how far from our aspirations we may have strayed.' It is so filled with hope that, for me, speaks to a deep resilience that we may find is within us all. You'll hear: Why I chose to restart the episode - and when "keeping going" might not be the wisest choiceA recognition of my own past resistance to asking for help... and how that has shiftedHow our willingness to begin again could inform conversations, relationships, work, and how we care for ourself The micro-moments of beginning again that we may notice in our livesWhy knowing we can always begin again might be the most hopeful thing we can teach young people and ourselves in times of grief, loss, or when life feels impossibly hardI also share how wonderful it's been to hear your reflections on standing on the rope bridge in New Zealand - and the ordinary, extraordinary connections people find when they're in connection with water, mountains, and trees. Settle in and see where the episode takes you. ★ Support this podcast ★