Welcome to Your Creative Chord Podcast, where host Jenny Leigh Hodgins, author and educator, shares unique insights dedicated to empowering your creative flow and inspired living. Through solo reflections and dialogues with creators and wellness experts, Jenny Leigh shares holistic wisdom influenced by her Buddhist practice, alongside poetic insights and practical strategies for living authentically. This podcast helps you overcome challenges and unlock your full creative potential. Welcome to Your Creative Chord. If you're new here, I'm Jenny Leigh Hodgins, creative empowerment coach and host of Your Creative Chord, where we empower your creative flow and inspired living. And if you're a regular listener, thank you so much for joining. I really appreciate your support and engagement. In Episode 85, From Overwhelm to Creative Flow, I ended by saying something like, "Until next time, honor your energy and the season you're in. Practice self-compassion and nurture joy and clarity for yourself as you pursue your creative dreams." But that made me think. The idea that we have the power to nurture joy and clarity ourselves might seem pretty foreign to you. Even if you are familiar with the idea that we each have the potential for empowering ourselves, you might be at a loss about, or frankly struggle with, how to nurture joy and clarity for yourself as you pursue your creative dreams. It's easy to acknowledge when we're struggling with something in our lives, but how do we move forward to overcome challenges or inner struggles? Today I will share ideas on how to nurture creativity, hope, and joy from the inside out. And believe me, this is something I must actively practice in my own life. I don't claim to be someone who has mastered this or reached an enlightened place. I have my constant share of ups and downs like anyone else. But today I share my inspiration and process as someone who is choosing, again and again, to keep fighting against my lower worlds so that I cultivate joy, creativity, and hope, even while, and especially while, facing real problems. Nurturing joy and creativity is not about denying difficulty or negative feelings. It's also not about waiting or wishing for life to get better or easier. No, it's the practice of forging the volition, like working out to strengthen a muscle, to cultivate joy and find inspiration right here from within our lives as they are, and how to actively encourage our own hearts in the midst of life's inevitable battles. But let's start where we are right now. That may be in the midst of an internal or external battle or an onslaught of both in a difficult season of life. So first, acknowledge your feelings. Don't distract yourself from negative feelings like sadness, loneliness, resentment, anger, or disappointment. Don't downplay what you feel or diminish your personal struggle. You have a right to feel what you feel. Period. So instead, face your feelings with courage. That means letting yourself feel what's present instead of rushing past it, numbing it, or trying to stay busy so you don't have to deal with it. I've learned that when I face my feelings honestly, instead of judging them or dodging them, something actually shifts inside. By facing your feelings directly, you can turn them into fuel for your resilience and inner growth. Allowing your feelings through sitting with them in stillness, a walk in nature, listening to or creating music, journaling, artwork, or through honest prayer helps you absorb, process, and work through challenging emotions. Letting yourself feel without judgment or suppression leads to relief, calm, inner realization, and clarity. An extra perk is that this head-on struggle often becomes the catalyst for fresh creative expression. In fact, many of my most rewarding creative works have emerged from within deep chapters of my life's challenges. So let's take a moment right now to reflect. What are you feeling right now? What feeling have you been avoiding or pushing aside lately? Practice self-compassion by allowing yourself to acknowledge and feel your emotions without judgment or pressure. Allow yourself to feel as part of the larger process or bigger picture toward fuller meaning and empowered living. You don't really need to fully grasp that meaning or feel empowered right away. You just need to treat yourself with kindness and allow yourself to be where you are right now. Opening yourself up to connect with and express your feelings becomes the motion that moves you like a river toward the ocean of inner expansion, resilience, and personal growth. As my late mentor in life, the late Dr. Daisaku Ikeda said, "People, like flowers, also need water. Our hearts wither if we don't encourage ourselves." My mentor's spiritual wisdom and optimism always encourage me to move forward. The idea that I have the power to encourage myself often feels like a revelation to me. That's one of the things that I most appreciate about the Buddhist philosophy that I practice. It's about the human potential within each of us. But encouraging ourselves doesn't happen automatically. We have to choose it. But how do we encourage ourselves? One way is to start embracing what nurtures you. Simple things like time in nature, art, music, theater, reading, movies, conversation with friends and family, cooking, hiking, cycling, yoga, and positive philosophies, great literature, and poetry by the great masters. Immerse yourself in positive spiritual practices like prayer, meditation, yoga, forest bathing, nature walks, or chanting. These are not things to get around to once you have free time. They are really critical practices that research has proven to nourish your best self. So start with small acts of self-compassionate care. Do one thing a day for yourself that honors who you are right now. Not who you think you should be, not who others think you should be, not who you used to be, but who you are today. So what does that look like? Could be a haircut, a pedicure, a leisurely bath, a slow hot shower, a quiet walk, listening to your favorite fiction, podcast, or music, dancing in your living room, visiting a friend, playing the piano or guitar again for the first time after a long gap, journaling or writing a poem or doodling in a sketchbook about your feelings, maybe even adult coloring or reading a great book, sitting in stillness through meditation, prayer, or chanting. Whatever it is, just start small and start where you are and as you are and keep at it consistently. Over time, these small choices will build the habit of encouragement into your daily life. Let's pause and reflect. What is one small thing that genuinely nurtures you? How could you make space for it regularly, without judgment or pressure? Number three, what we focus on grows. And that's why a gratitude practice is really powerful when it comes to boosting happiness. So just make a habit of noting small positive things in your life. This trains your brain to look for more positivity. And writing them down as a gratitude journal practice helps reinforce your appreciation which fuels your joy, it boosts your mood. And this practice trains your brain again to look for more positivity. And over time, this gratitude practice fuels your joy and gently shifts how you experience your life. It's a great way to move gently out of negative thoughts and towards positive emotions and energy. Ask yourself what is one small thing I can appreciate about my life today. Start simple. Mine might look like I'm so grateful I can work from home and set my own schedule. I'm so grateful to have this quality time with my 86 year old mother. I'm deeply grateful that we eat delicious healthy meals together that she cooks. I'm so grateful I get to enjoy watching the Cardinals, Carolina Wrens, Bunny Rabbits, Woodpecker, Blue Jay, Juncos, Squirrels outside my window that are indulging in the winter and you know when I've tossed out nuts and oats and seeds onto that frozen layer of snow. I'm deeply thankful for the beautiful local parks that my mom and I enjoy regularly. I appreciate my sincere friends who support my happiness with patience, truth, and encouragement. I'm appreciative of my good health and for getting abundant sleep and rest. I'm grateful for my quiet morning breakfast, the beauty of Kentucky's countryside, and the profoundly uplifting impact of my creative expression, whether it's poetry, lyrics, music, a brand design from my nature photos, or a podcast. I'm really thankful for all the amazing and positive people in my life, especially those I meet as a guest on their podcast or those I featured on Your Creative Chord podcast. And I'm grateful for you, whether you're a loyal, regular listener or you're brand new to my show today, I'm grateful for our life to life connection. See how easy it is to start listing seemingly small things you appreciate in your life? It can lead to a snowball effect to positive feelings, which leads me to the fact that, number four, happiness doesn't come from somewhere outside us. We must create it from the inside out. That means we first have to stop looking for it externally, from addictions, other people, things, habits, philosophies, ideologies. It means we have to start right here where we stand and dig a garden from inside our own lives. Taking responsibility for our own happiness is not easy. It requires courageous effort. And yes, absolute happiness requires effort. And I'm not referring to the fleeting kind of happiness you can get from things, people, and doing stuff you like. Yes, those things can bring temporary joy, but developing absolute happiness, the kind that is unshakable despite life's challenges, has to be forged through internal work, internal effort. And making that internal determination to create happiness from within is the most direct path to hope and joy. I'm going to say that again. Making that internal determination to create happiness from within is the most direct path to hope and joy. And it is deeply rewarding. So consider this. Where have you been looking outside yourself for happiness? And what would it look like to begin cultivating it from within? Sometimes this journey requires recognizing false beliefs that we harbor in our hearts or our brains and doing the inner work to turn those around with a brave effort to overcome doubt, anxiety, or fear with trust and hope in our own capacity for strength, resilience, and joy. And this leads me to the next step in developing our happiness. Number five, use your problems as the fuel for greater happiness. It sounds contradictory, but really to be my best and happiest self, I must use my tailor-made struggles as fuel to enable my inner light to shine. What does that mean? To shine my inner light? It means using my problems to bring out my greatest strength, resilience, courage, wisdom, compassion, and joy to life. But how do I get that inner light to shine? How do I do that? By facing my life's difficulties, grappling with, overcoming, and transforming my weaknesses or my negative emotions, that's what makes my light shine the brightest. That struggle is itself what strengthens my confidence and clarifies my purpose. Struggling is not a proof of failure. Giving up would be a failure. The fact that you're continuing to struggle is proof of victory. Continuing to struggle toward a victory is in itself already winning. Giving spiritual practice is powerful for building happiness. For example, all of these ideas come straight out of my Buddhist practice. The Buddhist philosophy I uphold and practice daily as an SGI member, which is Soka Gakkai International. The Buddhist life philosophy that I practice raises my life state. It helps me understand the unlimited power within each human life and within the universe and that those powers are one and the same. The power of the universe and our life are the same. And that understanding helps me lift my life state toward hope. It teaches me that there's no obstacle we can't overcome once we bring our full potential to the forefront. So check out Your Creative Chord podcast, episode 87, Burnout Recovery and Spiritual Practices for Brain Health for more about the positive impact of spiritual practices. Whether it's chanting or prayer or meditation, nature immersion, yoga, forest bathing, or a creative practice, these are all science-backed ways to transform your challenges and forge a happier life. So let's reflect. What practice helps you reconnect with your inner strength? What struggle helped you develop greater resilience, hope, and confidence? How can you reframe your current problem toward developing your inner strength, hope, and confidence right now? And number six, today I wanted to share that one of the things my life mentor said, Dr. Daisaku Ikeda, that really encourages me is that people who have endured the harshest winters have the power to uplift and inspire others. Our problems are the pathway. As Ryan Holiday's book clarifies, The Obstacle Is The Way to fulfilling our greatest potential and our unique mission in life. People who battle against life's challenges develop a rock-solid resilience, and that becomes a source of encouragement for many others. So what we go through actually becomes our unique way of helping others win in their lives too. So let's reflect on this for a minute. Think about how you will be able to help someone else in the future because of what you are enduring right now. This struggle becomes your credentials for inspiring others with the unlimited potential within each of us. What difficulty in your life right now could become fuel for growth or deeper happiness? What wisdom are you already gaining from your experience? How might what you're going through right now one day help somebody else? When I think of that, it helps me fight through my difficulties and it gives me kind of an impetus to just keep pedaling, just keep going, because I know that my struggles can help someone else. We're human. We can relate to each other. And number seven, as I said in episode 85 from Overwhelm to Creative Flow, never give up on your joyful creative life. Your inherent creative flow is always waiting in your heart. How do you tap that creative energy? That creative energy is not something you have to go find somewhere else. Use your life. Use what you already have within you, what you're feeling right now. Use it. Tap creative energy by using what's already available in your life right now. Express it authentically and honestly. Creativity becomes a tool for your inner victory and a way to encourage others. So practice it, explore it, play with it in a way that is really true to yourself. The most powerful art really comes from the heart and from a place that's real. And when we're courageous enough to express ourselves creatively, the power of art springs to life beyond our expectations. So as you move through your daily life, I really invite you to remember this. Your joy, your creativity, and your hope are not gone. They live within you. They're waiting for your encouragement. So keep nurturing them. Keep expressing what's real. We must choose hope. It doesn't just come to us. We must choose hope. And it's not easy. But by continuing to fight against negativity and challenges in our lives' problems, you will encourage your own heart. We do this side by side by honestly and bravely going through our feelings, facing our problems directly and never giving up on our unlimited potential for creative fulfillment and an inspired life. So I really encourage you to take a moment to express whatever comes up for you from listening to this episode. And I encourage you to explore it through art, music, or journaling, or movement, or reflecting on it through your spiritual practice, during your yoga routine, or in a meditation, or prayer, or chanting, and notice what arises for you. From my own experience, some of my most challenging problems have often become the fuel for fresh inspiration. Music, time and nature, design ideas, photos, poetry, lyrics, or even a new episode for Your Creative Chord podcast. So let me know if this resonates with you, and if you'd like to explore it a little further, I invite you to download my Creative Empowerment Sampler at yourcreativechord.com/getinspiredhere If you feel called to go deeper and explore how to empower your creative flow and inspired living, I also offer one-on-one coaching. In our sessions, we'll work together to help you overcome blocks, reset your energy, tap into your creativity, and create aligned, sustainable practices that bring more joy, hope, and fulfillment into your life. You can learn more and apply to work with me at yourcreativechord.com/workwithme As we close out today's episode, I want to give you a little sneak peek of what's coming up next. Over the next three months, June, July, August, 2026, I'm going to be doing a series about navigating grief and loss, and how creativity and spiritual practices can help us process, transform, and find meaning through those experiences. I'll be sharing immersive examples from my own creative work, poetry readings, songs I've written, vocal and piano performances, piano and orchestral music that I've composed, and all of this as a way to show how the creative process can help us process grief, honor our loved ones, and create deeper meaning in our lives. And it's not just about the loss of, you know, from the death of a loved one. We experience many kinds of loss from life transitions, moves, new jobs, changing relationships, health, and circumstances. So my hope is that by sharing my own personal journey and creativity, you'll feel inspired to tap into your own creativity, whether that's writing, composing, drawing, photography, dance, artwork, or any form of creative expression that speaks to your heart. In August, I'll feature a conversation with Chris Mamone from the Empowered Grief Journey podcast and book by the same name. Chris is an acceptance coach who helps people navigate loss with practical tools and compassionate guidance. And that episode will take a closer look at how to work with grief in real life and a know it will be incredibly meaningful for anyone going through any kind of loss, whether it's the loss of a loved one, anticipatory grief, or the many smaller quieter losses that show up in our daily lives. If you're feeling heavy right now, I want to emphasize that this episode, 88, can be a companion for you. It's about nurturing joy, hope, and creativity, even in the midst of life's difficulties. You can return to these practices anytime you need, a little lift or some inspiration. And then over the next three months, we'll explore together how creativity and spiritual practice can support us through grief, while also encouraging a richer, more inspired way of living with purpose and meaning. And I'd really love to hear what resonated with you in today's episode. You can share your thoughts by leaving a review on your favorite podcast platform. And when you leave a review, it really does help others discover Your Creative Chord podcast so I can reach more people who are looking for inspiration and creative empowerment. So thank you for doing that. And until next time, may today's episode help you practice nurturing, hope, and joy from within. Thank you for listening to Your Creative Chord podcast. If you found inspiration in today's episode, please leave a review and subscribe to the show. Your support helps spread the message of creativity and inspired living. Stay connected with Jenny Leigh and a vibrant community of creatives and curious minds. Visit yourcreativechord.com for more resources. Remember, daily life is where your creative flow begins. Embrace the journey.