Claim OwnershipLet the Verse Flow: Personal Growth Thru a Creative Lens
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© 2025 Let the Verse Flow: Personal Growth Thru a Creative Lens
Description
Join writer and host, Jill Hodge, as she shares her creative self-care journey through a soulful mashup of storytelling, spoken word poetry, and music. Part self-help/part performing arts, this podcast explores personal growth through a creative lens.
Through an immersive backdrop of music and soundscapes, Jill explores a variety of practices and tools drawn from positive psychology like mindfulness, positive reframing, gratitude, and creative flow.
Dive into creative self-care techniques such as journal writing and affirmation meditations. You’ll find journal prompts at the end of every episode to guide your own self-reflection.
This podcast was born out of the struggle (and then insight) that Jill experienced as she dealt with her mother’s ailing health. She turned to creative expression for comfort and discovered the life-changing ways that it revealed a path toward a more purposeful life. In verse form: “I thought I’d lost myself along a road that was seldom straight or supple, but after the broken shards fell away, I glimpsed the undergrowth. From every tear that had fallen, nestled in life’s rich soil, there sprang a stalk, now entangled and evergreen. Exhausted, I rested under the lush canopy. This is my story.”
Let Jill inspire your creative self-care journey as she shares her “reflections from the bright side of the beat” and join this growing community by connecting with her at https://www.lettheverseflow.com/.
Want to ignite your creative self-care journey? Sign up for Jill’s free companion newsletter, the Me-Time Mixtape, which offers 3 essential, hand-curated creative self-care resources designed to put you back on your to-do list.
52 Episodes
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Do you struggle to make time for artmaking, causing you not to get started? Do you think your art isn't worth appreciating or sharing because it's not good enough, finished, or polished? Sometimes these negative thoughts can be overcome when we lower the stakes around our artmaking. We may put so much pressure on ourselves, that it stifles our creative process. And that's a shame because the world needs your creativity. This episode is about recognizing the benefits of short crea...
Feeling overwhelmed by life’s demands? Need a buffer to preserve your optimism and sense of purpose in an increasingly stressful world? Then, this episode is for you! Discover how art appreciation can restore energy, inspire creativity, and deepen your connection to the world. Press play and listen to this episode as I explore: the benefits of art-making and art appreciation, especially in lessening emotional burdens and reducing stress, our universal need for self-expression and connec...
While writing this episode on caregiver burnout, my mom had a medical crisis that nearly killed her. I picked up my tired and weary bones and found the inner strength and energy I needed to be by her side. Along the way, I recalled how she and my support system helped bolster me during these challenges. Each time these crises happen, it reinforces how important it is for me to give to myself. In this episode, I outline the causes of caregiver burnout and offer seven ways to reduce the ...
Don’t let anyone tell you (and don’t tell yourself) that your small acts of kindness are not great! Each act of connection, charity, goodwill, mentorship, and civility adds up. In a world that can feel like everything is being torn apart, we still have a well of greatness in us that doesn’t come from how smart we are, how much money we have, how beautiful we are but from how humbly and lovingly we can reach out to one another with gestures of kindness. How well we can maintain our humanity an...
Are you holding yourself back because of fear, feelings of imposter syndrome, and self-imposed ageism? There are plenty of obstacles to achieving our goals without us adding elaborate "stories" based on "what-ifs" and fear. Let’s dispel some myths, and lean into the self-reliant power of getting older (and wiser). In this episode, I make a case for making friends with fear (with a bit of recognition and acceptance), examining the underlying lie of imposter syndrome, and using the wisdom and e...
When can we say that we have enough, and can we turn off our craving for more to find satisfaction with ourselves and the state of our lives right in this moment? I’m exploring these questions, sparked by a Sylvia Plath quote on "enough-ness". I’ll touch on gratitude, reducing social comparison, mindfulness, and building community as powerful allies in the fight to be content in a world that seems to push us to mindlessly want more. We’ll explore why that next purchase or fantastic, magical g...
Reducing overthinking, rumination, and worry can be a beast to tackle, but consistently reorienting our minds and bodies through some creative practices can help increase awareness as we work to replace these thoughts with more inspired ones. I’m using a Khalil Gibran quote as a jumping-off point for a discussion on how to stop “choosing sorrows” through overthinking. I’m also introducing eight strategies across four modalities that will help reduce overthinking, worry, and rumination. Those ...
This guided meditation (with visualization) accompanies episode #43 on cultivating a sense of belonging (to others and yourself). To explore the ways in which you belong to others and then to yourself, I guide you through a visualization exercise where you imagine yourself talking to a partner about an object of significance to you. You’ll explore how these objects help define deeply-held beliefs, creative passions or values that you have and then find a way to claim those values and beliefs ...
Self-acceptance is a prelude to belonging. It may not feel like a logical connection, but accepting yourself, flaws and all is the only way to stop the comparison and critical self-judgment that stands between you and your sense of belonging. This week's podcast episode is about how feeling left out and like I didn't belong in certain situations pushed me to evaluate my sense of belonging. I explore two types of belonging – belonging to a group and belonging to yourself. The latter is f...
We can get so caught up in our personal growth goals, and our plans for the future, that we lose sight of the here and now. But the journey toward our future self is made in the present moment, and change takes time. As that time unfolds, our desires may evolve, morphing current goals into new ones. I'm taking you on my journey to be open to those changes and my attempts to stay present and mindful of life as it is right now. In this episode, I offer four strategies for staying present ...
My mom's hospitalization (and the arrival of a beautiful bouquet of flowers) call attention to the way yin and yang play out in daily life. In today’s episode, we’ll explore the forces of sadness and joy, anger and compassion, and grief and gratitude. I'll explore how the Taoist principles of Yin and Yang offer a way of seeing how complementary forces can teach us that nothing is all bad or all good, but interconnected and everchanging. Lately, there's some comfort in that for me. This...
As my mom’s Alzheimer’s progresses, and I’m faced with the loneliness of our visits, I’m reflecting on lessons she’s taught me about acceptance, and trying to stay present with her in these transformative moments in our lives. My mom’s love and nonjudgmental acceptance have prepared me to handle this long goodbye, and while it hurts, somewhere in the back of my mind, I know I will be alright. I am my mother’s daughter; she taught me through her gentle lessons to know my resilient self. I hope...
Have you lost your fight, left your creative passions behind, and tried to journey forward without them? We can let the outside noise and the stress of our daily lives interfere with our creativity. This stress can push aside our creative impulses, reducing them to another item on our to-do list. But expressing our creative selves, through a multitude of pursuits, feeds our energy and gives us the fortitude to face life. In this reflective episode, we’ll awaken your creative self, brea...
This is my poetic ode to Utrecht and the Netherlands, a travelogue of sorts that offers musings, observations, and experiences from my two-week vacation. Yes, we saw the sights – the Kasteel de Haar in Utrecht, the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam, the Dom Tower, and the canals. But we also made connections with kind souls, curious passersby, and clergymen. We felt touched by this trip, and seen and heard. How many times can you say that? Welcome to my reflections from the bright side of the beat...
Start the day with this affirmation meditation and establish a positive morning routine. We start by honoring the body and feeling present with the breath. From there, we express gratitude for the people, experiences, and things in our lives. Then, we set an intention to move on with our day by affirming positive statements that help us carry this morning's stillness and balance into our day. We’ll end with a visualization connecting positive affirmations to the experiences and challeng...
I’ve got a wonderful way to temp down overthinking, worry, and rumination. I use stream-of-consciousness journal writing to allow my mind to feel free to express itself; just 15 minutes of this writing, a type of creative flow, can unlock new insights and reduce anxious feelings. You leave the stress of planning and plotting and give your subconscious a chance to express itself. You find insights, open a path to new ways of seeing, and release anger, fear, or angst. In this episode, I g...
It’s taken me a while to find a path toward the Middle Way, that Buddhist principle that rests firmly on common sense and shows us how to find moderation instead of swinging between one extreme or another. The Middle Way can offer us some peace as we find a balance between the extremes of self-indulgence, busyness, and wanting, or on the other side, toward extreme self-denial or self-discipline. The Middle Way offers a nuanced path that embraces the ease and equilibrium of living with modera...
What do you do when you’ve lost your fight and slip back into sloppy habits that make you miserable? You pick yourself up, dust yourself off, and get back in the game. In this episode, I’m exploring habits, the cues and triggers that govern them, the benefits they provide, and how to replace “bad” habits with better ones. I’m discussing my long, weight loss saga, and the way I’m moving forward, as a woman in my late 50s, to rebuild my healthy eating and exercise habits. It’s a rational approa...
This episode is about how deep self-listening helps us construct better personal growth goals and the power of connecting that listening to essential self-truths that form the basis for our choices and actions. In this episode: I talk about how a recent Being Well podcast episode on manifesting sparked new thoughts on intention setting and dedicated action to achieve personal growth goals.I summarize the three elements the Hansons discussed – believing in yourself, clear goal setting, and tak...
It's summertime in NYC! I'm exploring the changing seasons in New York, as Central Park transitions from spring to summer. My cherished cherry blossom trees, vast array of birds, and wild mushrooms keep me company. From that beautiful spaciousness, I’ve dived into spring cleaning. In this episode, I explore: The beauty, wonder, and sensory pleasures of NYC’s Central Park in Spring (through a mindful eye)Practical minimalism and the positive effects of spring cleaningHandling grief while going...
Having grace and compassion for ourselves, especially as we make mistakes and take missteps along our life's journey, frees us to learn from those mistakes. It also helps us embrace one of the basic tenets of a growth mindset: recasting mistakes as opportunities for personal growth. In this episode, I share how stress and my inability to cope with my caregiving duties can sometimes make me say regretful things, or feel uncomfortable emotions. When that happens, I'm often faced with guilt. I'l...
When life feels out of control, and we are thrust into the world of adulting with a capital “A,” we can feel overwhelmed by our options, not see them clearly, or find them too chaotic to contemplate. That’s when we must simplify our world by leaning on some foundational pillars of self-care. I call on faith, spiritual practices, and small action steps to build agency. While we don’t control life, we can have agency and influence over our choices and their outcomes. In this episode, I t...
We’ve heard the saying “It’s the journey, not the destination,” or “I control the actions but not the results.” In this episode, I combine these two ideas to explore the role that our core beliefs play in keeping our creative spirit alive and fueling our productivity and stamina when pursuing projects. Focusing on our core beliefs is especially helpful with new endeavors that lead us into unchartered waters – when we may not know exactly what we’re doing, how to do it, and if it will work. Le...
This city girl is deeply connected to nature. Mindful walks in nature are a core way to add richness and “right thinking” to your life. In this episode, I talk about an early, profoundly moving natural experience that shaped my deep love of the ocean. This life-changing event would connect me to the ocean for the rest of my life. From Cape May, New Jersey to Oahu, Hawaii, I share how my experiences swimming near and around ocean animals have brought me peace and perspective. I also expl...
With over 53 million caregivers in America, we are likely to face caregiver challenges at some point in our lives. As Rosalynn Carter reminded us: “There are only four kinds of people in the world: those who have been caregivers, those who are currently caregivers, those who will be caregivers, and those who will need caregivers.” Caregiving can be thrust upon us, or it can build up over time. We may take on the role with love in our hearts, or experience anger, fear, or other uncomfor...
Have you struggled to be present in your life? Perhaps you’ve been on autopilot for so long that you haven't been experiencing your life in a meaningful way. I understand; I’ve been there too and mindfulness has helped me become more invested in my life’s purpose. It has helped me enjoy the good things that come into my world each day. But where do we begin? In this episode, I show you where to start and answer this question: What is mindfulness and how does it change the quality of our...
Hope is an active state of mind that doesn’t negate the sadness, unjustness, or challenges of the world, but seeks to help us persevere to affect the world positively. One of the most important avenues for facilitating and cultivating hope is creativity. Our creativity connects us to hope by offering a conduit to the special talents we have to offer the world as we connect (one person to another). When we give to ourselves through creative self-care we have enough optimism, emotional eq...
This affirmation meditation accompanies episode #23 on overcoming overthinking. Along with tools like journal writing, affirmation meditations can help you engage calmly with gentle thoughts meant to return you to more reasoned thought patterns. This may take time, as the mind has to be redirected to these ideas repeatedly. Return to this meditation often to help allow the power of affirmation and positive self-talk to silence the noise of overthinking and reduce fear and anxiety. I too strug...
This episode is on overthinking, those patterns of automatic and often negative thoughts that drain our energy with mostly lies and what-ifs scenarios that never happen. I’ll discuss the differences between rumination and worry (those twin overthinking processes) and touch on automatic negative thoughts as well. Once we can define them and identify our unique patterns of overthinking, we are ready to utilize tools such as writing and affirmation meditation to help lessen their hold on us. As ...
This affirmation meditation accompanies episode #21 on cultivating creative flow. Creative flow, that wonderful feeling of innovation, freedom and creativity, is the ultimate self-care activity. More than that, it is a pathway to finding purpose and meaning in your life, and supports your journey to know yourself and your interpretation of the world around you. In this affirmation meditation, I've organized the affirmations to follow a 5-step journey for engaging your creative s...
This episode is about what we know as children: that play and creativity are the building blocks of a joyful soul. It’s also about what we should carry forward as we live our “grown” lives, an understanding that the impulse for play and creativity still lives inside us, waiting to be unleashed through creative flow. I’ll explore what creative flow is, how it works, and why we need it, and then lay out a 5-step process for cultivating creative flow: setting an intention sched...
This affirmation meditation accompanies episode #18 on keeping your dreams alive. I believe strongly in the power of setting intentions as a guidepost for taking action to work toward goals and dreams. First, we speak our dreams into existence through visualization and by setting an intention; then, we take action to move toward our dream. Along the way, we have to adapt, pivot, and grow, but keeping our dreams alive is an active state of being. Here is an affirmation meditation...
During my trip to Morocco this past summer, I expected some culture shock; I expected beautiful landscapes, incredible food, and curious interactions with strangers. What I hadn’t thought about was how awakening my spirit and mind to these new experiences would return me to my deeply-held beliefs. That travel to North Africa would reaffirm the way I see the world, and help me contemplate those things in myself that I most believe. I’m touching on a disparate array of topics here, everything f...
This episode is about giving our dreams space to grow and take shape. Dreams can come alive, if we feed them like fires, stoke our internal flames. We keep our dreams alive by: · Cultivating a positive mindset · Taking small actions consistently to work toward goals Knowing we need these two ingredients is one thing, and doing them is another. In this episode, I'll inspire you to cultivate these two essential dream-builders. I offer an affirmation mediation to keep your dreams a...
So you've decided to journal or resume a journaling practice. You may be a beginner or an old pro, but you're finding yourself in need of some inspiration. Perhaps some structure and tools to get your journaling off the ground. Why do a 30-day challenge? Because writing in a journal is a practice and practices are built on habits. We need to make time and space for our journaling, built with daily (or near-daily) practice. These next 30 days aren't meant to box you in or make you feel like jo...
In today's bonus episode, I'm making a case for journaling. This simple, timeless act of writing down our feelings and thoughts is one of the most authentic reflective tools that humans have as they think their thoughts, love their loves and build their dreams. Journaling never goes out of style, because journaling is the human condition in words. Your words. Journaling is flexible and completely customizable to your needs and schedule. How many things can you say that about in this day...
Grief and gratitude can be two sides of the same coin. They do a sort of dance, especially as we contemplate the loss of a family member or loved one during the holidays. Find out how a simple fingertip pulse oximeter box sparked great sadness in me, and then deep gratitude. As my mom transitions into advanced dementia, I’m struck by how often my sadness turns to gratitude. For if we love deeply and have been loved deeply, we are privy to one of humanity's greatest gifts. The pri...
What do I mean by a personal growth practice? What are the components of self-growth and how do we build our capacity for it? Personal growth is not a one-and-done, it's a practice that we build over time and in stages. In this episode, we’ll think about where we are in the journey to knowing ourselves, dealing with our struggles, and taking those first steps to look for better days. Those better days start with single better moments. Topics covered: Tapping into personal growth as a ...
Dealing with a loved one’s dementia, or handling other difficult transitional times in our lives requires that we give ourselves some grace -- and create a formidable community of support. We may have to handle the logistics of moving our loved ones out of their home, arranging for care, managing finances, and caregiving. This is adulting with a capital “A.” Here are some inspirational tips and resources to help you handle this heavy load. The most essential takeaway: feel however you...
Comparison, especially comparing ourselves to the images we see on social media, can rob us of the ability to hold court with our personal strengths and abilities. We compare ourselves to a facade of perfection and find our lives lacking. While small amounts of comparison may help motivate us or provide a standard of sorts with which to reflect our growth, most times, it makes us feel less than. We’ve got better things to do. Listen in as I discuss some alternatives, all designed to help you ...
As we talk about all things aging, let’s remember that while research shows that we may experience a mid-life dip in happiness, there are benefits to getting older that are valuable in the way they can lead us toward our purpose. Mid-life can be a time when we’re burdened by caregiving, health problems, and financial worries. It sounds all “doom and gloom,” but there’s also a “flowers in bloom” side to aging – and that’s what I want to explore. This episode offers a roadmap for building...
This episode is personal and passionate, as I explain the core beliefs behind this show – how to build resilience and inner strength as you increase your capacity and internal resources to call forth a more joyful life. Finding brighter days and cultivating positivity is more about building resilience than fooling yourself into “happy thoughts.” In this episode, I break down why I use the tagline “May you stay on the bright side of the beat.” and relate it to a more nuanced discussion on deve...
Everything begins with the breath. Today we’ll explore ways in which breathwork, exercise, music, and creative grounding help calm our response to stressors (triggered by our fight or flight response). We can use tools to go beyond the rational mind to tap into the mind/body connection. Once you slow your breathing and embrace stillness, your body relaxes and the overwhelm and angst start to dissipate. We connect with our breath through mindful breathing, but also through rhythmic breat...
In this episode, I’ll discuss the adage “time heals all wounds.” We may not want to hear this, especially if it’s said off the cuff, but ultimately, time gives us a cushion to process our feelings. Engaging our senses in mindful acts also creates some space to heal. Time passes, priorities get rearranged, and new options start to appear. All these factors can help us get from a painful place to a more comfortable one. We’ll explore a few related topics, like the dichotomy between feelin...
We’ll connect the threads between how making space and time for friends (and actively tuning into our interactions with them) helps us build more meaning in our lives. To do this we have to clear the cobwebs—get rid of the dead weight and make sure we can distinguish between people who we should journey onward with as friends and those that we can leave behind. By actively listening, we can learn to read the signs accordingly and find our tribe. Once we’ve found them, we must be mindfu...
In this episode, I talk about how we carry our loved ones (and all their teachings) with us when they aren’t around anymore. The distance could be from illness, death, or just geographical location, but we miss them and want to feel close to them even though they aren’t physically present in our lives. We are amazing humans, and we are capable of carrying our vision of other people’s essence inside us (as part of our inner body and soul). Their voice, habits, gestures, smell, and favori...
As the saying goes, “Life is not for the faint of heart.” We may worry about this or that, predict obstacles and roadblocks, and ruminate about the next challenge, but most of the time none of that stuff happens. Life has other plans for us, and we may not see any of them coming! But after you’ve been knocked down a few too many times, you toughen up. Yes, you get stronger from the unpredictable struggles you face, and sometimes your internal power can grow to become as mighty as a lion...
Today I’m talking about shitty days. We’ve all had them, but some of us (yes, I’m talking about myself) don’t tolerate them well. We act out over them, ruminate over them, and buy into our bullshit thoughts that tell us these uncomfortable feelings will be with us forever. They won’t. They will pass. Shitty feelings always pass, but not before we feel them. That’s the rub. How do we get through our shitty feelings with as little pain as possible? Through community and beauty. I’ll explain. We...
You control your perception. Yes, you control your perception. For anyone who’s struggled with that idea (yes, I’m raising my hand here), this episode presents a case for small, manageable meditation sessions and mindful moments in nature. Before you think, “Oh no, I can’t meditate. I can’t rest my thinking for more than a nanosecond," or “I don’t live close to nature and mindfulness is such new-age crap.” Before the objections come to mind—and believe me I’ve said all of these at one time or...
Struggle is a teacher, and while we may not want to learn what it has decided to teach us, it’s coming for us! Truthfully, we need it, because how we respond to struggle determines our life’s purpose. It is in response to struggle that we do what needs to be done to find our strength. And one of the most brilliant and pleasurable pathways to this fountain of inner strength is through creative expression. Together we’ll explore how creativity and purposeful actions help uncover our strong, vib...
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