Welcome back for the third episode of the podcast and second Celtic Wheel episode - this time celebrating Beltane!
The prompts are below, as well as various links mentioned during the episode and the transcript is below these.
Please do feel free to share any thoughts or reflections you have from these prompts - I’d love to connect!
And if you’d like to join us for the live event on 1st May there are spaces available here!
Prompts:
What are you grateful for?
I appreciate…
I am enjoying…
What are you proud of?
I have shown myself…
I can see in myself…
What lights you up?
I am inspired by…
I feel encouraged / heartened by…
I am most alive when…
Links:
Information on the Freedom Flotilla - https://freedomflotilla.org/
Tickets to join us for Beltane / Bealtainne event on May 1st - https://www.eventbrite.ie/e/873194577487?aff=oddtdtcreator
News story about the Climate March / Funeral for Mother Nature - https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c1rvd4jw3p0o
Transcript
Welcome to tender being with Harriet Hamid-Collett. Join me, Harriet, as I explore the big feelings and the small moments, connecting the supportive practices with nature in the seasons. And with an inspiring community to soothe, validate, and warm our tender hearts.
Welcome back for the third episode of the tender being podcast. Thank you so much for being here. And thank you for the comments and messages I've received. It feels very vulnerable to put this stuff out there. So it's really lovely to know that it's resonating with some of you. And if you'd like to get involved in the conversation, please do come on over to substack or just send me a message. So this third episode is going to also be our second Celtic wheel episode. And today we're going to be exploring Beltane or BL tena Beltane or BL tena is celebrated on the first of May, and Beltane translates roughly to bright fire, or BLT now also is Gaelic word for the month of May. And this is the midpoint between the spring equinox, the summer solstice, and it's often thought of as being the birth of summer. And this can be seen as a time of growth, it's probably the time of most growth in all the year. That's also can be seen as a time of creativity and inspiration. And so, what in this episode, what I'm going to do is I'm going to, as before explore some prompts that I normally use in my live sessions. And I'm going to share my responses to these prompts. And I'm also going to put the prompts in the show notes on substack, if you would like to explore these yourself, and I would love to know how you get on with that. And just a little note a little aside to say that, normally in the sessions, we would have two prompts that we might use for journaling or reflection, however people want to use them. And then I have other prompts or themes that come through in the other in their meditations or somatic exercises, the other activities that we do in the session. And the two prompts today, I wanted to explore but I also felt like I wanted to bring in one of the other questions that we normally explore in the meditation part of this session, just because it felt quite pertinent, quite important and meaningful to explore this festival to explore Beltane br Tina in this way, too. So I'm going to add that one on at the end. And again, I'll share that in the show notes.
The first prompt is what are you grateful for in this season. And the first thing that came to mind for me, which is a very complicated one, is that I'm really grateful for my health being as manageable as it is at the moment. And this is complex, this feels complicated, and kind of a bit sticky to share because of lots of reasons. Firstly, because I know that it's a huge privilege to have seen improvements in my health, and that not everybody gets those. And to be very clear that those that they the improvements are not because I've done something more or because I've tried harder or eaten more or done more yoga or anything, there's no there's no logic or fairness to who sees improvements. From my perspective. It's it's just pure luck, really. And I had been very nervous about pregnancy and what that might mean for my health, as well as the demands of parenthood. And so far, my symptoms have been actually less than they were before. But also one of the other reasons that this feels complicated. I never really want to say that I've had improvements or say that my health is seeming more stable or improved because it always feels like jinxing it. That's something that my brain likes to latch on to and think that I'm a I'm that I'm that I'm jinxing it that I shouldn't even say out loud, that it's staying better because it will get worse. And I think those of us who have experience of chronic illness or if you know someone have a loved one with chronic illness, you know that these things are fluctuating and that you never really feel like you're safe or that you're out of it. And to be clear, I still have symptoms I'm not, I'm not recovered. And I don't ever expect to be recovered. Because the conditions that I've developed are lifelong things, but they're just somewhat in remission, or kind of more, a lot more manageable for me at the moment. So yeah, I'm feeling hugely, hugely grateful for that, even if it feels somewhat fragile, or possibly temporary, but I'm just trying to enjoy it and make the most of it while I can. I'm also really enjoying seeing how much my little one is developing at the moment, he's suddenly become, like, in the last week or so become so much more communicative and aware and loads, more smiles and giggles. And also more frustration that comes with that he's kind of preparing to crawl. And that's I saw something that compared those kind of developmental leaps for babies with having like a project, and that they need time to practice it. So he's seeing lots of floor time and working on that. But it also kind of makes me laugh and really empathize with him, because I see him getting frustrated, I think of my myself working on a project and being excited about it, but also getting frustrated. But yeah, I'm really, really grateful for just the ways in which I'm getting to know him and the moments that I'm getting with him. And he's also able to forward face in the carrier now. And it's he's so delighted to see more of the world. And that kind of makes me a little bit more delighted to see the world as well. So that's really nice. I'm also managing to be out in nature a little bit more with little one, and kind of in different ways. So I'd have to rely on the pram which is a bit hit and miss, sometimes he's up for it. And sometimes he is not a fan of the pram. But with the forward facing walk, it's always gonna be unless it's heavily raining, it's always going to be a great option because he's so interested in everything. So it's meant that we can go for walks outside. And he's really interested we take slow walks and stop often by all the bushes and plants and he has a feel of them and smell and it almost feels like many forest bathing sessions that we're engaging with. Except that normally on my forest bathing sessions, I don't have to check that people aren't putting all the leaves and flowers into their mouth. The final thing that I have been thinking about being grateful for is the timing of this training that I've just started. So I've just started an advanced coaching training with SAS Petherick. And this is about developmental approaches to coaching and particularly with a focus on self doubt and self belief. And it's feeling so pertinent to my life right now because I'm really noticing, with parenting such huge self doubt coming in. Like I I'm definitely someone I think most people experience self doubt in some way. And I have experienced it before but this feels like a really new level perhaps because it feels like a kind of bigger responsibility than I've ever had before, I guess. But it's been really great to have this Come along now to be exploring it and learning and applying it to myself as well as being very excited about applying it within my one to one work that I'm going to be offering with people. So yeah, I'm feeling really glad that I signed up for this training and very grateful to SAS for what I'm learning within it.
Second prompt is what are you feeling proud of in this season? And one thing that I'm feeling really proud of is that I managed to go to a protest with little one, and with my mom. And I was really stressed about attending on various levels, mainly kind of managing the experience for a little one for how he would find it. Also from COVID perspective, from an energy perspective, it's just a lot of new things to navigate. So I was really quite nervous about it. So we went to a protest that was held in Bath, which was this funeral for mother nature. So it was a climate protest. And it was a huge procession. So we all wore black as mourners in the procession. And then there were the red rebels. If you haven't heard of them, they are a troop who dress up in these amazing red outfits, it was it was visually very striking. And my dad had been very involved in the organization of the stewarding for it. And so I was really glad to be able to make it. It was quite challenging in that there was a marched was a square, and then there was a big silent procession. And obviously, that was the point at which it was a silent procession, but with some drumming, and I think the drumming might have been a bit much, I think little and was also tired. So that silent bit was a bit at which he started really crying. So I was quite nervous, a bit thrown. But I just tried to stay as calm as I could. I tried to cover different things, it was also Sunny, which is a bit of a challenge with the son going in his eyes. I just took him out the pram and I put him in the carrier on me. And I just tried to sway and stay calm, and keep myself calm. And I managed to get him to sleep. And then we carried on the rest of the procession with him in the carrier, and my mum took the pram. And this might sound like quite a small thing for lots of people. But for me, it felt like a really big thing to have done. And I felt like I showed myself that I can cope, I can look after him outside of the house with unknowns and with with challenges, and that I can trust my instincts. And I can trust my knowledge of him and my relationship with him. And that also things will go wrong, because it did go wrong. And it was okay. So that is something that I feel proud of. And I guess this is part of the bigger theme of what I am taking some pride in of that I can feel that there are some building blocks of self belief in terms of my role as a parent that are emerging. So I'm still noticing, and more and more aware of this. Now during the training of sass, that I'm doing a lot of external, looking for external validation or external guidance, and that I'm looking out for expertise. But there are some these threads of self belief that are gradually guiding me back to asking myself what do I think. And these threads are gradually getting stronger. Even though I notice also when there are changes and there are difficult things. I very much revert back to looking externally. But again, I think that these threads will hopefully be a guide back to coming back to myself and my instincts. And the final thing that occurred to me that I am feeling proud of is that I am being a bit braver about just putting myself out there putting my words out there, you know, starting this podcast, but allowing myself to do that imperfectly. And that's not to say that I thought that the words or the work that I was putting out before was perfect, but I was definitely taking longer to tweak and probably procrastinating, not feeling brave about putting stuff out there and worrying about how it would be received and I'm just trying to push past this idea of waiting until it feels ready because things may never feel totally ready because first times are doing things are nerve racking. And each new thing that I put out there, and I'm so excited about doing some new things, that's, it's not gonna feel perfect necessarily, like this podcast, doing it imperfectly is better than waiting for it to be perfect and therefore never sharing it at all. And those who are on my mailing list will have seen that I've shared some of the stuff that I'm either putting out there now or getting ready to do. And I'm starting to invite people into my process of my plans for what I'm hoping to deliver. And that feels quite freeing in a way to say, you know, I'm having these ideas, and I'm, I'm hoping to put on these programs. And if you're interested, let me know. Rather than saying, I've got this perfect thing that's already for you Come and join me. And it does, it feels vulnerable. But also, it feels more in tune with the way that I am with the way that I work in the way that I want to be and encourage other people to be to, to enjoy the process of things rather than focusing on end results, letting go of any attempts to be perfect, or at least trying to.
The third prompt is what lights you up. And this is inspired by the translation of Beltane into bright fire, thinking about what lights a fire beneath us, what makes us feel lit up and alive. And the strong theme that came to me for my answer for this was community was connecting and engaging with community. And this came up in different ways. So I thought about the protest and about the way that being with people felt so different about even though we were there for this funeral for mother nature is very difficult thing very overwhelming, in terms of engaging with the climate crisis, climate emergency that were in, that being in community made that make more sense for me, I felt this solidarity and I felt this connection, I'm less alone in looking at these topics. And also for me community is about holding space for big feelings. For others. This is what I love doing. That's why I love my work and the work that I do. So I recently trained with the climate psychology Alliance, to run climate cafes and I'm this is that's kind of like a circle space, focused on climate and feelings around climate. It's the model comes from death cafes, which was the kind of grief circle. And although it might sound strange, I'm really feeling quite lit up by this idea of grief being the thing that connects so much of the things that I'm thinking about in the world of the ways that people do or don't engage with the issues that are going on. And that I'm kind of feeling really drawn myself to trying to create spaces for grief for the big feelings, which I already do, but kind of really leaning into the into the into the grief and into the more difficult feelings and really giving permission for that. And I always feel quite lit up when I come out of the circle spaces, the events that I hold where people really share from the heart and you see the way that it resonates with other people, it gives them permission to do the same. And I also know that being in spaces like that for me, and I know for other people, I've had feedback that it it, it can come out into the rest of your life as well seeing that the way that people share these difficult feelings kind of gives us permission to do that outside of those spaces in our everyday life a bit more. And I think the more that we do that, the more connected we can all be the more we can move towards the kind of world that we want to be living in. A final thing thing that has really been lighting me up in what feels like very dark times has been to see this flotilla that has been building this project, I'll put links to it in the show notes in case you haven't seen or heard about it. But a flotilla of volunteers of people, everyday people who are going to take 1000s of tonnes of aid to Gaza. And we don't know whether they will get through, we don't know that, you know, their aid isn't isn't enough to cover all the need. But it's, it's a start. And it's people taking things into their own hands. And I just feeling so energized by that, by this by seeing this because I think a lot of the ways in which we can try to make the world better and fight the injustice is that we're seeing are through the systems that are already in place. So writing to our MPs and signing petitions. And that is all very important. And also, I find that sometimes becomes very draining because I think about the people that I'm writing to and the people in power, and it's often not in their interests, because they have vested interests in, for example, because you see an arc having vested interests in the oil in Gaza. And I feel really drained by trying to change the systems that are self fulfilling and don't want to change. And so the idea of these people just taking it in their own hands and doing this, it's just yeah, as you might be able to tell it was really lit me up and made me very excited. So yeah, I will put a notes in the show notes, so you can see and learn a bit more about that.
So those are my reflections for this Celtic wheel episode. And I have put all the prompts in the show notes. And if you want to engage with these yourself, please do in whatever way feels good for you. If you'd like to share, I'd love to know how you're getting on what your reflections are from these and what lights you up. And also just to mention that I'm running a Beltane event on the first of May. And there are still three tickets left at the time of recording this. So if you would like to check that out. I will put a link to that in the show notes as well. Tickets are available on Eventbrite and if you have any questions just let me know. Thank you so much for being here and for listening and I look forward to connecting with you again soon.
