Dearest Tender Beings,
I have started a podcast! It’s been in the ideas stage stagnating for quite some time (under the guise of germination but really in the zone of procrastination and then delay due to life circumstances!)
This first episode is an outline of some of the ideas and intentions I’m holding as I tenderly start to release this podcast out into the world!
Would love to hear your thoughts and really looking forward to slowly and openly moving forwards with this.
Thank you for being here and for listening.
All my love,
Harriet
Transcript below:
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.
So welcome to the tender being podcast, I'm so glad that you're here. Thank you for listening. The seed of this was planted quite a while ago, I've been thinking about what it might be like to have a podcast along these lines. But there's been life things that have been in the way various barriers and lovely things such as chronic illness and a baby and lots of life changes, and also a big old heap of procrastination from me. So I'm trying to kind of gently push myself through the self protective mechanisms that are showing up of this procrastination and perfectionism of never quite feeling ready and just showing up and doing this thing imperfectly and organically. And so I am delighted to welcome you here for this process.
So what is the purpose of this show, my hope is to create a space for conversations that explore the nuance of life, the ways in which being sensitive and deeply feeling political and idealistic, can help us move towards the kind of world we want to see, rather than seeing it as something that weighs us down. And this isn't me wanting to suggest any kind of grandiose solutions. But it's more about the little ways that we can be the world that we want to see. So I like to think about the parable of the starfish stranded on the beach. So for anyone who isn't familiar with the story is that there's a little girl on the beach and the beach is there are 1000s and 1000s of starfish that have washed up onto the shore. And they're all slowly dying, because they need to be in the sea. And this little girl is just going and throwing one starfish at a time back into the sea, even though there are 1000s and 1000s. And someone comes along and asks her what are you doing, Vina, this isn't gonna make any difference? You can't save them all. And she said, Yeah, but I've saved that one. And I've saved that one. And I've saved that one. And I find that really, really helpful to reflect on when I feel very overwhelmed by the scale of the issues that we're facing, and the scale of our feelings around those and kind of, it's easy to look at the big picture and kind of crumpled because it's just too much for us to hold. But looking at our small spaces where we can make a difference. Whether that's kind of in work or in our relationships, or in our way of being in the world. That makes it feel more manageable.
So that's my hope is kind of to create this space to reflect and recognize the meaning our actions and to be inspired by the ways that other people do that in the world to though, to celebrate the goodness that is happening on the small scale in the community level. And yeah, just to, to recognize that the there's beauty and the messiness of it all as well.
So my intention is also for this podcast to be another way to connect with me, Harriet, to connect with my work and with the kindred soil community. So if you haven't heard of kindred soil, that's the name under which I have my offerings. So it's, it's my business, but it's also a really beautiful community of people who come along to the events that I run. So I hold lots of group spaces, I run group programs, and I hold one to one spaces as well. Am I'm such a great believer in the power of community and of sharing and holding space for other people to share both as groups and one to one. So I'm hoping that that translates into this podcast as well.
I am a really big fan of podcasts I have recently for anyone who doesn't know I've recently had a baby and so I've spent a lot of time underneath and now Tapping baby or more recently, walking around with the pram, so I've been listening to more and more podcasts. And I really love the feeling of connection that I feel like they can offer but in an accessible way. So whether I have 10 minutes or two hours, I can listen to as much or as little as I want hour as I can. I know that when I was more unwell I also found dipping into bits of podcasts really enjoyable. It felt like the joy that I get from having conversations with friends and colleagues and connecting about really interesting ideas. But I didn't have to come up with a response. I could just listen and absorb and have my own reflections. But I didn't have to. I didn't have to have any output. And I could revisit it any time if I didn't remember or if I wanted to re listen re reflect on something. So yeah, I felt quite passionate about this medium.
Just to give an idea of what I have been imagining dreaming of aspiring to podcast wise, I thought I would share some of my inspirations. So one would be as the season turns by Lia Leendertz and Ffern. It comes out in the first of every month is really beautiful, nature based podcast that follows the changing seasons. And it focuses a bit on the Celtic wheel, which is something that I work with and really love. It's a really beautiful podcast, if you haven't listened, I highly recommend. Another one would be grief cast. And that's with Carriad Lloyd, who is a she's a comedian, actor, but also podcaster and interviews people about grief and has these really beautiful, honest conversations. And probably my favorite podcast would be for the wild. I just love the depth of the conversations and the ways that ideas are woven together and applied and reflected on and just Yeah, it's a it's an incredible podcast. And I really highly recommend, they explore the nature and Somatics and mindfulness and politics and social justice and it's just, it's brilliant, I really, really highly recommend that.
To begin with, I'm planning some different types of episodes, these will be a mix of individual episodes with just me, and hopefully some guest episodes where I will interview people. So the individual ones, I'm imagining that I will do some regular Celtic wheel episodes. So I'm gonna share my own reflections kind of seasonal prompts, and explore my practices around this.
And then the guest episodes are going to be me holding space, having conversations with other tender beings who have I've had the privilege of meeting. So these will include probably teachers and peers from the practices and teachings methodologies that I work in that I feel passionate about, such as nature connection, mindfulness, Somatics, space holding circle facilitation, coaching.
Also, with the guests, I really want to include people from the community, people from my life, people who are in completely different areas of specialisms or don't have specialisms. The thing that I found running events for a long time, is that if you hold the space for it, every single person has something really interesting, and thought provoking, to share. And so I would really love to welcome anyone from the community who would like to get involved and be on the podcast, I really don't want there to be any kind of hierarchy or thinking, who should or shouldn't be on the podcast, because if you'd like to come on, then I'd love to have a conversation with you. So yeah, please do get in touch if that's something that is of interest to you.
And finally, my feeling my approach to the podcast is that it is less of a solid, structured thing and more of a living organism that's going to be shifting and changing with the seasons. And with interaction and engagement from you from the community. You can come and get involved and message me and leave comments. I'm gonna post this on substack. So you can come and comment in there if you have any questions or reflections. Or if you would like to be on the podcast, you can always get in touch with me directly for any of those. And yeah, I'm just really grateful for you being here. If you're listening, supporting, and I look forward to going on this adventure with you.
So all my warmest wishes,
Harriet Hamid-Collett.
