The Creative Void: Tapping Into Feminine Energy for Limitless Inspiration

Have you ever felt the burning desire to write, yet find yourself frozen by self-doubt and fear of rejection? This episode takes you on a deeply vulnerable journey into the heart of creative expression with book coach Lisa Tener, who brings her wealth of experience from helping hundreds of authors transform their writing blocks into flowing creativity.

Lisa opens by sharing her remarkable path from MIT graduate to published author and book coach, revealing how a personal health crisis led her to rediscover the healing power of writing. With over a dozen years teaching at Harvard Medical School's publishing course and multiple award-winning books to her name, Lisa brings both credibility and compassion to the creative process.

What unfolds is nothing short of magical as Lisa guides our host through a powerful visualization to connect with her creative muse. The process reveals how childhood messages about our abilities create lasting barriers to creative expression—barriers that can be gently dismantled through mindfulness and self-compassion. You'll witness firsthand how confronting the vulnerable parts of ourselves that fear criticism can lead to profound creative breakthroughs.

Beyond the emotional journey, this episode delivers practical wisdom for writers at every stage. Learn how to structure feedback requests from beta readers, recognize the difference between helpful editors and harmful critics, and understand why trying to please everyone ultimately dilutes your authentic voice. Lisa's insight that "great writing moves us emotionally—it's transformative, it's cathartic" redefines success beyond technical perfection.

Whether you're struggling with a book manuscript, seeking to unleash your creative potential, or simply curious about the intersection of mindfulness and creativity, this conversation offers both inspiration and actionable techniques. Connect with your own creative source through breathwork, visualization, and the courage to trust your unique voice. Your creative muse is waiting—are you ready to meet it?

Find Lisa Tener here: https://www.lisatener.com/

Chapters

• 0:00 Welcome to Lift One Self Podcast
• 6:45 Meet Lisa Tenner: Book Coach Journey
• 7:47 Mindful Moment: Grounding Practice
• 28:01 Exploring Writing Confidence and Beta Readers
• 36:18 Guided Visualization: Meeting Your Muse
• 48:33 Integrating Trust and Overcoming Self-Doubt
• 56:22 Final Reflections on AI and Creativity

Transcript

NatNat: 0:00

Welcome to the Lift One Self podcast, where we break mental health stigmas through conversations. I'm your host, nat Nat, and we dive into topics about trauma and how it impacts the nervous system. Yet we don't just leave you there. We share insights and tools of self-care, meditation and growth that help you be curious about your own biology. Your presence matters. Please like and subscribe to our podcast. Help our community grow. Let's get into this. Oh, and please remember to be kind to yourself.

Lisa Tenner: 0:36

I'm your host, nat Nat, and today we have a wonderful guest that she's going to bring me through a process for myself. So I'm going to be a little vulnerable and transparent in this podcast. Yet by putting myself out there, she may have services and gifts that you will be able to access and work with her. So, lisa Tenor is with us. So, lisa, could you introduce yourself to the listeners and let me and them know a little bit about yourself?

Speaker 3: 1:07

Absolutely. You know, writing has always been so. I'm Lisa Tenner and I'm a book coach, and writing has always been a key part of my life. It was definitely a part of my childhood, and yet I was kind of a slow reader, I think. I was somewhat dyslexic, and I kind of felt the message. I think, like society-wise and my parents maybe too like you have to do something that's practical. So I went to MIT can't get more practical than that but I was not a very good programmer, which is kind of the field that I chose and, you know, realized like it was kind of a struggle, I didn't enjoy it, I wasn't fantastic at it, I could kind of squeak by.

Speaker 3: 1:56

But I discovered other things in my first job, that a lot of it was teaching and creating classes which I loved, and creating classes which I loved. And eventually, though, like you, I came to a healing crisis that really opened my world and in this healing from a chronic illness, discovered well, went back to journaling, which I'd been doing as a child, and discovered how healing writing can be, and eventually ended up co-authoring a book, the Ultimate Guide to Transforming Anger that was published by HCI, and we sold over 20,000 copies and got me into the publishing field, I quickly realized teaching about anger was not much fun and I really wanted to help people get in the creative zone and write. And I thought I'd be a creativity coach. But people kept coming to me for help with their books. So eventually I realized, oh, I'm a book coach and I was on the faculty of Harvard Medical School's CMA publishing course for over a dozen years and helped a lot of doctors, therapists, healers to write and publish their books.

Speaker 3: 3:04

But I also work with a lot of coaches, entrepreneurs, moms, visionaries, spiritual folks so a whole variety of people and many have traditionally published. I've helped them with book proposals and also many have self-published and won awards, and I've done both actually. So my last two books were self-published and won a bunch of awards and we've got the let's see if I do this right the Joy of Writing Journal Spark your Creativity in Eight Minutes a Day and then Breathe, Write, Breathe 18 Energizing Practices to Spark your Writing and Free your Voice. So it's been a wonderful journey and I love helping people get in that creative flow, figure out, if they do wanna write a book, what that book would be, but they can also write other things and just learn to get in flow with breathing, which I know you love. And other mindful practices can be movement oriented too. That help us really get in our bodies and get in that flow where it just comes, and it's our best stuff.

Lisa Tenner: 4:11

Well, I'm looking forward to this conversation because I am personally invested in this, because I am in the process of writing a book, which I have said for many years, so this is like I'm using a lot of excuses so I'd like to you know, walk through your process to see where my muse is and what actually the blockages are, so I can, you know, walk through that fear and feel it. So, before we get in and I actually have some other questions that I want to pose to you to see what your perspective is Before we start would you join me in a mindful moment so we can ground ourselves?

Speaker 3: 4:47

I would love to.

Lisa Tenner: 4:48

Okay, and for the listeners, as you always hear, safety first. Please do not close your eyes. Yet the other prompts you're able to follow through. So, lisa, I'll ask you to get comfortable in your seating and, if it's safe to do so, you're going to gently close your eyes and you're going to begin breathing in and out through your nose and you're going to bring your awareness to watching your breath go in and out through your nose.

Lisa Tenner: 5:18

You're not going to try and control your breath, you're just going to be aware of it, allowing the rhythm to guide you into your body. There may be some feelings or sensations coming up, and that's okay. You're safe to feel. You're safe to let go, surrender the need to control, release the need to resist and just be.

NatNat: 5:48

Be with your breath, drop deeper into your body.

Lisa Tenner: 5:54

Now some thoughts or to-do lists may have popped up, and that's okay. Gently, bring your awareness back to your breath, creating space between the awareness and thoughts and dropping deeper into your body allowing yourself to just be Again.

NatNat: 6:17

More thoughts may have popped up. Gently bring your awareness back to your breath. Gently bringing your awareness back to your breath, beginning again, creating even more space between the awareness and the thoughts and dropping deeper into your body, being in the space of just being, being aware of the rhythm of your breath, that it might have changed, being aware of sensations now, at your own time and at your own pace.

Lisa Tenner: 6:58

you're going to gently open your eyes while staying with your breath. How's your heart doing? Feels good, feels open. We don't recognize sometimes where two minutes of pausing and just doing a check-in with ourselves allows us to really see where we are in our mental state, in our body, physicals, and be present in the moment. A lot of us are to-do lists and carry on in thoughts and everything else. We don't realize how it distracts us from the present moment. So when you were talking, you said like MIT and you dropped Harvard, these are no easy institutes to get into. Yet you had said that you had some difficulty with writing when you were younger. When did you?

Speaker 3: 7:53

recognize like fully and start trusting yourself like I need to change the trajectory and path of my life. You know, in a way, the real change in trajectory, I think, came with that illness. So like 10 years, no more than 10 years out of college, no more than 10 years out of college and I had chronic fatigue. So I was really searching for solutions and I found that the allopathic healing really had nothing to offer me except, well, you could take a very low dosage of an antidepressant, and for some people it helps a bit, but as soon as you stop taking it you're back where you started and I thought, okay, that's not a cure and I'm going for a cure, and I felt really confident that that was going to happen.

Speaker 3: 8:37

So I just searched and I found polarity therapy. I did other things too that were helpful, but that was probably the most helpful because it is an energetic and very holistic system. So there's some yoga in there and there's nutritional things and there's kind of that internal dialogue with different aspects of ourself, and then there's the body work, body work. So it was a really beautiful process and it helped me so much I decided to study it, not because I thought, oh, I'm going to become a healer, but I really wanted to understand it more because it was so mind-blowing and that really was an introduction to a spiritual life.

Speaker 3: 9:17

I think I'd found moments of that deep connection in nature and moments of it through creativity and certainly through writing, especially poetry, but it was really that work that opened me to a spiritual life. My father was very anti-religion and super anxious and my mother was fairly anxious. I think there was a lot of trauma Holocaust, trauma, programs, trauma, so a lot of you know kind of different trauma. I think maybe almost everybody has trauma in the ancestral field, but you know there was. So there wasn't like an openness. I think I think my mother found her spiritual. So there wasn't like an openness. I think I think my mother found her spiritual nourishment in painting. She was a watercolor painter but I really didn't find it until I found polarity therapy and I think I found it in moments right, but really kind of dropped into it then so I want to ask you said that you have a process that you help walk through people.

Lisa Tenner: 10:22

Is this in the Breathe Right Breathe book, this process?

Speaker 3: 10:26

It's actually in both books. Yeah, both books have QR codes. Let me show you real quick. But both books have QR codes that you can scan with your phone and it's like getting a workshop in a book, you know, or even like a long retreat, where in each chapter there's some practice and a breathe, right breathe. Especially. Every chapter there's either a video or an audio meditation that takes you into a practice and then afterwards a whole lot of prompts that connect. There's also stories in it too, but it really helps you kind of tap into that creativity with ease you kind of tap into that creativity with ease.

Lisa Tenner: 11:07

So, as I said, I've been in the process of trying to write. I've been writing, yet my difficulty is the structure and feeling that I'm writing. Yet is it writing in the way that other people would be interested? Or am I just writing just to write, so that becomes conflicting where I'm writing? And I know that when I speak with people they're like you make everything so simplified, However it's like. But a book still needs to be engaging so that the listeners can really see themselves and feel like it's something that's digestible and relatable. And so if you'd be willing to work with me right now and walk me through a process just to see where my muse is, and just help me right now, Okay, great, and so I'm just writing a few notes.

Speaker 3: 12:02

So when we go into it, I have my notes. So a couple things I want to say, you know, before we go into it is just to say, you know, you have actually had beta readers read parts of your book and give you great, you know, give you very positive feedback. Know, these people love me and they, you know, want to tell me that it's good, right, and they also, like, have this predisposition to love it because they hear your voice in it, right, all of that. So, a couple things you know. One is that you can ask the questions in different ways, right. So, giving your beta readers a short list and it would be good for the list to start with something really positive what did you love, what did you like and what do you want more of? So that gives them that opportunity right away to give you all the stuff they love, and then there's a little space for them to give you any more critical feedback and you'll feel better and they'll feel better, right, because it's all the stuff they love. And then, okay, and what did you know, what did you want more of? So that's like getting a little bit more critical but not really right. It's what they want more of.

Speaker 3: 13:11

But then you know, where did you get bored or confused? And those are really good questions and it's not as loaded right. It's like what didn't you like? Where did you get bored, where did you get confused? So they're looking for those places now where they get bored or confused. That'll be really helpful. And then just a general what else do you want me to know? If you give them too many questions, they'll just be overwhelmed. So that's really pretty much it. I wouldn't ask much more than that, unless there are specific things you want them to look for. Or can you read you know this paragraph and let me know I don't think it flows right. You know something like that, but when you find out where they're bored or confused, you're going to find out what's not working. So that might be really helpful in getting that deeper beta reader feedback.

Speaker 3: 13:58

But also having an editor is really helpful, because an editor is going to be able to say okay, I want you to go deeper. So here are some questions to answer right, like here's how to go deeper. And you know even somebody who's written a lot of books I had actually three different. This book. This book was super fast, like took less than a year to write and actually like the big, the bones of it were written in just a few days. And then you know, then I kind of worked and worked it, worked it. But this book I took a long time. This other book came in the middle of it and I had three different editors at different times because my needs were different in those spaces.

Speaker 3: 14:39

So working with editors can be really helpful to get your best writing out, because they know the anatomy of writing, they know the things that will really make it work, where a reader will know some things but they're not going to be able to maybe take you to the same place as an editor. So at some point it's really helpful to work with an editor or coach or somebody who does both. So those are like a couple of things just on the you know, kind of more practical level that I want to offer you and your listeners. But then let's also see what your inner muse, your creative source, has to say about it, because that's the practice that we're going to do is a guided visualization to connect with your muse. And definitely, you know, when you're saying, structure and flow like those are important too, and that's a reader might be able to help you a little with that, but that's where I think an editor or coach is going to be especially helpful with structure. But your muse can help too, so we'll ask your muse if there's something about structure that is going to be helpful right now.

Speaker 3: 15:45

And the other thing I hope it's okay to mention, but before we got in the podcast interview, you did mention, I think, something about confidence, right, and not feeling confident.

Speaker 3: 15:56

So that is really key and you know, everybody has that, almost everybody. There are probably people who don't, but even the people who seem to have at least like those super confident people, especially if they're narcissists, they actually have it in spades, right. They really have underneath this lack of confidence, right, or some kind of vulnerability. So it's really important to interact with that aspect and see what does it have to teach us? And, uh, by going deeper with it, you're always going to find gifts, right, and again, your book is largely about those gifts, that that we get when we go deeper and um, and also, uh, more clarity about what you need to feel that confidence, and sometimes even the muse will just like give you something energetically in that moment that's like, oh, I can feel it and that can really help too. So let's see what the muse has to say. If I have your permission to go there, you do.

Lisa Tenner: 17:02

I just want to. What's clearly coming through for me right now is always needing a sense of validation, because when I was in school, in my elementary classes, I was always told that I was stupid and that I wasn't putting effort and don't go into writing. So I understand that, a really deep ingrained belief system and I I know it. Yet viscerally in my body, I know there's still defense mechanisms of believing that. So as soon as you said, like I still look for that validation, it's like it's not good enough, like you're just saying that because you want to appease me. Yet those questions that you've just posted gave to the listeners, those are things that I asked them to look for and they did give me back feedback of I didn't understand this, this wasn't clear. Can you change that? So, and still for me that confidence of why would they, you know, tell you that something that isn't of value and whatnot? So I understand that a lot of it is the ingrained belief systems and that wound within myself of not feeling worthy in the validation.

Speaker 3: 18:39

Yeah, because of course, like in wanting to support you, especially when you give them questions like you did especially if you gave them the opportunities first to say what they love, then most people are going to be able to say, okay, it's going to be helpful who really find it hard to do that and that's okay. But I'm sure you got it sounds like you got a balance of feedback. So that's good to know writing. We're usually not taught what really makes great writing. You know, and we might be taught. You know kind of that sort of formula about proving something in an essay and that's not really great writing.

Speaker 3: 19:16

Great writing moves us emotionally. Great writing is transformative, it's cathartic, it changes something within us. Right, it might move us to action and to more change and healing, and so that's really great writing. So great writing really connects us with emotion. It connects us with sensory detail that makes things come alive, and we're not taught that in school or if we are, we're taught it at usually a fairly surface, superficial level. And so you know, it's actually not your fault if your writing wasn't that good, because it probably was partly due to that really not learning what really makes good writing and not having a teacher who really asked the right questions to help you go deeper, because they didn't really have that right.

Speaker 3: 20:11

And also, you know, society has given us so many ways to feel muddled or confused or to protect ourselves from knowing, and if we protect ourselves too much, we're not going to write that. Well, right, we have to be willing to go to those uncomfortable places in our writing, even if we end up not sharing those parts. We have to be willing to go there, and then we can always say this part I'm comfortable sharing, this part I'm not, for whatever reasons, might be protecting someone else, but giving yourself the space to say it on the page and decide later what you're going to share or not share. So that's also a really powerful piece. But we're not taught that and there's so many directives not to do that right, don't feel so. You know that's going to come into play too, and sometimes you want to just journal about what's coming up or what's in the way, so that you can go deeper with your writing. So, yeah, so that's another exercise you can give yourself. Thank you, okay.

Speaker 3: 21:14

So now we had a lot of talk. You ready to meet your muse? Yes, excellent. So I'm going to invite you now and for listeners, you may just want to listen and experience what it's like to kind of be the observer in this right, but also feel free to look for where you might have a similar experience, like oh yeah, the music is saying this and I think I need to do that too, right, so you know, see, there might be some armchair healing for you here, or armchair transformation or something to explore, and I will give you the link to where you can do this exercise on your own. Sometimes it is more helpful to do it with somebody because there's a safety in that and also that person especially some value doing it on your own. Just listening to the more general Meet your Muse guided visualization, so I will share that. So it's something people can listen to later and try it themselves.

Lisa Tenner: 22:37

And for the listeners. Just let you know I'm very vulnerable and I'm scared because I'm like what's going to come up and what's going to be said, yet I know that it's just the fear that's, you know, blocking the vulnerability. So this is what the work looks like of being transparent and willing to be honest with yourself. So I'm looking forward to this. So I'm all yours, lisa.

Speaker 3: 23:00

Okay, and I also want to say you're in charge. So if at some point I ask a question and what the muse is saying feels like you know what, this is a piece I don't want to share. You know you can say that of course you can edit this too, but you know it's important, I think, if you're going deep, to really feel safe. So just know, you know you can say you know what.

Lisa Tenner: 23:26

I don't want to ask that question of my muse. I think I'm going to be mindful enough. We won't go there, but I can go there. I'm fine. I understand safety. I just said that. So cause a lot of people will look at me and perceive me as strength and I don't have any fears or I don't have this, and because of the work of space holding for others, they'll forget. Like I'm human too and I have my own processes. So I just want to make it more relatable that it just we can perceive something, and I'm human too and I have my own processes. So I just want to make it more relatable that it just we can perceive something, and I'm just giving a little bit of detail of what's going on internally.

Speaker 3: 23:52

Yeah, yeah, no, that's really helpful. And you know I'll say that, having helped hundreds of people write and publish their books and having done several books myself, I still feel that vulnerability too and there are points where I think why am I writing this? Who's going to read it? Or I'm not an expert on whatever it is I'm writing about now, especially if it's not writing. That questioning doesn't go away, but it's how we process it. So thank you for modeling that for everyone. Okay, ready.

Speaker 3: 24:27

So I invite you to get comfortable in your seat and feel your feet on the floor, allow your back to gently straighten, your spine to gently straighten not super straight, you know just what's comfortably straight, neck lengthened, perhaps, and chin tucked, and you might even want to smile or just feel your whole body relaxing. And we'll take a deep breath into your belly and you might want to release with a sound or a sigh, Ah, and again breathing in and releasing any tension around these issues or challenges, around writing your book and expressing yourself and really bringing your voice out there in the world in a big way releasing. You can imagine just letting that tension go down through your body, through your legs and feet, and deep into the earth for composting. And now I'd like you to breathe in again and, as you exhale, imagine that you're walking along a path in a meadow. You're going to meet your muse in the woods, where your muse is waiting, and as you walk this meadow path, just notice what you see or hear or feel or smell or sense.

Lisa Tenner: 25:57

I'm feeling flowers and greenery. The path has some rocks and sand. I can smell the ocean. I see pink flowers to my left and I see insects or something on the side to my right, while some of the bush is high up to my waist. Yet there's this little path that's been carved because people have walked it and I just feel the moistness of the vegetation, the greenery, beautiful.

Speaker 3: 26:32

See the beach in front of you and as you get closer to the beach, notice what changes Is there? A change in temperature? A change in there's?

Lisa Tenner: 26:43

openness there's openness and there's more winds, yet, feeling the sun more, yet there's just this vast openness that's felt.

Speaker 3: 26:55

Wonderful. So now you're let me know when you're on the beach. I'm on there, okay, and there may be some place that your muse is meeting you, like it could be a little cottage on the beach, but it may also just be like a log that your muse is sitting on, or your muse might be standing by the water, so just look around and your muse can show up. Anyway, it can be symbolic.

Lisa Tenner: 27:22

It can be a blanket.

Speaker 3: 27:24

Okay, so go towards that blanket and is the blanket your muse? Or is your muse showing up on the blanket, or what do you notice?

Lisa Tenner: 27:34

I feel an image on the blanket waiting for me. And it's not a tangible, like I see a silhouette, yet it's not a concrete, like physical person.

Speaker 3: 27:47

Yeah, beautiful, yet it's not a concrete like physical person yeah, beautiful. So maybe just ask inside, you know, to that image you're seeing, that silhouette, that energy, that's not, you know, concrete. Are you, my muse? Are you here to help me with these questions? I have? Yeah, they said, yeah, great. So let's start actually with that confidence piece and let your muse know that you know you got all these messages that you're not a writer and even when you're getting positive feedback from your beta readers, it's hard to trust it. What does your muse want you to know about that that they understand how I'm feeling, yet it's not the truth.

Speaker 3: 28:34

Can you take that in that you're not a writer? It's not the truth. I am.

Lisa Tenner: 28:40

Yeah. So now ask your muse, what is the truth then?

Speaker 3: 28:41

If that's, not the truth, what is the truth then? If that's not the truth, what is the truth that there's?

Lisa Tenner: 28:46

wholeness, that there's worthiness, that there's delight and that I'm amazing just the way I am and ask your muse am I a writer?

Speaker 3: 28:57

they said yeah, so let's take all of that in that. You're amazing that you're a writer. All the things your muse said, take it in. So how do you feel now in terms of needing validation?

Lisa Tenner: 29:10

being in this presence. It's like a part of that muse feels like it's a part of me that's been outside of me that wants to integrate into me, because as soon as I was around that presence the tears came up and that vulnerability felt the empowerment and it's like I've just been waiting for you to let me be in, if that makes sense oh, that's really beautiful.

Speaker 3: 29:38

How do you feel about inviting that part of you to really merge and maybe ask that part of you is there a particular chakra, a particular place in your body it wants to enter through?

Lisa Tenner: 29:49

It's through my stomach, it wants to come in. Okay, right at the top.

NatNat: 29:57

Right at the top of your stomach. Solar plexus.

Speaker 3: 30:00

So how do you feel about really inviting that part of you to come in through your solar plexus and merge? I am Beautiful, so I'm going to let you stay with that, and you just tell me when that feels complete.

Lisa Tenner: 30:16

It's in there and I still can feel the doubt of my perception of oh, this is all nice and good, Yet you'll still get hurt, You'll still have pain, you're still not that good that not good enough feeling and sensation. Yet that energy of the muse is staying in there and not coming out. It's being in there and settling.

Speaker 3: 30:45

So just notice that part of you that's saying you know there's going to be pain, it needs to protect you. You're still not good enough, and that aspect of you that you've just invited in that tells you you're amazing, that you're a writer and that wants to be integrated. And just notice those two parts you know they're two parts of you and try to just notice them without judgment, without having to do something necessarily. Just be with them for a few moments and again you can tell me what's going on, if that feels right, or you can be silent if that's what is needed that feels right, or you can be silent if that's what is needed.

NatNat: 31:31

I can feel the two frequencies of them.

Lisa Tenner: 31:32

There's like and it's funny, the muse is like a dark, shadowy entity, not in a um, a frightening way just as a powerful way of understanding it. It's fluidity and movement and it's very faint, yet very prevalent of its frequency and the part of the nervous system that doesn't feel good enough, just as this moving vibration in it and I can feel the two of them like coexisting with each other, where there's one part that has one frequency and the other part is just a solid frequency.

Speaker 3: 32:16

I'm just going to share briefly. Normally I wouldn't necessarily do this, but because we have listeners, I feel moved to say that, you know, dark is associated with the feminine, it's associated with mystery, it's associated with that place of creation that's before creation, right, the void, and we're scared of it often. So it's not surprising in some ways that your muse, like this, is a powerful muse that shows up as a dark energy and might even be somewhat associated and I don't want to project that onto you, but just if it feels right, might even be associated with the void before creation, that space that allows creation. So that's a powerful muse, if that is what we're connecting with, which sounds to me. So just ask your muse what's needed right now? Is this something you can process offline later, or do you need to stay with this a little longer? Um, what? What do we need right now?

Lisa Tenner: 33:15

the word believe the word believe within myself is prevalent and I've done a certain process so long that I'm staying plateaued there and now I have to release and walk through and just believe in the path that's not seen yet. Trust trust in my abilities and trust in the guidance, and trust in the guidance, and there's a very that muse entity is just very confident of trust.

Speaker 3: 33:58

It just trusts that's all, Just trust. It's funny, as you speak, I'm looking at your sign that says breathe and I almost wonder if you want to add believe or trust below it as a new word to really embrace. So we kind of went to the deepest part first. And I almost wonder what's that, as I always do, yes, yeah, so does it feel right to ask some of these more surfacy questions, or does it feel, like you know, just honor, that we went so deep and let this settle before asking the other questions?

Lisa Tenner: 34:36

Like what does your muse want? It's open.

Speaker 3: 34:41

Okay, all right. So you know you had a question about structure and flow. Is there anything your muse wants you to know at this moment about the structure of the book right now, and if there's something particular needed? Or does your muse just want you to get some support from an editor or coach? Or does your muse have some suggestions right now of we'll do this and this and the structure will flow better? What does your muse say?

Lisa Tenner: 35:12

The word overanalyzing is prevalent, and it's also stating you have to be vulnerable to ask for the help.

Speaker 3: 35:21

Can you connect with that part that feels like I can't ask for help, or that doesn't feel safe or I'm not going to get the right help or whatever it is that's going on, like what's going on about getting help? That?

Lisa Tenner: 35:37

I'll be ridiculed or rejected and told it's not good enough and the idea that I have, or the feeling and sensation of trusting that, will be bursted because it will be ridiculed.

Speaker 3: 35:51

So that's actually really important information. Again, I'm going to do some things I wouldn't normally do in this exercise. I would wait till later, but I think for your listeners it'll be helpful, and I'm not sure I'll remember to say it later. So that part of you that's saying I'll be ridiculed, that's a really important part that wants to protect you. And you know what? There are editors out there who will tear things apart, who are not going to tell you what you're doing right. They're just going to tell you what they see as wrong.

Speaker 3: 36:18

My husband was talking about this Pilates instructor. He tried two different instructors just to see who he liked better. And one is like oh yes, you're doing this right. She's always telling him what he's doing right and then she'll give him some specific instruction that's going to help him do it even better. And the other one is like, no, no, you're doing it all wrong and she tells him what to do without actually showing him or going into the detail. And it's you know, it's worse than useless, right, it actually hurts.

Speaker 3: 36:50

So your inner protective mechanisms are actually going to be really helpful in finding the right editor or coach, because you know you want to give yourself permission to say, oh, this is not the person for me, and there'll be red flags immediately. I think you could probably even feel energetically when somebody is a critic and they're not actually helpful. And sometimes we hire people like that because they remind us of a critical parent or a critical teacher we had. They're kind of you know, there's a part of us that wants to complete that cycle and heal it, but that's not going to be the person you want to work with on your book, right? Actually, firing them or not hiring them in the first place would be the healing instinct.

Speaker 3: 37:39

So I feel quite confident that you're going to be able to find the right person and you know you can see how that feels in your body Like, oh yeah, maybe I can find. Like there are people out there who are going to be wrong, but I'm going to know who they are and I'm going to know who's right and then, if I turn out to be wrong about that, I'll fire them. Right, like, just allow yourself that permission to fire somebody who's not good for you, or that permission to say, oh, you know, I thought I was going to hire you and I'm not sorry, right, so just like, notice that and then ask the muse what does the muse want you to know about this?

Lisa Tenner: 38:20

That the part that gets personalized. It's just simply I'm not feeling my deep vulnerability and everybody's going to have a perception. Just because somebody doesn't agree with me, it doesn't mean that I'm wrong or they're right.

Lisa Tenner: 38:42

It's just at times we see things in a different way, mm-hmm so it's being able to mature the part that feels so inferior when I get something wrong or that it doesn't align with somebody else, that I can gently just release that and recognize okay, that's okay, yet not have to prove or not have to minimize myself because it feels so crippling and debilitating that something was rejected by somebody.

Speaker 3: 39:12

Yeah, so, again, I'm going to step out of this like guiding role for a minute to teach something because I think it'll be helpful to your listeners, but you stay with your process. But and it might be helpful to you too is I used to have a money coach, actually, who would say let your freak flag fly. And she said if you're not repelling people, you're not doing a good job. And you know I think that's true Like our people recognize us as oh, she's for me, he's for me, they're for me. They recognize this is somebody who has something to teach me. This is somebody who is going to be a good guide for me and a healthy guide for me. And if you are, if and they're going to be people where it's just not a match, it's not even like they're. They're a bad guide, right. It's more like they're not for you. You as a guide now, right?

Speaker 3: 40:12

And who's writing this book about healing? There are going to be people who resonate with that message and resonate with the steps you took, and there are going to be people who need their lessons in a different way or they need different lessons, and so it's good to repel those people because actually you probably can't help them. They're not like you're the way you're offering the message. It's not really the way they're made up. They have a different makeup and they have a different way of learning things. So it's actually great when you're repelling people because it's like, okay, I'm really authentic in my voice and some people know right away this is for me, and other people know, oh, this is not for me. So it's actually a great thing to be repelling some people. It's like a message that, oh, you're probably on target unless you're repelling everybody. And then you know, then there's a question to ask yourself. But I'm sure that's not the case with you, given the feedback you told me you're already getting.

Lisa Tenner: 41:10

Yeah, and I also there's a message coming up for me that I'm trying to write to a certain people to convince them. Where the muse is like, let go of that you're. You're needing to write for the people that need it.

Speaker 3: 41:29

Yeah, you know, that's and that's like such a lesson in life that when we're trying to convince people, we're not really meeting them Like as equals, we're not really meeting them in a fully open way. And so it is an invitation from your muse to drop in deeper and meet people in that place of you're open, they're mirroring that and they're open, and it's an invitation, right? So let's just see, is there anything else your muse wants you to know before we bring this process to a close?

Lisa Tenner: 42:06

I feel irritation of being stuck somewhere where it's like why are you still here? Like not being seated fully in the power, so your muse is irritated with you, or it's something like irritation, yeah like a little bit of annoyance, like it's it's patient, yet it's like you're stuck somewhere that you don't need to be yeah.

Speaker 3: 42:36

So ask your muse, like, does it have a little key to give you to turn, that you know unlock that door, or does it have some practice that wants you to try?

Lisa Tenner: 42:46

or I just get the message that I have to step into it. No one can do this for me. It's I have to step into it and what is stepping into it. Look like, um, accepting myself and just revealing the teachings and the gifts, and trusting. Just take action and no longer hide behind closed doors. Allow yourself to be open and exposed.

Speaker 3: 43:14

So what goes on inside you when you hear those words? It's truth.

Lisa Tenner: 43:20

And then I search for the part that's trying to hold me back, so that I can meet it and let it know that it's safe. Yet parts of me then scream of the pain that I've experienced in life and not wanting that to happen again. Yet I also meet it with yet everything that we've experienced. We're still here with resilience and capacity.

Speaker 3: 43:47

Beautiful. So do you want to stay? This is something that is going to take some time. You're probably going to want to return to this space of that internal dialogue and that internal integration, and there might even be some symbolic act, like you might find a rock on the beach, something you want to like place near your place where you write. So does your muse have a particular sort of ritual or symbolic thing it would like you to play with? To stay with this process?

Lisa Tenner: 44:28

There's a rock that I have that I use and it's a smooth rock that was given to me. So whenever I feel ungrounded, it's feeling that and rubbing it and getting back in my body and allowing that creativity and reflection to come out. So it's interesting you said a rock, because I do have a rock, sorry.

Speaker 3: 44:50

So let's stay with this another moment because I like to guide people. To just see if you have any more questions for your muse before we end.

Lisa Tenner: 44:59

Oh, it's integrated in Great oh beautiful.

Speaker 3: 45:02

So thank your muse and know that you can come back here at any time. So thank your muse and know that you can come back here at any time. When you're ready, you can exit the way you came back onto that path. So, leaving the beach, going onto that path through the bushes and the flowers, back into that meadow, and, whenever you're ready, you can open your eyes. So if you want to say anything, you're welcome.

Lisa Tenner: 45:29

Very powerful, very vulnerable, as you create a space of safety, of inquiring. Yet you also gave information Because I've done the work, so it's more easier for me to be vulnerable and speak my process. Yet as soon as I saw the dark image and saw it, it was like, okay, I feel it this way, but other people might interpret it a different way. And having that information of feminine in the dark void, the way I go so deep with people some of them they're like, okay, I'm drowning with you, Like I don't know how deep, like you, and I've been told that most of my life that I think very deeply and some of it I'm like this is beyond what I can grasp in my lived experience as a human, that there's just a knowing in creation and whatnot so and just the openness of asking questions.

Lisa Tenner: 46:28

And, like I said, I was tearing up and I could feel the vulnerability, so the power of that, and I could feel my nervous system in my legs ringing. So it was like the integration and the feeling and being honest. So it's a beautiful process of visualizing, yet being in your body, of really asking yourself some really deep questions, that it's hard to be honest with ourselves, it's difficult to be truthful, especially when we have these protective mechanisms that are ingrained in us. Yet once we can allow safety, as you started this process, there's such a powerful honesty in that it doesn't mean everything goes away, like I it, as I said, it's like, yeah, it's, it's great that you feel this and you know this. Yet it's just walking this path of change now and to doing you know, one moment at a time, of choosing differently.

Speaker 3: 47:31

Yeah, and braiding, you know it's associated with self-expression right Throat chakra if we want to go to the energetics and with creativity, so second chakra and you know, and other things too, but I think especially those two areas.

Speaker 3: 47:49

And so you know, if we have some challenges in those areas, that's going to kind of force us to work with that right and to see, well, what's there and to move through it and maybe overcome or heal some aspects from the past or even aspects from the ancestral field. You know that we've inherited. It's part of the work and I also know that, especially when somebody is working on a book that goes deep right or is about healing, the book is going to force you to go back to that territory where you're very vulnerable, so that you can remember what it's like and you can write to your readers from that place of knowing again like that vulnerability or that fear. And so it helps you write better because you're meeting them where they are, because you're really remembering like, oh yeah, this is what this is like. So you write a book on anger, you're going to get angry, and if you write it with co-authors, you'll get angry at each other. You know there'll be opportunities for conflict and healing, and that's a good thing.

Lisa Tenner: 49:02

Yeah, I want to ask you I'm mindful of time I just want to ask you your perspective now that AI is here. Do you feel that that's a useful tool for people or it could do damage with the creativity?

Speaker 3: 49:23

I think AI is dangerous. I think that I don't think it's created from a place of like totally helping humanity. I think it's coming from a place that's somewhat nefarious and actually about taking away our humanity, making us less independent thinkers, less creative. I think people are fooling themselves and, yes, it might save you time in the short run, but I think it is not a good thing for humans and that if we go too far with that process, we will end up really in danger us. So, yeah, I think, go out in nature and feel the rhythm of nature, feel the connection of life. Ai is not life, it's something else. So my personal opinion is trust in the kind of thing we just did Trust in your own innate creativity. It's so much more. It's a totally different feeling when you connect with your inner creativity and you heal or you overcome something. You feel transformation that AI can't give you that.

Lisa Tenner: 50:42

So, now that you work this whole process with me, I'm sure many want to know where they can find you, lisa, so could you let them know your website, what your offerings are and where they can find the books?

Speaker 3: 50:56

and they can find my books on the website, but Amazon is probably the easiest place to buy it and write a review. If you find it helpful and I do practices like the one I did with you, so that's if people are feeling well, I'm a little stuck, I need that they can reach out to me, lisa, at lisatennercom or there's a contact form on the website and we can do that practice together. I also have classes, sessions where we get in creative flow with breathing and quick exercises that really get us into that space of creative flow, and then we write and we set intentions and then we write for like 45 minutes, we do a little bit of UNA or laser coaching and then we move back into it. So it's a two hour thing and we do it twice a week. Some people come once a week, some come twice.

Speaker 3: 51:56

But if you want to get some writing done and want support, want to feel that safe space to really explore and go deep and write your best stuff, this is a wonderful way to do that and you also have access to all my self-study programs for writing a book and things like that. So for a lot of people that's a great match. And yeah, and then you know I help with book proposals and editing and things like that as well. So I would love to hear from your listeners if they are interested in writing a book or writing other things as well. That bring your book sorry, get your Writing Done program can be for other types of writing too.

Lisa Tenner: 52:34

Yeah, I will definitely be reaching out to you after this so that I can be supported and get some feedback and everything else. This has been an absolute delight, lisa. As the universe always has it, you know, things show up exactly when you need them, and I needed this process to really just go deeper within myself. And I want to thank you for the alchemy. As you said, you had a chronic fatigue and you did the alchemy. You took those impurities and you've turned them into gold, yet you've not kept it for yourself. You're sharing it with others. So thank you for doing that alchemy.

Speaker 3: 53:15

Thank you, and I'm excited about your book. I want to read it when it comes out, so, or maybe I'll get to read it sooner, actually, right, but I look forward to that. It sounds to me like something that's so deeply needed, like the kind of thing I wish I had when I had that illness.

Lisa Tenner: 53:31

Right, please remember to be kind to yourself. Hey, you made it all the way here. I appreciate you and your time. If you found value in this conversation, please share it out. If there was somebody that popped into your mind, take action and share it out. If there was somebody that popped into your mind, take action and share it out with them.

NatNat: 53:50

It possibly may not be them that will benefit. It's that they know somebody that will benefit from listening to this conversation so please take action and share out the podcast.

Lisa Tenner: 54:02

you can find us on social media, on facebook, facebook, instagram and TikTok under Lift One Self, and if you want to inquire about the work that I do and the services that I provide to people, come over on my website, come into a discovery call liftoneselfcom.

NatNat: 54:22

Until next time, please remember to be kind and gentle with yourself. No-transcript.