Healing Through Creativity: Transforming Trauma and Finding Purpose

Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:07):
Welcome to Aging with Purpose and Passion, the
podcast designed to inspire yourgreatness and thrive through
life.
Get ready to conquer your fears.
Here's your hostpsychotherapist, coach and
empowerment expert, beverlyGlazer.

Beverley Glazer (00:31):
Are you ready to tap into your creative spirit
and find purpose in every stageof your life?
Welcome to Aging with Purposeand Passion.
I'm Beverley Glazer, atransformational coach and
catalyst dedicated to empowerwomen to take bold steps and
create the life they trulydeserve, and you can find me on

(00:53):
reinventimpossiblecom.
Jenny Leigh Hodgins is aseasoned music educator, a
creative empowerment coach andan author with over 30 years of
teaching and performanceexperience.
For 38 years, she's beengrounded in Buddhist practices,
and Jenny Leigh offers a uniqueperspective and shares how her

(01:17):
personal journey transformedinto a mission to help others
break through burnout byovercoming blocks.
Keep listening.
Welcome, jenny.

Jenny Leigh Hodgins (01:28):
Thank you so much for having me, Beverley.

Jenny, you came from a really dysfunctional
family.
Tell us how that shaped you.
Coming from all thatdysfunction, how did it shape
you back then as a kid?

Well, two points.
It led me to use music as acoping mechanism and therapy,
and it also led me to a longlife, long, lifelong pattern of
enabling and overextendingmyself to keep the peace, which
I'm now changing dramatically inthis chapter of my life, which

(02:04):
I'm now changing dramatically inthis chapter of my life.

Yes, yes, because that's so common.
You know, when you're going inchaos, all you want to do is
find some calm, and you're soused to the chaos that it
sometimes follows you.
But were you always a creativeperson, a creative little girl,
even back then?

Did you know that?
Exactly when I was young.
As I said, I started piano whenI was seven, so I got very
involved right away in music and, yes, I wrote, you know, lyrics
or poetry or little stories andthings.
It was again a little oasis,away from the anger and the
confusion that was going on inmy family throughout all of my

(02:49):
life, basically since I was achild through some of it still
happening now, but we haveboundaries.

Sure, sure and.
But as a child you don't know,you really don't.
But all those challenges ledyou into degrees in music.
And yet how did music play arole in your life?

thinker, and so it protected me of my
sensitivities, from everythinggoing on.
And I felt like it was awonderful therapeutic tool
because I could express myselffearlessly, because I knew there
were no words there.
I wasn't singing yet, so no onereally knew the angst I was
expressing, but it still helpedme cope with that.
And then, as I grew, I justlove music.
It's beautiful, I love allthings beauty.
I take nature, you know, photosand use it in my designs, for

(03:51):
my business now, and I do a lotof nature immersion, so any
opportunity to seek beauty,which is what music's all about.
And then, of course, I got intostudying music, ended up
switching from performance tocomposition, because I liked
creating it more than repeatingit from somebody else's voice.
So, and that's still a part ofme, you know, it's just a

(04:14):
wonderful thing.

It's a wonderful escape.
You can just disappear and, youknow, evolve into it.

But to me it's not just an escape.
It's also a way to connect withpeople, to communicate messages
, you know, to spread joy, tospread the awe of life.
You know it became less of anescape as I got older.

Sure, but you also discovered Buddhism.
How did you discover Buddhism?

When I moved to Florida in my 20s, my
roommate's new girlfrienddiscovered it.
She was practicing it and shetold me about it.
And it impressed me so muchbecause she gave the example
that when you practice you knowSGI Buddhism you can raise your
life state so that, even thoughwe all have obstacles in our

(05:03):
lives, just like any otherperson does, by raising your
life state through the practiceof Buddhism you're not crushed
by the obstacles, but rather youhave a perspective over them
and you're able to handle themand navigate them.
That intrigued me so I joined.
After a couple of meetings Iloved the feeling of chanting.
It relieved my anxiety andbrought me incredible calm and

(05:27):
hope for the first time, eventhough my circumstances hadn't
changed you know, I was stillliving in a dingy little
apartment, you know, with abachelor, roommate, dude of
chanting and the philosophyitself really is like the anchor
of my life, because it's allabout bringing out your own best

(05:50):
self and empowering yourselfand others through that action.

So yeah, and you went to Japan.
You continued to go farther.
And how long were you in Japan?
And tell us about that.

Well, I had just graduated from the
University of South Florida andI really wanted to.
Just, it was an act ofdeepening my faith.
I wanted to see the roots ofthis practice.
So I moved there and while Iwas there I joined with a
Japanese American and JapaneseAmerican and Italian man, I

(06:23):
think for a second, and we puttogether a band and recorded my
songs.
It's a CD called ButterflyBelieve, which is a 14 song
album of musical theater stylesongs that I wrote.
So we did that and I gigged alot of cultural shock there as

(06:44):
well, and it's a veryhierarchical I mean hierarchy,
you know oppressive system.
And I'm a white, you knowfemale, even though I'm American
.
I'm a little more at the top asan American.
But I wanted to go home, youknow, to America.
I missed it.
So that's why I left afteralmost five years.

And did you go back to teaching in America.
What did you do?

Yeah, I continued gigging as a vocalist
and pianist.
I'm spreading my songs anddoing classical music and lots
of Joan Baez, carole King,celine Dion, mariah Carey type
stuff because I was a sopranobut I do other ranges as well
and a lot of classical gigs.
And then I was teaching privatepiano and group piano and

(07:29):
eventually I moved back toFlorida to take a public school
teaching job down there.

And you were teaching there for quite some
time.

About 11 years down there and that was a
rigorous thing.
You know.
600 kids a week, multiple classsizes in our daily schedule was
exhausting and I just felt likeI'd outgrown that system, Like
I wanted to do more and itdidn't give me the energy or
time to do that for the students.
So, also, my dad was ill, so Idecided after he passed away in

(08:03):
2014,.
After a bout with cancer in2017, I decided to leave
teaching and move to the nextchapter.
So I sold my Florida home andmoved back to be my mother's
caregiver and run an onlinebusiness you know from home.

Let's talk about that, because many women
end up being caregivers fortheir parents and here you went
back to the house to be hercaregiver, but you also decided
to run an online business.
How were you able to set allthose boundaries and do your own

(08:40):
work and care for her as well?

The hard way.
For sure, I did everything thehard way.
I didn't recognize how deeplyrooted my patterns of
overextending and enabling wereuntil the last eight years and
because of my family upbringing,those dysfunctional patterns
are still happening in my adultextended family members.
So it was a constant lesson inwow, I have to set a boundary

(09:08):
here.
And the backlash of settingthat boundary from different
people and having to setsometimes the same boundary to
the same person a dozen timesand they're still testing to get
through.
And so that has been my basic.
You know, growing pain for thepast eight years, learning how

(09:29):
to respectfully set boundarieswith my family as well as set
boundaries with the community,because I ended up being the
board president and turning thesituation around here.
So I resigned from thatposition last year, again to set
a boundary because I realized Iwas overextending myself and
even still, you know, in myworkflow I'm recognizing this

(09:51):
theme coming from the roots ofthat dysfunction in my role as
the enabler, you know, in thefamily, learning how to.
I'm getting much better atsetting boundaries with people
and with workflow, but I have toset it for myself as well,
constantly like edit yourselfand do you, do your?

are you creative throughout your whole
life because you help peoplewith creativity.
And so how do you, how do youwake up in the morning and put
on your creative hat daily?

Well, first of all I think that's maybe
part of the challenge of thefamily dysfunction is that all
of my family members haveincredible creative energy.
There's poets, there's singers,there's seamstresses, there's
musicians, there's designers.
So you know the thing thatthere's an artist temperament.

(10:46):
You know that we're sensitiveand I think maybe having too
many cooks in the kitchen withthe same artistic temperament
might be that, but for me it'sjust a natural thing.
I have just always had prolificdrive and energy to create
poetry, lyrics, music, designs,words, blogging, books.

(11:07):
Just I just create a lot.
It's just a natural thing.

What would you tell a woman because obviously
it's helped you?
But what would you tell a womanwho says I'm not creative?

I've heard that many times over my teaching
career and I would say, firstof all, that's the inner critic
and there are ways to navigatethat inner critic.
That's the inner critic andthere are ways to navigate that
inner critic.
And for now, let's just put iton shelf.
And I would, I would say toanybody you are creative,
because human beings arecreative, it is part of who we

(11:40):
are, it's an inherent thing.
You just need to find, learnways to tap into it naturally
and respect it and honor it.
But but the first thing youhave to do is let go of that
inner critic, let go of thatdoubt, let go of that ego, and
that is a part of the process inmy creative empowerment
coaching program that I talkabout.

(12:00):
You know how do you let go ofthat inner critic, how do you
overcome a block?
And so I have like differentways that I do that myself and I
share it with others in thatway.

And how does creativity help someone manage
their stress?

Oh gosh, I'm sure you know that, I'm sure
you know the answer to that.
But basically it's a, it's arelease, it's an expression of
who you really are and itacknowledges and recognizes,
with just innocent respect, thatyou're going through something
and you have the right toexpress it and by doing so you

(12:40):
know it's research proven thatit impacts and boosts your
mental, your physical, youremotional wellness and
well-being and lifts your mood.
I could go on and on about thescience behind that, but
creativity is good for you, youremotional wellness and
well-being and lift your mood.
I could go on and on about thescience behind that, but
creativity is good for you inevery direction.

And what did you tell a woman who's looking
for more purpose in her life byusing creativity?

What would I tell someone who's looking for
more purpose?
Yes, by using creativity.
Got it.
Okay, I had to think for asecond.
Well, I love that questionbecause it ties perfectly into
in my opinion, the creativeprocess is about listening to
your authentic voice, reallytuning out the external and

(13:27):
honing in on what you feel andwho you are and what you want
really what you want.
So that's my thing.
It just it goes hand in handthere.

So, in other words, you have to dig deep.
Dig deep in your heart, justrelax and it will come.
And it's true, we're allintuitive and all you have to do
is just allow those feelings tocome up and, before you know it
, you can create.
I want to thank you, jennyLeigh.
Jenny Leigh Hodgins is anexperienced music educator, a

(14:05):
creative empowerment coach andan author with over 30 years of
teaching and performanceexperience, and an author with
over 30 years of teaching andperformance experience.
For 38 years, she's beengrounded in Buddhist practices
and her personal journeytransformed into a mission to
help others break throughburnout to overcome their
personal blocks.
Here are some takeaways fromthis episode.
Caregiving can shape yourpurpose, but make sure you set

(14:28):
boundaries to prevent burnout.
Mindfulness is a powerful toolfor personal growth and it's
never too late to rediscoveryour creative spark.
If you've been relating to thisepisode, think how your
creativity can empower you toovercome your own challenges.
Perhaps it's by rediscovering acraft that you loved, or

(14:52):
practicing meditation, orcreating a vision board to help
you see possibilities .
For similar episodes on healingthrough creativity and spiritual
growth.
Please check out episode 107and 120 of Aging with Purpose
and Passion, and if you'veenjoyed this story.

(15:12):
Catherine Mariano and GailZalitsky co-host Women Over 70
Aging Reimagined, and that'swhere women from 70 to 110
rewrite the narrative on aging.
That's womenover70.com.
That link, by the way, will bein my show notes, and so where

(15:33):
can people learn more about you,Jenny Lee
?

Oh, thank you for asking and, again, thank
you for having me.
Well, we have a really specialcreativity panel event on the
connection between creativityand wellness coming up next week
.
So if you're ready to exploreways you know to get into
creativity or work throughcreative challenges and build
some sustainable momentum, Ireally recommend that you go
register for that atyourcreativecordcom forward

(16:01):
slash events and for more toolsand guidance and resources and
to learn more about how you canwork Beverly me as your creative
empowerment coaching coach inmy program that is going to
launch next week.
For early access, you can go,just go to my hub.
You can check out all thethings there books, podcasts, my
program and that's yourcreative core dot com.

(16:22):
That's my central hub.
Thank you so much.

OK, and all those links that she just
mentioned.
They will be inreinventimpossible.
com show notes and they'll alsobe on my site too, that's
reinventimpossiblecom.
And now, my friends, what'snext for you?
Are you just going through themotions or are you really
passionate about your life?
Download my free checklist fromstuck to unstoppable to unlock

(16:48):
the possibilities in your life.
And that link, where do youthink it will be?
In the show notes.
You can connect with me,beverly Glazer, on all social
media platforms and in mypositive group of women on
Facebook, women Over 50 Rock.
And if you're looking forguidance in your own life, I
invite you to explorereinventedpossiblecom.

(17:09):
Thank you for listening.
Have you enjoyed thisconversation?
Please drop a review, share itwith a friend and always
remember that you have only onelife, so keep aging with purpose
and passion with purpose, andpassion.

Speaker 1 (17:34):
Thank you for joining us.
You can connect with Bev on herwebsite, reinventimpossiblecom
and, while you're there, joinour newsletter subscribe so you
don't miss an episode.
Until next time, keep agingwith purpose and passion and
celebrate life.

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