Tender Being with Harriet Hamid-Collett

As I approached planning both this year’s live Winter Solstice session, as well as the prompts for this podcast, I decided to change things up a little.

Previously I have focused on the concept of gratitude and tying this into the ‘feast of yule’ - feasting on our gratitude and letting it nourish us!

But this year I felt much more drawn to a different invitation from this festival. The invitation of the darkness and stillness to acknowledge and accept ourselves just as we are. To stop striving for change and to try to access some tenderness and compassion for the parts of ourselves that we might leave in the dark or might strive to fix.

Perhaps it’s the messy goo of the matresence period, or the dire state of the world, or a combination of all things, but this felt like the invitation that I wanted to give and meet.

My hope is that by offering this invitation, we might start to embrace more of the parts of us that don’t seem so shiny. The parts that are real and deserve acceptance and grace.

As always, I’ve included the prompts below if you would like to use them in whatever way makes sense to you. Please do feel free to comment below if you’d like to share anything that comes up for you as you go through them.

Warmest wishes to you

Prompts:

* I will offer myself grace when…

* I want to invite in compassion for…

* I hold tenderly the part of myself…

* I understand why I…

Tender Being with Harriet Hamid-Collett is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.

Reaching the end of the growth part of the year, Samhain can be seen as an invitation to turn inwards. Nourishing our roots in preparation for, and as the start of the hibernation season.

The focus on this episode is around nourishing ourselves, and recognising that caring for ourselves is necessary to sustain us for caring for each other.

Listen to hear my reflections around prompts in this theme, and also please see below for the prompts so that you can explore these yourself.

I’d love to connect about any reflections, insights, questions - come on in to the comments section or send me a message!

Here are the prompts from this episode:

🌿 I want to spend time…

🌿 I will try to prioritise…

🌿 I want to make space for…

🌿 I will try to invite…

Here is a link for the video that I created of the poem I mentioned ‘The Unbroken’ by Rashani Réa

And if you would like to join us for the Community Samhain Event on 2nd November, you can learn more about the Pay what you can system Community Membership here:

You can also stay up to date with my work and receive practices for each Celtic Wheel Festival via my Mailing List.

Tender Being with Harriet Hamid-Collett is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.

Welcome back for the seventh episode of the podcast and fifth Celtic Wheel episode - this time marking the Autumn Equinox.

The prompts are below so that you can engage with these in your own time and in your own ways. Please do feel free to share any thoughts or reflections you have from these prompts - I’d love to connect!

Also there is a link for the Autumn Equinox Self-Paced workbook (which I appropriately imperfectly forgot to mention). This covers the invitations that we go through in the live sessions, so you can access this in your own time and space.

As always, I’d love to connect - please do share in the comments if you’d like to have space for your reflections and connection.

Prompts:

Where do I need to find more balance?

Harvest -

I am proud of…

I am grateful for…

Welcome back for the sixth episode of the podcast and fourth Celtic Wheel episode - this time marking the festival of Lammas.

The prompts are below so that you can engage with these in your own time and in your own ways. Please do feel free to share any thoughts or reflections you have from these prompts - I’d love to connect!

I’ve also included links for the Live Lammas Event, as well as the Self-Paced Workbook, and a link for the article I mentioned from Margeaux Fledman.

The transcript should be available via your chosen podcast player (substack / spotify / apple podcasts) but if not please let me know and I can send you a copy.

Prompts:

On Sacrifice/Letting go

I am letting go of…

I will allow myself to stop…

On Creation and Gratitude

I see that I am creating…

I am grateful that I have…

Links:

Carescapes by Margeaux Feldman Article :

Welcome back for the fifth episode of the podcast and third Celtic Wheel episode - this time marking the Summer Solstice.

The prompts are below so that you can engage with these in your own time and in your own ways.

The transcript should be available via your chosen podcast player (substack / spotify / apple podcasts) but if not please let me know and I can send you a copy.

Please do feel free to share any thoughts or reflections you have from these prompts - I’d love to connect!

Prompts:

🌻 The season that has been - Reflecting on your year so far. 

A moment of joy/nourishment this season was...

I offer myself compassion for...

This season taught/ showed me...

🌻 The season that is to come - Looking ahead to the rest of the year

My hopes for the season to come are...

Looking forward I feel a sense of…

I am entering this season with the intention...

If you’re interested in joining my Mindfulness for Health course you can find out more here or click the button below. It’s pay what you can and if you’d like to connect and ask any more questions about it you can book a chat with me.

Or if you’d like to connect about working with me one-to-one then you can book a chat here, find out more about my coaching on my website. I am offering some free one-off sessions for the first few people to book and there are still several slots remaining so get in touch if you’d like one of these.

Thanks so much for being here and being part of this community. I hope to connect with you soon!

Warmest wishes,

Thanks for reading Tender Being with Harriet Hamid-Collett! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support my work.

This episode is exploring a little bit about the role of the breath in mindfulness practice.

Content note: mention of disordered breathing, pregnancy and labour

I share some personal experiences as well as my perspective as a teacher, sharing that the breath can be a brilliant ‘anchor’ but is also not necessarily ‘neutral’ or appropriate for all people in all circumstances.

I explore some different ways the breath is understood and used in mindfulness and meditation practices, as well as sharing two of my favourite go to breath-based practices.

Below are the links mentioned in the show -

Free practices on Insight Timer:

As part of Mindful May I am hosting a free mindfulness event which you can learn more about and book your space here:

And if you are interested in potentially joining my 8 week course ‘Mindfulness for Stress’ starting in the summer, you can get in touch to join the waiting list via email / Substack / instagram:

Email - [email protected]

The transcript should be available via the streaming service automatically that you’re listening in (Substack / Spotify / Apple podcasts), but if there are any issues with this then please do get in touch and I can send you a transcript - [email protected]

Thanks again for being here and for listening, it means a lot. Would love to know your thoughts or any questions or ideas that come up for you while listening - come get involved in the comments or feel free to send me a direct message.

Warmest wishes

Thanks for reading Tender Being with Harriet Hamid-Collett! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support my work.

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 an…

Dear Tender Being,

Thank you so much for joining me for a second episode of the podcast! And for the first Celtic Wheel episode.

I hope you enjoy it and would love to connect with you further. I’ve included the prompts, as well as some additional ‘shuttles’ in case you’d like these to help you keep weaving the thread of your responses.

Prompts:

* Where am I noticing signs of growth already?

-       I have grown…

-       I am growing…

-       I am becoming…

* What nurturing do I need to support my growth?

-       I need to have…

-       I need to keep…

-       I want to offer myself…

What comes up for you with these prompts? How do you feel drawn to respond or engage with them? You might like to journal, or draw, move your body or simply sit in quiet reflection with whatever arises.

I have also linked below the resources mentioned in the episode and the transcript.

Thank you again for being here, all my warmest wishes,

Harriet

Resources for learning more about the Celtic Wheel -

Lia Leendertz Substack, podcast and Almanac books

Rebecca Beattie’s book The Wheel of the Year: A Nurturing Guide to Rediscovering Nature's Seasons and Cycles

Seasonal Cards from Wild Fen

Brilliant article by Chetna Mehta with the wonderful spring quote:

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 this second episode of the tender being podcast.

Thank you so much for being here. And welcome to the first Celtic wheel episode, I'm very excited to talk to you about the spring equinox. And for those who know the dates, I know that this is a little bit late, but I'm just giving myself some grace around that. And being thankful that I got the episode done at all. So thank you for your understanding too in advance.

So for anyone who isn't aware of the Celtic wheel, sometimes called the Wheel of the Year. This is an ancient way of marking and celebrating the changing seasons of the year. So within the Celtic wheel or the Wheel of the Year, there are eight different festivals. There are two equinoxes spring which is where we're at. And then on the other side of the wheel, there's autumn, then there's the two solstices. So you may have heard of winter solstice and summer solstice, which are also opposite each other on the wheel. If you imagine kind of eight spokes on a wheel, that's what it looks like. And then between those are the four fire festivals. So there's bealtaine, llamas, and sourin and Imbolc.

I learned about the Wheel of the Year, a couple of years ago, and I at that point was really needing a connection to nature feeling quite lost and wanting to see signs of the turning of time and the seasons changing. And it just became a really helpful model and path kind of prompt from nature to follow for me. And so I started running sessions on this and haven't looked back since.

If the wheel of the year is something that you'd like to learn more about. I will put some links in the show notes for resources, or books and podcasts and different bits if you'd like to explore it further.

For this episode, I'm going to talk to you about the spring equinox. So this year that landed on the 20th of March for us in the northern hemisphere, and the equinoxes. So there's the spring equinox and the autumn equinox. And these are days that mark when the day and night are equal. So there's quite a strong theme of balance within these. The spring equinox, sometimes also called Ostara, is the midpoint between winter and summer. So this is the point at which the days are growing lighter and longer. And we see the signs of spring. So there are themes of birth and energy and growth. And it's quite creative, potentially time. There's a kind of feeling of the building energy sometimes called the quickening, which is really interesting for me now reflecting on because that's also the name that they use when you first feel the movements of your baby when you're pregnant. So there's almost this sense of feeling that energy under the ground, ready to be birthed out into the world, this kind of rumbling and growing sense of quickening and energy.

As I mentioned, I hold events that are around the themes of the festivals of the Wheel of the Year. And these events are kind of a mix of circle space and meditation and journaling prompts and they have a similar format each time but we explore the different prompts from the festivals. I haven't actually run one since Loma since back in August due to having my baby in September. But I really love these events. And there's a really beautiful community that's built around these of people who regularly come and attend. There's always a mix of these regulars and then some newcomers, and everybody's always welcome and welcoming. And I always leave with such a full heart from everybody's beautiful sharings and the way that people show up and hold the space for each other.

And within these events, they're often quite large groups and we have a limited amount of time. So I want to make sure that I hold it as a spacious and slow space and make sure everyone's got time to share everything that they would like to share. So I don't always join in with my own sharings. If we have a smaller group than I will, I will join in and I will share. But in the interest of spaciousness when we have a full full group, I don't do that. So my plan for these podcasts the Celtic wheel episodes is that this can actually be a space to share some of my reflections that I would use for the prompts section of the event. So often people would do journaling, but you can use the prompts for reflection for the creative output, whatever they inspire you to do. And then we would go around and share. So my thinking is that this can be a space for me to share my responses to the prompts. And then I will also include them in the show notes, and they'll be in the transcript of the episode. So if you'd like to come and join in, then you might be someone who's not able to join us at the live events for different reasons, you could come and hold a space with us in the comment section, where you can send me a message, and we can connect about your feelings about the prompts, what came up for you, or you might have responses to my sharing. So yeah, I would love to create this kind of interactive engagement around this.

The first prompt is “where am I noticing signs of growth already?”. And it was interesting for me thinking about this prompt, because actually, I realised that I had been feeling this sense of the opposite kind of sense of shrinking of, I guess the life with a baby is there are more limitations in terms of just the ease of decisions and the ease of kind of doing a lot of things, everything's a lot more complicated, I have a lot more responsibility. I have a huge amount of love. But it's was interesting that the idea of growth made me think about shrinking actually.

And I think it was also helpful for me to reflect on the fact that it kind of felt like quite a brutal change from not being a parent to being a parent, I found that very disorienting, I've written about that in my Substack quite a lot. And talked about how I really felt very validated and seen by the work of Lucy Jones and hubback matresence. But it's kind of this immediate, change this, just one moment, and then the next and your identity has completely shifted, and kind of feeling my the rug pulled out from under my feet. But also, this reflection of now six months in six and a half months in that actually there is the growth and that I'm growing into a parent. I kind of suddenly took on the mantle and it felt very heavy and overwhelming and it still does, but I can feel I'm slowly building a foundation of a bit more understanding of who I am, of who my baby is a bit a little bit more confidence growing day by day. …

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…