Finding the Throughline with Kate Hanley

Finding the Throughline: Conversations about the Creative Process invites you into the minds of writers and other creatives as they open up about their process, their doubts, and what kinds of changes they’re thinking about making. The questions are mildly invasive, honestly, and the answers are unvarnished…and so refreshing! 

Whether your creative work is writing, painting, making music, parenting, or simply living, Finding the Throughline can help you get—and stay—inspired. Invigorated, even. 

For detailed show notes on each interview, visit katehanley.substack.com. And if you’d like to hear these interviews in one ad-free episode (as opposed to broken up into three shorter episodes with a few ads sprinkled in to keep the lights on), become a paid subscriber once you’re there.

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Education
Self-Improvement
How To
726
Find Your Motivation: Take the Next Right Step...
It’s tempting to feel like you have to wait to get motivated before you take any action, when the truth is, getting going will put wind in your sails and get your motivation humming. Here's how to get into motion.
6 min
727
Find Your Motivation EP: 357
This week on the podcast, I’m focusing on motivation. Because it’s an important thing at any time, but it’s something we’re even more interested in at the start of the year. And, after a year like 2020, which was so um, eventful, and...
8 min
728
5 Questions for an Awesome New Year: Question N...
I know you’re not supposed to pick favorites of your own creations, but today's question is kind of my favorite! It influences everything that you do in the new year, and even if you never set one goal afterward, it can change your life.
5 min
729
5 Questions for an Awesome New Year: Question N...
You’ve REALLY got to work hard not to censor yourself when answering this question, because your ego will just love to chime in and say, 'What are you thinking? That’s not possible.' It's so important that you name your true answers anyway.
5 min
730
5 Questions for an Awesome New Year: Question 3...
Today I’m inviting my friend, business coach Brittany Drozd, on to the podcast to share one of her favorite questions that she likes to ask herself and her clients at the start of the new year. It's not one you're likely to hear in any...
12 min
731
5 Questions for an Awesome New Year: Question N...
Today's question is also about looking back, but with a much more positive lens than yesterday's focus. It helps raise your energy and access gratitude.
5 min
732
5 Questions for an Awesome New Year: Question N...
This week on the podcast, this first full week of the new year, I’m doing things just a little bit different in that in each episode, I’m posing one question to ask yourself to help you process 2020 and wrap your head and your heart around 2021.
5 min
733
A Foolproof Strategy for Kicking Off a Great Ye...
New Year’s Day is a super potent time for setting the tone for the rest of the year. You want to do something on this first day of 2021 that blazes a trail for how you’d like the rest of the year to go. I've got a simple guideline that helps...
5 min
734
Restore Thyself: Give Yourself Alllll the Credi...
It can be very heartening to give yourself credit for all the many things you’ve been taking care of, and recognize yourself for your accomplishments--big, tiny, and everything in between. It can help show your ego that you actually deserve to rest,...
5 min
735
Restore Thyself: Processing a Nutty Year So You...
Something that makes this whole process a lot more effective is processing what’s come before, so that you don’t have to keep carrying it around with you. My dear friend Paige Chapman, a self-care coach and owner of the virtual yoga studio...
13 min
736
Restore Thyself: The No. 1 Secret to Getting Mo...
One of the best ways to restore yourself is to sleep. Now, sleep is a huge topic that could fill many episodes. Just for today, I’m going to talk about the number one way to make sure you get the rest you need.
4 min
737
Restore Thyself EP: 347
This week is the final week of 2020. Normally, I’d be talking to you about finishing strong, or taking stock of the year that just happened, or setting goals for next year. But this is not that time. This final week of the year on the podcast is...
6 min
738
A Poem that Perfectly Captures My Wish for 2021...
To keep things short today, so that no matter what plans you do or don’t have to celebrate Christmas or not celebrate Christmas you’ll have a few extra minutes, I’m sharing a poem I recently discovered that has been like a balm for my soul. It's...
5 min
739
Spotlight on Anxiety: Your Return Ticket from A...
Anxiety is often the result of living in the future--thinking about what hasn’t happened yet, perhaps even dreading it, or just trying to anticipate what might be coming down the pike. The way out of anxiety is to pull your attention back to the...
7 min
740
Spotlight on Anxiety: Two Important Supplements...
There are two supplements that crop up in articles and books, as well as in the scientific literature, over and over as being important players in brain health, mood, and in things like depression and anxiety. But most of us don't think of them...
9 min
741
Spotlight on Anxiety: Try This Breath to Get Ou...
In the coaching world anxiety is often described as excitement without breath. So let's do a REALLY easy--and calming!--breathing exercise to help redirect your body and your attention away from anxiety.
6 min
742
Spotlight on Anxiety: Build Your Trust Muscles ...
A fairly common trigger of anxiety is thinking about all the things that are left to be done. We want to feel like everything is taken care of before we allow ourselves to settle down and just chill. But here’s the thing: That’s never gonna happen.
8 min
743
Spotlight on Anxiety: Are You Rehearsing Unhap...
So often, when you are feeling anxious, if you examine the thoughts you’ll find that you’re pre-living out an imagined situation--and generally not a positive situation. It's like you're rehearsing unhappiness. Here's how to stop.
7 min
744
Spotlight on Anxiety: Schedule Your Worry Time ...
Taking a page from project management, today I’m talking about scheduling your worry time so that you can put up some boundaries around your attention without having to try to stop worrying altogether, which is a pretty tall--as in...
6 min
745
Spotlight on Anxiety: Tips from an Anxiety Pro ...
Today I’m interviewing the fabulous Leigh Medeiros, author of The 1-Minute Writer, a developmental editor, and a creativity coach. and someone who has lived with at times severe anxiety for over 30 years for her tips on anxiety's lessons, as well as...
19 min
746
Spotlight on Anxiety: Two Acupressure Points to...
There are two spots on your body that really help quiet the swirling thoughts of anxiety according to Traditional Chinese Medicine. Today I talk you through how to find them and stimulate them.
7 min
747
Spotlight on Anxiety: What It Is & Where It Com...
When something feels as high-stakes and as interior as anxiety does, it’s really helpful to shine a light on it and observe it, which helps you see it as something that is separate from you. That's what we're doing today.
10 min
748
Calm the Eff Down, Revisited: Finding Your Way ...
Rolling with tough times requires acceptance. Which might seem like you're giving up, but really it's just laying down your resistance. When you can access acceptance, you get to stop putting effort into trying to change things you can’t...
7 min
749
Calm the Eff Down, Revisited: The Need for Alon...
Alone time is also how we catch up to ourselves, process our emotions, and just be, without having to respond to anyone. For those of us quarantined with other people--especially parents with kids--it is also scarce.
11 min
750
Calm the Eff Down, Revisited: How to Be Real wi...
It’s a lot harder to be patient and thoughtful -- and honest! -- with your kids when you're with them all the livelong day. Today I’m happy to have my friend Judi Ketteler, author of the book Would I Lie to You? Here with us to talk about how to...
25 min