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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1101
Plan for No Plans EP: 74
Something that we all need any time, but especially in the midst of a whirlwind like the end of the year, is downtime. Or what I like to call, white space.
5 min
1102
Name Your Sacred Circle EP: 73
Raising kids takes a village, but so does being a person. Today we’re talking about consciously thinking about who are the people in your life who lift you up, and you do the same for them.
6 min
1103
Find Time to Read EP: 72
I’m not here to sell you on the concept of reading. What I want to do today is help you find the time to read. Because that is often the biggest impediment to actually doing this wonderful, heart- and mind-expanding thing.
4 min
1104
Be Coachable EP: 71
It’s a very rare person who truly enjoys the process of hearing something that they’re not doing great at. But getting hip to it is how you start to get better.
4 min
1105
Shift the Dynamic EP: 70
Today’s tip is something to reach for when something you’re working on or toward isn’t going as you’d like, and you’re starting to get frustrated, or angry, or dispirited in some way.
5 min
1106
An Alternative to Black Friday: Be of Service E...
A lot about Thanksgiving is focused on consumption, both the actual feast and the shopping frenzy that happens the day after. A nice counterbalance to all that consuming is giving.
3 min
1107
Reduce Holiday Stress by Setting an Intention E...
No matter what holiday you celebrate, today’s tip can help you lessen some of the stress at whatever holiday gathering you might be attending.
4 min
1108
Replace Your Negative Self-Talk with a Specific...
I want you to head into the holiday feeling refreshed and uplifted. That’s why today’s tip is going straight to the source of where nearly all stress originates, and that’s to your very thoughts.
4 min
1109
Cook When No One’s Hungry EP: 66
Cooking is actually fun. It’s creative. It’s got good smells, pretty visuals, and good tastes. It’s movement. What’s not fun is try to produce something edible when you and/or the people you’re feeding are hungry. That’s stressful
5 min
1110
Why Driving Without the GPS Is Good for Your So...
Surely there are some places in this world where you don’t need an omnipotent GPS voice to get you there. I mean, what happens when the grid goes down and we’ve all lost the ability to navigate by ourselves? What then?
4 min
1111
Have Fun, Dammit (Why Fun Matters) EP: 64
When you’re having fun, you are in the moment. You are very present, and you are relaxed. That’s when things can flow. As paradoxical as it may seem, sometimes you have to plan for fun. This is one of those times.
4 min
1112
Set Better Boundaries with an “I Don’t” List E...
Knowing what’s on your “don’t list” will help shore up your boundaries, and that helps you walk a little taller and keeps any bad behavior from taking away from your well-being.
4 min
1113
Identify Your Bad Habits EP: 62
What are your bad health habits? Are you like me in that you intend to drink only one glass of wine, but always end up having two? A lot of times, after you raise your awareness about something, it starts to shift all on its own.
3 min
1114
Take a Real Lunch Break (no Screens!) EP: 61
Today I am encouraging you—imploring you, even!--to take an honest-to-gosh lunch break. And by that I mean, move away from your computer, and keep your hands and your eyes off your phone. Why?
4 min
1115
Take (at Least) One Mindful Breath a Day EP: 60
Today, I want to help you find your way into two great practices--conscious breathing and mindfulness—by doing ONE SIMPLE THING that only takes about five seconds. Sounds pretty good, right?
6 min
1116
Don’t Keep the Peace EP: 59
It may seem like your highest goal in any difficult situation is to keep things from spilling over into anger or upset. But keeping the peace can look an awful lot like sweeping things under the rug, and ignoring what needs attention.
6 min
1117
Embrace Order EP: 58
The average person spends 15 minutes a day looking for a lost item—that’s a lot of unnecessary stress on a daily basis, and over the course of a year, that’s more than 91 hours spent on rummaging through your bag or your house silently freaking out.
4 min
1118
Try a No-Spend Day EP: 57
Today’s tip is about dedicating some amount of time to NOT spending money. Because sometimes NOT doing something is the best way to help you figure out how you want to do it in the future.
5 min
1119
Validate, Validate, Validate EP: 56
We all long to feel heard and understood. Like, deep down in our souls we want to feel gotten. And it is so easy to do this for another person. So easy! And yet, it’s pretty rare that we actually do.
5 min
1120
Share Your Pronouns EP: 55
I have something very specific to suggest that you do in honor of International Kindness Day. And it’s not be kind to others! I hope you already know to do that, right?
6 min
1121
Know When to Pick Up the Phone EP: 54
Today’s tip is designed to help you be a better and more efficient communicator. And in this day and age of overflowing inboxes and texts a-plenty, it may surprise you, because I am going to encourage you to do something that may seem even a little...
4 min
1122
Be a River, Not a Pond EP: 53
Today’s tip can nudge you into feeling more generous, which isn’t something you hear about nearly as much as you do about gratitude. Gratitude is focusing on what you have or what you get. And generosity is focusing on what you can give to others....
5 min
1123
Soak Your Stress Away, For Real EP: 52
Today’s tip delivers self-care in all kinds of ways, helping you tend to your physical health, your mental health, and even your psychic health.
3 min
1124
Write a Thank You Note EP: 51
Imagine how tickled you’d be to pick up your mail today and see a handwritten note from someone thanking you for something you did or said. It would make your day, wouldn’t it?
4 min
1125
Give a Better Compliment EP: 50
There are many ways that compliments don’t end up being all that complimentary. Especially when they are related to appearance, compliments can get loaded, quick.
5 min