Beyond the basement

<p>Join me beneath a silver birch tree in my local park as I explore the messy, empowering, and deeply embodied world of boundaries. This episode dives into the lived experience of saying yes and no - where you end, where others begin, and how asserting your edges becomes an act of dignity, humility, and self-leadership.</p><p>I share recent stories from my life and my improv practice, including a difficult withdrawal from a performance. Through these moments, we look at why boundaries often feel icky or shame-tinged, why we avoid them, and how our bodies tell us the truth long before our minds do.</p><p>We’ll explore the difference between loving boundaries and defensive ones, how resentment grows when edges aren’t expressed, and why small, compassionate no’s prevent the need for thermonuclear ones.</p><p>And towards the end, I share an unexpected discovery: how honouring your own boundaries subtly shifts your presence in the world - how people look at you differently, how you feel more real, and how clarity creates safety, play, and connection (just like good improv!).</p><p>Come along if you’ve ever struggled with people-pleasing, losing yourself in any kind of relationship, anxiety, or trusting yourself.</p> <br/><br/>This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit <a href="https://chriskenworthy.substack.com?utm_medium=podcast&#38;utm_campaign=CTA_1">chriskenworthy.substack.com</a>

<p>In this episode, we explore the tyranny of taking life too seriously - that joyless, over-responsible, heavily burdened state that achievers, perfectionists, caretakers, people-pleasers and “grown-up good boys and girls” know all too well. </p><p>From the trenches of self-improvement fatigue, I look at how seriousness becomes a self-reinforcing way of being in the world - one that mistakes control for safety, purpose for productivity, and endurance for worth.</p><p>I share why our nervous systems cling to the familiar heaviness of ‘being the grown-up’ and how that seriousness quietly drains colour and aliveness from our lives, and what helps to shake it loose again: irreverence, mischief, distraction, connection, and following what feels alive.</p><p>This is an invitation to loosen your white-knuckled grip on life’s steering wheel - not by abandoning responsibility, but by remembering the play, pleasure, and curiosity that make being human worth it.</p><p>If you often forget to have fun (or can’t even remember how to), this one’s for you.</p> <br/><br/>This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit <a href="https://chriskenworthy.substack.com?utm_medium=podcast&#38;utm_campaign=CTA_1">chriskenworthy.substack.com</a>

<p>Come with me on a two-day immersion in fooling - a raw, theatrical, embodied practice that invites you to meet the many parts of yourself with innocence, curiosity, and play.</p><p>Part archetype, part inner-world explorer, the Fool becomes a guide into your psyche: revealing sleepy parts, terrified parts, sexy snake-bodied parts, collapsed melodrama parts, cautious parts, joyful parts - every fragment you usually hide, override, shame, or race past. </p><p>Instead of fixing or analysing, the Fool asks only: “Ooh… what’s here now?”</p><p>I share what I learned as I moved through my own inner landscape: how easily I lose myself in ‘other’ (hello people-pleasers), how much drama my parts can stir when I believe them too literally, how the whole system softens when met with playful non-judgement, and how fooling, surprisingly, becomes a kind of reparenting of yourself.</p><p>We look at why perfectionists struggle with this (hello right/wrong thinking), why embodiment is the key to bypassing the mind’s defences, and how the Fool teaches you to let every part have its moment on stage, then bow and exit.</p><p>You’ll hear about invisible rest, snake energy, Monday-morning cupboard meltdowns, the theatre of our inner world, and the art of touching your own experience without becoming it.</p><p>If you’ve ever wished for a way to meet your noisy inner world - your wounds, your longing, your tenderness, your mischief - without drowning in it, the Fool might just be the companion you’ve been looking for.</p> <br/><br/>This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit <a href="https://chriskenworthy.substack.com?utm_medium=podcast&#38;utm_campaign=CTA_1">chriskenworthy.substack.com</a>

<p>Unsettled and alone in hotel room somewhere in Derbyshire, mid-improv retreat, I explore the messy, human art of self-soothing- learning to find safety, connection, and calm within ourselves. </p><p>This episode weaves together attachment theory, perfectionism, embodiment, and nervous system theory as I reflect on how people like us (anxiously attached) show up in relationship with ourselves and others, as well as in even the tiniest gestures - like reaching for your phone or social media.</p><p>I share a micro-practice I’ve been experimenting with: catching the moment of “reach” and meeting it with breath, touch, and self-attunement instead of self-abandonment. We explore why self-soothing isn’t about yet more hyper-independence, but about rebuilding trust with ourselves - without cutting off from connection with others, nature, or what’s truly sacred and meaningful.</p><p>Along the way, I speak about boundaries, heartbreak, relentless doing as a recovering Perfectionist, and the lifelong dance between self and other - between the child who still reaches for safety and the adult who can now hold that reach with love.</p> <br/><br/>This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit <a href="https://chriskenworthy.substack.com?utm_medium=podcast&#38;utm_campaign=CTA_1">chriskenworthy.substack.com</a>

<p>Come for a walk with me, exploring the nature of self and other - what it means to be sovereign, an individual in relationship with other individuals. I record this reflection in a time of loss and transition. Expect theory and tenderness: from Enneagram, instincts and attachment theory, to the longing for union, the ache of separation, and the bittersweet truth that we come in alone and leave alone.</p><p>I look at how perfectionism plays into our desire for merging and control, how we project our unloved parts onto others, and how the path to healing (or wholeness) might lie not in fixing, but in welcoming everything - every messy, contradictory, beautiful part of being human.</p><p>Along the way, I find myself circling grief, dignity, humility, and love - with the quiet realisation that what I’ve been searching for has been here all along. What if you’re the one you’ve been waiting for?</p> <br/><br/>This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit <a href="https://chriskenworthy.substack.com?utm_medium=podcast&#38;utm_campaign=CTA_1">chriskenworthy.substack.com</a>