When Trauma and Creativity Collide

Trauma can damage anyones creativity.

Recently, I’ve gone through a lot. Very traumatic events have taken place that resulted in mourning the lose of relationships of 10 plus years. Unfortunately, there was no way to avoid the lose if I wanted to regain my spiritually emotional freedom. The lost effected my husband and I so much that we had to move. The simplest way to explain it is that we discovered we were being spiritually abused. I won’t go into great detail regarding that but I will say church abuse is real but we still love God’s church and believe in the local church.

We aren’t those people who have incredibly bad experiences with the church and God’s people and turn our backs on everything related to Jesus. However; this experience has shown me that it’s real and I can understand to a degree why people go through those type of seasons where they need the grace of God to meet them heavily.

Throughout this experience I have been noticing some elements of my life that have been oppressed by other people’s opinions and thoughts of myself personally and creatively that distorted my actions. When I first began to blog in 2006 many of my blogs were about how I was processes what God was doing in my life and how I wanted to offer encouragement.

With all that is going on I am realizing that the value I add to this community is encouragement. I don’t know what traumatic experiences you have gone through personally but I do know that trauma will completely alter the way you view your own creativity and ability to be produce.

One of of the major issues with the creative soul is that it is stained by the opinions and thoughts of others. Don’t get me wrong! Creative critique is good and needed. It takes a humble person to allow others to give input on what they have created from there souls.

However; many of our creative entrepreneurial souls need to be restored from the opinions of others. We have stopped creating freely. There is an overload of blogs, books, and YouTube videos about the five steps to monetizing this and that.  The concepts are very alluring and suck you in. But is that what you are called to. I believe in monetizing. I believe in marketing. I believing in developing yourself. What I have been a victim of is adding the value others want me to add to others and not the value I’ve been created to add to others.

Our creative soul are in need of healing. We have become victims of the Instagram, follow, like, scaleable systems of this world and that is not how our creative souls were designed to work. Johnathan Golden has a new book releasing in Be You. Do Good.: Having the Guts to Pursue What Makes You Come Alive in the books he speaks about purpose. When we think of the work we do we must shift our focus away from the money, exposure, and thoughts of others. He states, “All of our work is a means of making God’s world on earth a bit more like heaven”.

Our creative souls will experience healing the more we do work that matters. You can pray, hustle and repeat but is that the hustle your supposed to be grinding at.

How have trauma tainted or flourished your creativity?

-Reflections for a person suffering with post traumatic growth.

EP 22: How to Find Your Authentic Voice with Todd Henry

During this episode Todd Henry joined me to speak about his new book Louder Than Words. Todd Henry teaches leaders and organizations how to establish practices that lead to everyday brilliance. He is the author of three books (The Accidental Creative, Die Empty,
and Louder Than Words) which have been translated into more than a dozen languages, and he speaks and consults across dozens of industries on creativity, leadership, and passion for work.

We discussed:

  • Producing great work over time
  • Understanding patterns in successful people
  • His journey in the sticks
  • Benefits of living with less distractions as a child
  • His children’s on screen habits and learning how to be resourceful
  • Work history and how it helped him discover his path
  • The need not to figure it out early
  • The impact of celebrating the unicorns and outliners
  • Learning to leverage opportunities
  • The importance about embracing a path
  • Vision and leading your intended audience
  • Todd’s key everyday practices
  • The need to build in daily learning
  • Bringing freedom to creative professionals everywhere
  • The first step!

Quotes to remember

”The world loves resourceful people”.- Todd Henry – Tweet that

Todd’s Books:

Louder Than Words

Accidental Creative

Die Empty

 

Sponsors:

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Get Productive: Avoid the Social Media Rabbit Trail- free ebook.

Check out my resource page to start your online business today!

 

EP 21: Bethany Haley Williams

 

 

Bethany Haley Williams is a quiet storm on the missions field. She recently wrote a book titled The Color of Grace. Bethany founded Exile International in 2008. She has used her own personal brokenness to serve children orphaned by war and survivors of war.

Listen here: https://media.zencast.fm/christinafaith/21.mp3

Please subscribe and review the podcast on iTunes. 😉

Show highlights:

  • Founding Exile International in 2008
  • While going through her own journey of healing she found her purpose
  • Her heart for children and the lack of programs
  • Purpose in her pain
  • Suicide and failing in leadership
  • God’s ability to use our pain in surrendering
  • The children’s response to those who hurt them
  • Using the small things to help one person at a time
  • Helping over 3000 children
  • The redemptive story of pain

Quotes and takeaways

  • Forgiving yourself in order to heal.
  • Forgiveness starts with a choice of being merciful.
  • God says to forgive.
  • How can you help one child at a time?
  • Be available to be mentored. You will make mistakes
  • The Bread of life which we all need sustains our lives is eternal it is hope

Resources

The Color of Grace

Exile International

Sponsor a Child

Support through Products

Text 44222 for the free e-book Get Productive: Avoiding the Social Media Rabbit Trail

Sponsors:

BlueHost- Webhosting for $3.99 a month

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Download the free ebook- Get Productive: Avoid the Social Media Rabbit Trail

Previous Epsiodes:

The Art of Work with Jeff Goins

Balancing the Hustle with Carlos Whitaker

The Persistent Entrepreneur

Teeny Tokyo Photo Resizing @TeenyTokyo

John Saddington continues to inspire and amaze us all. Less than a year ago he released Desk a writing app. He walked us through every portion of the process allowing us to see the up’s, down’s and in betweens. When I woke up this morning I had the privilege of discovering Teeny Tokyo a Photo Resizing App was released. As a blogger I currently use ImageOptim which is free. However; as an entrepreneur it’s always good to support indie developers!

John is a master of consistency. He has been instrumental in my person journey as a blogger. He was on From Start to Finish last season and gave us some great tips and words of wisdom for writers and developers.

Here is a demo of Teeny Tokyo.

P.S. keep your eyes peeled John is waiting for three other versions of Desk to hit the iTunes store shortly.

Developing Your Craft

It’s hard to take critique about your craft. Recently, I got some hard critique from my husband concerning my film production. It hurt but it was needed. He suggested that I spend more time investing in learning my craft. I agreed. I can definitely use some improvement. It’s easy to rest where you are or use the excuse of what you don’t have.

Instead, I choose to spend some dollars on a tutorial for lighting and coloring grading. Don’t get mad when people share their hearts about your work. It’s not always going to be peachy. I am using the critique to step it up and try different things. In the world of film it’s important to forever be learning and applying. How about in your craft?

Are you building with anxiety or patience?

Learning to wait is not easy. At times we want to jump out there and just do it like Nike. However; patience is perfect and doesn’t rush. I have an app that has been brewing in me since August 2014. I tried to learn to code. I met with people who could help put it together. I tried a lot of different ways to make it happen. But in the process I learned a few things.

  1. I’d rather the Lord build the app
  2. I want a great team
  3. I want people who believe in it regardless of pay
  4. I would rather wait than rush
  5. Empty seats are better than the wrong people

Everyone is trying to make things happen. I don’t want to go that route. I’ve been there and done than. While starting and finishing it is important to remember that patiences brings longevity. Anxiety produces a product that won’t last.

The New Journey

Today I embark upon a few new journey’s. I will be doing a weekly series of Youtube videos to encourage everyone in the morning to start and finish. I posted my weekly article on Adam Smith’s blog 6 Ways to Overcome Doubt and I realized just how many of us struggle with doubt, fear and faith.

The Youtube videos will hopefully encourage you all live with purpose, peace and focus regarding your dreams. I don’t believe that I have all the answers but I can encourage you in the areas that I have triumphed and that I am personally fighting through.

We will also be recording a video for this summer’s mission trips fundraisers that I will be apart of. My church is going back to Haiti to continue to build HTCF international church and a clinic. We are also going to Paris for a prayer missions’s trip. When we went to Haiti in February I was overwhelmed by God’s love for people. I look forward to sharing these journey’s with you and if you are partnering with me in any form of financially.

I promise to share more of my life with you all through my faith, family and business. We are taking part in some incredible ventures and I have failed to document it on the blog. That ends today!

EP 19: Interview with @AlizaLicht on From Start to Finish Podcast

I discovered Aliza Licht through Peg Fitzgerald. She is the svp global comm for Donna Karan, author of @LEAVEYOURMARKxo that is a mentorship with insider secrets. Aliza is all about teaching others how she excelled. Instead of sitting down for coffee with thousands of people she decided to write a book about how to leave your own mark.




itunes-store

 

Listen and Subscribe on iTunes. 

In this episode we discover:
How she went from graduation from the University of Maryland with a B.S. in Neurobiology and Physiology to fashion

  • Her journey writing Leave Your Mark
  • The excel spread she that gave her rhythm and kept her deadline
  • Social Media and its importance to fashion
  • Creating DKNY PR Girl
  • Early adopters of twitter for a fashion brand
  • The importance of real time updates and passion
  • How she has developed relationships with people on social media
  • Sharing on social media
  • Followers vs. Friends
  • The marketing concept of Leave Your Mark
  • Why she only wear red lips stick
  • Her love for cardboard to go cups
  • Mentorship in Leave Your Mark
  • Must Do’s and Don’t Do’s
  • The importance of coming for behind the DNKY PR Girl handle
  • Leave Your Mark- Audio book experience
  • How she processes her failure
  • Coffee and Questions
  • How to make a career move
  • How Aliza likes her coffee

Set List:

  • Mali Music- Fight 4 You
  • Musiq- Just Friends
  • LeeLand- Chains Hit the Ground
  • Mary Mary- Never Wave My Flag
  • Kim Walker- Spirit Break Out

 

EP 18- How to Create Your Own Social Media Job with Peg Fitzpatrick

Peg Fitzgerald is the smile of the social media community. She continually provides incredible content, manages multi-million follower accounts and is a speaker. She gives us valuable information about how to use your social media to increase your value.

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Listen and Subscribe on iTunes.

Highlights of the show:

  • How she acquired her first social media job
  • How to create your own job
  • Facebook marketing
  • Managing 11 million followers
  • Her workflow
  • Balance as her challenge
  • Authenticity in social media
  • Using relationships to leverage social media
  • Discovering your learning style
  • Her current read Aliza Licht- How to Leave Your Mark

Music Set List:

  • DA T.R.U.T.H. – On duty
  • Chris Tomlin- Our God
  • DA T.R.U.T.H.- Hunger Games
  • Gary Clark, Jr. – Bright Lights

Let's Connect

Get in touch with Christina Faith !

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