Episode Transcript
[00:00:19] Well, welcome back to another fun filled, exciting episode of Grace and Grit mindset podcast.
[00:00:28] That's a joke because I don't think my episodes are fun filled and exciting. That's not really my cup of tea, is it? So usually you probably come here because you are stressed out, anxious, overwhelmed, and you need things to be quiet.
[00:00:42] So that is what I'm all about. My name is Shannon Williams and I have a ministry and I help women unclutter their minds. They can hear the Lord. I mean, honestly, that's what I do. So I'm super happy to be able to share things with you and just kind of take you along this journey with me of how God has really overhauled my life and my thought processes and brought me into a place of where I am so much happier and so much lighter and I have freedom and, and I have a joy that I don't know that I've ever had most of my life. And I was a Christian forever. I've been a Christian most of my life, but there was always a heaviness and always a sadness and just kind of this lingering depression.
[00:01:33] But God has brought me through that.
[00:01:35] It's taken a really long time, but he's taught me how to think like him. And it's really an inner work thing that you and the Lord have to.
[00:01:45] You have to come alongside him and let the Holy Spirit partner with you or you partner with him and let him teach you how to think.
[00:01:52] So I.
[00:01:53] I think I have a PhD in it and, and I'm happy and I'm excited to be able to share with women or whoever, whomever feels like, hey, I don't want to live in this crap hole I've been in my whole life, you know, and I don't know if you can hear that. That's rain outside. So I think we're about to have a torrential downpour today here in East Texas. So bear with me. If you hear rain or lightning and thunder, it just goes along with. It's about par for living in East Te. You never know what you're gonna get.
[00:02:25] But I'm super excited because this.
[00:02:27] I'm starting a series with you about creativity.
[00:02:30] And this is called Created to Create. This series is gonna be called Created to Create.
[00:02:38] And I want to share something with you that maybe you've never thought of before.
[00:02:43] But I don't know if you realize this, but creating art.
[00:02:49] And I'm going to get into what art is exactly, because it may not be exactly what you think.
[00:02:53] It's very therapeutic. I Cannot tell you how therapeutic it is beyond anything you could probably imagine. Maybe you see yourself as like, hey, I'm just a computer person or I'm a.
[00:03:05] I don't know, I work in a hospital. I'm a nurse. And I'm not really creative. I'm very analytical and all these things. I promise you, you have something about you that is creative in some way. It may not be the same way that I'm creative. It may not be. You may not be a paint art, you know, an artist that gets a paintbrush out or sketches things or makes pottery or sculptures things, or creates music or writes poetry or whatever. But I promise you, there's probably something you're very creative about.
[00:03:39] Creative. And so let's just look for just one second at the fact that God himself is the ultimate creator and we're made in his image, which means we carry some of that creativity. And I believe that every single person on the face of the earth carries this creative spark inside of them in some way that is. It's. It's something that God gave them. It's a piece of him, if you will. It's this creative part of him that, that when that person can dial into it, understand how powerful it is, they can use it to. To help people around them and also for therapy for themselves.
[00:04:18] So how I got started initially, you know, when I was in my late. Well, I was always in music. But when I was in my late teens, I got married when I was 18, really young, and I was already very musical. I had been in band my whole life. I had been raised in Christian home. My parents were always in a gospel band. My dad was a musician. So I was always kind of drug around to different.
[00:04:47] Different events and revivals going on, or singings, as they were called back then, you know, that my mom and dad were a part of. And not only that, but also was in choir and just all the stuff. And I loved music. I excelled in it to the point that I would. I would just do very well in competitions. And I just knew it was like my.
[00:05:12] I don't want to say first love, but beyond Jesus. It was like the thing that I just found myself in. You know what I mean? Like, music was always home for me. Like whenever I would feel overwhelmed or frustrated or undone in some way, I could always.
[00:05:29] I could always play music or sing or. Or listen to music, and it would bring me back into focus, bring me back to a place of peace and calm. And so when I. When I turned about 19 or 20, right after I got married. I started to wake up with, I would say, like songs in the middle of the night. And I didn't really know what I was doing, to be honest with you. I just knew a few chords on the piano. And that's just because I had been raised around my dad, who was obviously a piano player, you know. So I just picked things up. I already knew how to play guitar at that point, but it just became like this thing. I kind of became obsessed with it because I would hear like these songs. I would hear lines from a song and it would just inspire me. So I would wake up and write them or I would hear them periodically during the day or whatever. And it just got stronger and stronger.
[00:06:22] And I would write poetry because basically song lyrics are poetry set to music. It's basically what a good song anyway. I think that's the thing. That's how it started with me. But I found that this creativity initially in its most pure form, was this way that I could connect to God and I could express either worship to him or he could express to me something he's trying to teach me about Him.
[00:06:50] And in that purest form, it's really beautiful because at that point you're not really trying to make it into some kind of platform performance thing, right?
[00:07:02] So if I'd have just left it there, it would have been so beautiful. But I took it in a direction that became very performance y. And if you want to hear more about that or learn more about that, not so much my journey, but really, I guess uncovering God's destiny for your life.
[00:07:20] That's all in my first book, embrace your beautiful destiny. So that's what that book is about, is kind of me coming to this realization of how to embrace this, the destiny that God's given me, even though it doesn't look like what I thought it was going to look like. And I found that in a very challenging, difficult way, a very heart wrenching way, by losing a record deal. And really just all the things that I felt like were perceived failures of me not being able to make it big in the music industry.
[00:07:51] And then coming back to a place of where I remembered what worship really was. And I came back to that purity of just creating art or music because it made me feel better, not because I was trying to make somebody buy it or be the next hit or what can I, you know, how can I get famous from this song? I mean. I mean, no Christian artist really says that out loud, but they're probably thinking it underneath all of the layers of things you're thinking, okay, how can I do this well enough that I could quit my job?
[00:08:25] What happens when you do that is you lose the purity of why you were doing it to begin with. Because I believe these gifts of creativity are first and foremost a way for you and God to connect.
[00:08:38] He's given you this beautiful way that you and him can kind of go to this secret place together. And in my mind, where I see myself with the Lord and where he takes me is like this Alice in Wonderland place. And please don't like turn me off. Turn the podcast off, because I said that.
[00:08:59] Let me explain that. So when I was a kid, my favorite book was Alice in Wonderland. And I had it. My. This is one of the few gifts I remember getting as a child. My mom and dad for Christmas one year got me these little read along books and they had a little tape. So this is, you know, back in the day they had tape player and the tape that came with it and it would read the book to you and you would just read along with it and turn the pages and I would just. I listened to that over and over, over and over. Specifically Alice in Wonderland. I had almost all of the stories like that dumbo and that one and Cinderella and, you know, a lot of them. But for some reason, Alice in Wonderland was my favorite.
[00:09:46] And I just feel like, I think it was that way because the place that I found where I really meet with the Lord is in the creative space.
[00:09:57] And I want to encourage you that there is a place that you can go to with God that is not of this world. It is so beautiful. It is so created for just you and him.
[00:10:13] For me, you know, when you think about Alice in Wonderland, you think about all the crazy beautiful colors in the forest and the mushrooms and there's all these weird things that are just so different, so unique. And it's just this big, huge explosion of color and songs and different kinds of animals that you've never seen before. That's the place I go to with the Lord when I create.
[00:10:40] And what it has done for me is it's brought me so much healing.
[00:10:46] So you're thinking, but I'm not creative. I bet you are. I bet you just haven't really put the pieces together, you know, like, for instance, my husband loves to bake. And like when he bakes, he loves it. It's like therapy to him. You know what it's like to me, it's like torture, right? But he loves it. He loves to do woodworking. I would destroy like, if I try to make a table, y', all, it would. It would be bad. But when he does it, it's beautiful and he loves it. And he comes inside and he's just so lit up from it. It's like this place that he goes to with God. And so I want to encourage you if there's something you love to do and it's not, you know, quote unquote artistic, it's not painting or, you know, pottery or whatever you think is artistic.
[00:11:35] I just still want you to think about what is it that you love to do that is some kind of form of creativity for you, you know, that could look so different for everyone.
[00:11:47] My mom is fantastic at making cakes. She's like the cake lady and the cupcake lady around here, and she never even really knew that she was good at that. Just like a year and half ago, around the same time that I started making soap and body butter, which was another creative outlet that God used to heal me, by the way.
[00:12:04] It just switched out of music into, like, something more tangible with my hands. My mom started making cakes at the same time, and she just started, like, really learning how to do it, watching videos, and now she's got her own little business. She loves it. She's obsessed with making cakes. There's something about it that I think makes her feel.
[00:12:24] First of all, she's sharing that beautiful gift with the world, and it's serving people in such a great way. But it's also like a connection point, I think, for her and the Lord. And I don't know if you see your creativity that way, and maybe your creativity doesn't look like that. Maybe it's coming out in a different way. Maybe you're just super creative at being a mom. You know, maybe you're just really good at handling all of the many things that go along with being a mother. And maybe you're creativity is in some other form. It really doesn't matter. The thing that I'm trying to bring to the surface here is that seeing it in a new light as a way that you and God connect, but a way that God can heal you.
[00:13:10] So even though for me, music was my first love with art, and it was a safe place for me, when my emotions had nowhere to go, I could really just start writing and uncover what was really going on. It's kind of like journaling. So that's what I would say. If you're a person who journals, have you tried turning your writing into poetry?
[00:13:40] That is. That's one of my favorite Things to do. I absolutely love writing poetry. It is so much fun or writing out your prayers, but being more creative with the way you write, try to write a little bit different. Try to just tap into that. If you love to write, there's a. There's a great chance that you maybe could write in a more artistic way.
[00:14:00] Blogging, I think blogging. I'm going to tell you something. I discovered blogging when I was coming out of. I had gotten canceled with the record label I was with. Recording label, said, you know what? We really like you, but we feel like God's taken you a different direction. We'll leave you as, like, an honorary member of the label, but we're really not going to push you anymore. We're not going to really work with you. So talk about being devastated, because all my musical dreams just kind of went up in smoke.
[00:14:32] But what happened was I had to go back to work doing mortgage stuff, and I was so angry with the Lord. I mean, I'm just being honest here. I was so angry, and I was like, how can you give me what I wanted and what I thought was my destiny, then just take it away from me and make me sit here and work at this bank that I hate so much?
[00:14:53] But what happened was I didn't have time anymore to do. And I was getting older at this point. I was in my 30s, and, you know, I had a child, and she was in middle school and almost in high school, and we were super busy and involved at church with. With the worship team there. So. And the season had come and gone for me to have my own band and travel. I felt God close that door, and it was devastating to me, to say the least. But what happened, though, is I found myself wanting to write, but needing not a platform, but needing a place to do it. And so I moved from songwriting into blogging. And that's when I discovered that I could write more things than just music.
[00:15:38] So if that had never happened to me, you know, God closing the musical door, I never would have realized I had this other gift.
[00:15:45] And also, it was just a creative outlet, and I loved it. So from the blogging, I actually moved into writing books. And that's when I really realized, wow, this is like, the whole thing, underneath all of this is a gift of writing that, like, writing is my gift, you know, whether it comes out as a song or as a book or a blog or a message in some way. And so.
[00:16:11] But it just opened up that whole other door. So I want to just say, you know, maybe your Creativity could move in that direction and too maybe as you get older, I feel like it can move around, around and that's okay. Like if you're stale in this one area of creativity, you can try another one. I, I'm actually doing that right now. I have a harp that my husband bought me that I have to, I've got to tune it myself and I'm going to start teaching myself how to play the art, the harp. Cuz I need like a different instrument. I love piano, guitar, but I'm kind of tired of it and I want to move into something else and so I'm doing that. I'm also looking into taking some pottery classes and just, just these different. Because what I found is when I do that, I get to.
[00:16:59] There's a reality that's released to me from the Lord about something he's trying to teach me. Right.
[00:17:06] So it's really cool when you can see it as an expression that God not only for you to have therapy, but also and for you to get healing, but also as an expression that God wants to partner with you to express something about him to the world. Right.
[00:17:22] So. And then I eventually went into podcasting and then I eventually went into doing the apothecary stuff. If you don't know, I have a business called vine and Branch Apothecary. I make soap, spa products, body butters, lotion bars, lip balms, all kinds of really fun stuff.
[00:17:44] Love it. It's been so much fun.
[00:17:47] So creativity, you know, I just want to say creativity evolves as you evolve. And I hate to use evolve, but it's really kind of true. As you get older, creativity is going to maybe change with you. It's a healing companion for you. In every season, in every season there is some kind of creative spark that maybe you haven't tapped into that could come along beside you as a healing companion.
[00:18:14] And it grows with your calling and it's a part of your spiritual DNA.
[00:18:19] And I love this, I love this. God gives you. He keeps giving you new ways to express what he's doing in your life. That's a better way than what I tried to say a minute ago. God keeps giving you new ways to express what he's doing in your life. So the question is, what is God doing in your life and what creativity could you release that would be an expression of what he's doing in your life right now.
[00:18:43] Right. So I hope some of this is resonating with you and it's kind of like, hey, you know what, I need to Start.
[00:18:50] I need to start getting creative again, right? Because I feel like I've put it on the shelf because I'm so busy just being a wife. I'm so busy just being a mom. I don't have time for creativity. I'm going to tell you, that's a huge, huge lie.
[00:19:05] Don't fall into the trap of I don't have time to be creative.
[00:19:10] It is a lifeline for you.
[00:19:13] You know, some people.
[00:19:14] I had a friend who was really a fitness.
[00:19:20] She was a trainer and she was really into fitness. She took really good care of her body and she loved. One of the things she loved to do. Her creative spark was to design fitness routines for people.
[00:19:34] So, I mean, she absolutely loved it. You know, I mean, everybody's different, right? Some people. I have another friend who she just. She does all kinds of stuff, but she just released a cookbook that is full of, like, superfood recipes and to. So she really has a passion, you know, and it's different than anything she's really released that, I think, but she just had this passion for like, hey, I want to share the creativity I found in this part of my life about eating healthy and actually looking at preparing meals and hospitality as like an expression of God's love to me and my friends and family.
[00:20:11] So why.
[00:20:14] Why does creativity matter for your soul?
[00:20:17] Is a huge question.
[00:20:19] Because it gives emotions a place to land. See, creativity is this space where you can actually.
[00:20:28] You can actually let your emotions land and it's a safe place for him to do it. It's an expression where you can do that. Here's something most people don't know that creativity art helps you. Helps your nervous system regulate. It absolutely helps your nervous system regulate. It's because it causes you to relax.
[00:20:45] It causes you to lower cortisol. It causes you to also release these feel good hormones, the dopamine, the serotonin.
[00:20:55] There's a joy and there's a happiness that we all need. And because of that, it will pull you out of fight or flight because you feel so good when you do.
[00:21:05] Reconnects you to yourself when your life feels scattered. Doesn't it, though? I mean, there's this thing that I would find that I would be falling apart and I would just go grab my guitar and I would sit down and I would maybe sing one of my old songs or three or four of them in a row. And I would just say, God, this is home for me.
[00:21:24] This is home for me. And it just would bring me back to like, my eye had Been scattered, but it would pull me back together.
[00:21:31] And it also becomes a sanctuary and not a performance. And that's huge because you don't want to turn this into. And this is what the world does with your gift, by the way. Turn this beautiful creative gift into a performance to where you're on a stage and you're doing this in front of everybody. Hey, if God ever opens up the door for you and you're healthy in a healthy space for that, that's fine. But it will be because of an overflow and not because you performed your way into it. It's going to happen because it's an overflow.
[00:22:03] You don't want it to be about performance.
[00:22:06] Creativity should never be about performance. You should be able to create with or without an audience. Like creativity.
[00:22:14] You love the thing so much that you would do it if no one else ever, ever heard or read or saw whatever your art was. Right. That's how you know you really, really love it. And it means so much to you. And it's a stress release. So stress.
[00:22:29] Stress compounds when we only operate in survival mode. You know, a lot of us are in survival mode right now, and so we can't release the stress. And yes, you can go for a walk. That's great. Yes, you can. Deep breathe. That's great. You should do it. But there's also this beautiful thought of using creativity as a stress, stress release. It shifts your brain from pressure to presence. Right.
[00:22:52] The movement of your hands, slows your thoughts. It kind of gives your physical body an outlet for kind of what you're feeling.
[00:23:02] Because you can't. You can't.
[00:23:04] You can't create and panic at the same time. Right. You just can't.
[00:23:09] You got to do one or the other.
[00:23:13] So there were seasons when writing songs or journaling was the only place my mind stopped racing. And that is the absolute truth. And that was God using creativity as therapy long before I had the language for it.
[00:23:26] He was using creativity for me as therapy, and I didn't even know he was doing that.
[00:23:33] Yeah. So I hope that you are getting something out of this.
[00:23:38] You know, something to remember about creativity is it's not perfection, it's presence. Don't.
[00:23:44] Don't get caught up in the. I have to make this thing that I'm creating perfect. That's going to completely rob you of the joy of the creativity and also rob you of any blessing that it can bring. It can bring the peace and the joy and kind of stabilization back, bring you back to an equilibrium, I guess, would Be a great way. So it's never been about perfection or performance.
[00:24:08] God just gave you that gift. I think what I'm trying to say is God gave you this creative gift, whatever it is, first and foremost I think as a way for you to connect with him because he's an artist too and he loves to create and he loves to partner with us to create.
[00:24:25] But also as therapy for you, as a way to soothe yourself, as a way to pull you back into. Into pull your pieces of your scatteredness back to wholeness and remembering who you are. It's therapy for you. And then thirdly, after all that, maybe you can release it to other people and it can be healing balm for them too. But don't ever get it out of order. Don't try to create to heal or to help or to whatever it is to be noticed to perform.
[00:25:02] You want to create from the pure place of just partnering with God and experiencing healing in your own life and letting him reveal and express things to you. And then as that is done in a healthy way and you are okay, then you can release that into the world and it can help other people, you know. But none of my creative creativity seasons have looked perfect.
[00:25:30] But every I would say this, every single one of them has healed me.
[00:25:35] And I love when you tie creativity together with worship. I feel like this is something so many people have got to understand.
[00:25:45] Your creativity when it's poured out like that is worship unto God. Think about David and all the psalms he wrote. Were they perfect? No.
[00:25:55] Were they a super emotional? Yes.
[00:25:58] But it wasn't about perfection.
[00:26:02] It was literally about him pouring out his worship to God. That's what your creativity is. And think of it that way.
[00:26:09] It's not just some escape for you. It's not just whatever, it's the therapy. But it's also worship unto God. When you make these beautiful things or whatever it is that you do, I don't know what it is, but it's all. It becomes like a silent prayer and a resting place and a conversation for you in the Lord. And when you start invite him into it or when you start to realize he wants to invade that space with you and he wants to co create. He doesn't want to take the reins and do it all. He doesn't want you to do it apart from him. He wants to be a co laborer with you perhaps. I know how he does for me is he gives me this spark of the inspiration and that's where everything starts for me. I have this spark and it's inspirational. It's a phrase, it's a thought, it's a concept.
[00:26:54] Then I take that and I start to build on it and he starts to reveal things to me. It could be a book idea, it could be a blog, it could be a podcast episode, it could be a teaching, it could be a song, it could be soap, it could be some kind of apothecary thing.
[00:27:10] I have it all constantly going in my head. But he likes to co labor with me. I'm not over here trying to just think of something on my own. I'm just seeking him and practicing being in his presence and knowing that he's the vine and I'm the branch and I can't do anything apart from Him. And as I'm doing that and just loving him and worshiping him, he gives me these little ideas. And it's not even in the middle of these worship sets. It's just like random things just kind of fall out of the sky into my head.
[00:27:41] I had that yesterday. I'm in the process of writing another book. It's been a few years because my life fell apart. And I am going to write a book. I've already started it and I've already got kind of the outline and everything in the first chapter written. And then I had this thought of, I have another idea for a second book I think would be a nice sequel to this. And so then I realized, then there's another book, there's a trilogy, there's another one behind that book. And so my brain took off, you know, and I went into creative space with the Lord of, like, what is this trilogy about? What are these three books? They all, they build on each other and it's this beautiful concept of really inner, inner healing with Jesus at the center, with God at the center of this, but also learning how to think better thoughts. It's a lot of the stuff I talk about here. So if you like this, you're gonna love these books.
[00:28:37] But, you know, here's some ideas to reignite creativity for you.
[00:28:42] Okay? So like, maybe you're like, I can't. I'm not creative. Okay, well, first of all, stop saying that. So here's what some things you could do, right?
[00:28:50] A ten minute creative pause. You could write, sketch paint, arrange flowers, knead dough, stir wax, play an instrument. I also make like wax snaps. So it's fun, like stirring wax or making soap. Because I do like super creative artistic designs with my soap.
[00:29:08] Find something like that, you know, arranging flowers. That sounds super fun to me, right? Maybe it's interior design. Maybe you like designing things like that. My sister loves that, you know, that's like her space, you know, Find that thing, do it.
[00:29:24] Create a 10 minute, create a pause. Do that thing for. If you only have 10 minutes, just do it, you know? And then here's another thought. What did you do as a child that you loved?
[00:29:34] Was it coloring or singing or crafting or doing puzzles or stickers or reading or writing?
[00:29:41] I loved to sing, I loved to read, I loved to dance.
[00:29:47] That, that was all those things are things I still love to do. But you know, as we get older, we are like, oh, I'm too old. Like, I have to be in the real world. I have to do the adult thing.
[00:29:58] No, no, go back and grab some of these creative things you love to do as a child.
[00:30:03] Not because you're trying to make a living doing it. Just because it brings you joy, for crying out loud. It is okay to have joy, y'. All. It is okay to have these beautiful moments of pure joy in the presence of God because you're doing something that makes you so happy because he made you that way, right?
[00:30:22] You could even do something like create a small creative corner. Like put some. I'm just giving you practical ideas here. You know, a tray with markers, a journal, things like any. What is it, what is it that you need to do? For me, I like, I like for my office to feel a certain way. Like when I come in here to write especially, I want to have.
[00:30:43] I want it to feel cozy. I need the lighting to be just right. I want a candle lit.
[00:30:48] I want to have maybe some hot tea or hot coffee. There's just a, there's a, there's a thing I like, there's the thunder.
[00:30:58] And that helps me create.
[00:31:01] So create that space for you. That will help you be creative.
[00:31:05] So just start small, you know, start where you are. But just remember that you're created to create. You're made in the image of God and he's a creator. It's not random. It's a God given lifeline for you and it will heal places you didn't know that you needed healing. It'll reconnect you, the Holy Spirit, to yourself and to peace.
[00:31:26] So, yeah, so I hope that you've enjoyed this and I'm going to be expounding on some of, some of this and some more episodes. Like I said, this is going to be a series. So I hope that you come back and join me for the next one.
[00:31:40] Don't forget, you can go to my website. My address changed. Shannawilliams.com I've got blog posts there. I've got a bunch of stuff about the marriage altar, which is our marriage ministry. Me, my husband are working on building for coaching, counseling.
[00:31:57] You can also see all of my songs in my books and stuff like that. So please reach out to me if you want to tell me how you're doing. I'd love to know if this is helping you, Shannon. Shannonwilliams.com and until then, I will see you guys soon. Bye.
[00:32:18] His love is breaking through he's coming for me.
[00:32:43] Hell can stop his love.
