The Creator Within - Giving Our Creativity Room to Breathe

What Wants to Flow Through You?

We Are All Creators
​Because we come from the Great Creator, I believe that we ourselves are Creators. Whether or not we think of ourselves as creative, we are creating all the time—through our beliefs, our thoughts, our words, our energy, and our actions. We create relationships, homes, careers, experiences, ideas, and ways of being. Creativity isn't reserved for painters, writers, musicians, or poets. It is part of who we are as human Be-Ings...

​The Artist in Me
Creative self-expression has always been a strong desire within me. I was one of those children who looked forward to art class throughout grade school and high school and felt completely at home there. That love eventually led me to earn an associate's degree in Fine Arts. But somewhere along the way came the familiar message: you have to make a living.

Art and Being of Service
I found a way to bridge my desire to create with an equally strong desire to be of service, eventually earning my bachelor's degree in Art Therapy and finally a masters in Counseling. My career evolved into counseling, coaching, energy healing, meditation, and other forms of helping people heal and grow. I am deeply grateful for that path. And yet, throughout much of my adult life, my own artwork and creative expression have often been placed second to being of service to others.
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The Inner-Artist

Receiving Guidance From My Inner-Artist

​My Inner Artist Is Speaking
As I get older, my inner artist no longer wants to live on the back burner. She wants to express herself. Completely. Totally. Fully. And I'm listening. I'm beginning to ask what she needs from me rather than continually asking her to wait until everything else is finished.

Why Do We Make Creativity So Hard?
I don't think this struggle belongs only to me. Life itself can make things difficult for artists. We have to make a living. We have responsibilities. There are bills to pay and people who need us. Artists are often given the message that creativity is something we can pursue after we've taken care of everything practical. But everything practical is never completely finished.

What Wants to Flow Through You?
What if creativity isn't simply something we do, but something the Divine wants to express through us? What if part of our soul's purpose is to become an open vessel for whatever wants to come through—whether that's a painting, a book, a poem, a garden, a business, a song, a meal, a new way of helping people, or an entirely new way of living? What is burning, yearning, craving to be expressed through you? I'm asking myself these same questions.

​Creativity Needs Safety
I'm also realizing that my inner artist needs something very practical: safety, stability, and order. As Julia Cameron explores so beautifully in The Artist's Way, nurturing our creativity requires that we learn to care for the artist within. We don't necessarily need chaos to create. Sometimes we need exactly the opposite—a safe place to land, enough quiet to hear ourselves, and enough space for something new to emerge.​
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fully self-expressed

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Making Room for Her
Life is beginning to feel steadier for me, and I'm finding myself increasingly drawn inward. I'm creating a beautiful space where I can paint, write, think, and simply be. Where once I might have wanted to go here or there, more and more I want to be still—to write these blogs, write books, paint paintings, and allow the energy to flow through me. I want to give my inner artist what she's been asking me for all along: room to breathe.

I Don't Want to Leave With My Music Still Inside Me
None of us knows how much time we have on planet Earth. That awareness increasingly matters to me. I don't want to reach the end of my life carrying paintings I never painted, books I never wrote, words I never shared, or ideas I was too busy to explore. I'm thinking more and more about becoming a little less available to the outer world so that I can become much more available to my inner artist.

Being Creative is Being of Service
Perhaps one of the things I'm learning is that creativity and service were never opposites. My art doesn't take me away from being of service. It is another way of serving. A painting can touch someone. A book can accompany someone through a difficult season. A poem can give language to something another person has never been able to name. When we allow ourselves to create authentically, we never really know where that creation will travel or whose heart it might reach.

Becoming a Believing Mirror
One of the ways I feel most privileged to serve my clients is by seeing the Light within them—sometimes before they're able to see it clearly themselves. Julia Cameron uses the beautiful expression believing mirror, and that's something I hope to be for the people who work with me.

being of Service to others

We Inspire Each Other to Keep Creating

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Watching My Clients Thrive
Over the years, I've watched clients make movies, write books, paint paintings, step onto stages, perform poetry, change careers, and find entirely new ways of expressing themselves. I've witnessed breakthroughs through coaching, counseling, healing, and simply having a safe place where an emerging part of themselves could finally be seen.

Your Expression Gives Me Permission
There is something profoundly reciprocal about creativity. When I watch another person courageously express who they are, something within me becomes freer. And when I allow myself to create without apology, perhaps that gives someone else permission to do the same. We remind one another of what is possible. In that way, creativity becomes another expression of our interconnectedness.

What Is Waiting Inside of You?
Maybe you already know. Maybe you've always wanted to write. Maybe there is a canvas somewhere waiting for you. Perhaps you want to dance, sing, design, photograph, build, garden, act, teach, or create something that doesn't even have a name yet. Or perhaps you've spent so many years caring for everyone else that you've forgotten what you want to create. You don't have to know exactly where it will lead. Perhaps the beginning is simply asking: What wants to be expressed through me?
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How MAy I Be of Service?

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​I Am Here if You Need Me
If you're looking for additional support along your path, I'm here to be of service. With over 20 years of Experience, at The Art of Love Counseling I provide Holistic Counseling, Spiritual Life Coaching, Energy Healing, Meditation and Creativity Coaching. (I am passionate about helping blocked artists get unblocked.) You may also enjoy Longer Healing Sessions for deeper immersion experiences.

Becoming a Healer
Additionally, I offer personal and professional Training and Mentorship for Clinical and Mental Health Therapists and Counselors, as well as anyone who feels called to become a Spiritual Life Coach, Energy Healer, or Meditation Instructor.

Creative Offerings
Many people find my Healing Artwork and Books to be inspiring companions on their own journey of healing, growth, and spiritual awakening.

With Gratitude
Thank you for being here and for spending these few moments with me. Most of all, thank you for whatever it is that you bring into this world when you allow yourself to create. I hope we can continue to be believing mirrors for one another—seeing the Light, possibility, and creative spark within each other and encouraging it to come fully alive.

Love, 
Jennifer

​​Jennifer Michaels, M.A., RYT200
Founder of The Art of Love Counseling ⎹ Mooresville, NC
Holistic Counselor, Spiritual Life Coach, Energy Healer, Artist & Author of What is Love? My Question... God's Answer
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P.S. A Little Gift for You 🎁

When we allow ourselves to move into the flow, creativity can arise more naturally—so I hope these In the Flow Affirmations help you quiet the mind, open your heart, and make space for whatever is waiting to move through you.

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