Follow, Listen, Rate & Review (thank you!) in Apple Podcasts
Subscribe & Listen in Spotify
Subscribe & Watch clips on Youtube
OR listen in your favourite podcast app
Instantly unlock the growing library bonus content including weekly bonus episodes, guided meditations, worksheets and journal prompts and support Kate to keep making this show, become a Patreon
EPISODE SUMMARY
In this episode, host Kate Shepherd interviews Ange Miller, a prolific creator and teacher, about creativity and its importance in our lives. Ange and Kate share a deep conversation about the creative process, the things that hold us back, and the importance of reconnecting with nature, journaling, and meditating for activating what Ange calls the living treasure inside each of us.
SHOW NOTES
Ange talks about her role as an advocate for the creative identity of humanity, a calling that didn't exist when she was in school. She shares her experiences of forging a path in uncharted territory and the challenges that come with such a huge calling. Ange also discusses how the educational system often overlooks the unique gifts of individuals, leading to isolation and a feeling of not belonging.
Ange and Kate also explore what humans want more than anything else and how creativity is a living treasure inside us. Ange shares her work as a trailblazer in the alcohol ink craze and how she felt called to share all her techniques, even though her ego wanted her to keep them for herself. She also talks about how this experience activated a path for her to be an advocate for creativity.
Kate invites listeners to check out the Creative Genius Patreon membership, which offers a growing library of powerful resources designed to help individuals cultivate a deeper flow of creativity in their lives. Ange's message about the importance of creativity and reconnecting with nature, journaling, and meditating is a powerful reminder of the transformative power of creativity.
FULL TRANSCRIPT
Kate Shepherd: Hi. I'm really glad you're here and that you made time for yourself today for this, cuz I think this is one of those episodes that could actually change your life. Ang Miller and I are two people who live on opposite ends of the planet and yet share a vision for creativity and for our role and our relationship with creativity.
And I'm extremely excited to introduce you to her. But before I tell you a little bit more about Ang and the. It's winter here in Canada. I think it's really natural to feel sort of stuck and a little bit quieter in wintertime. But I have been feeling a little bit more stuck and a little bit more quiet lately than, than usual.
Uh, I haven't really known how to deal with it. I won't say what I've been going through is a full on depression, but it sure feels darn close. But, you know, we go in and out of these cycles in our life, right where we're with the ups and the downs, and I know enough now. to know some of the tools that I can turn to when I start to go through a, a thing like that, a spell like that.
And one of them is journaling. Journaling is something that Andrew really talks about a ton and I think had a huge impact on her own transformation and her own journey and her life, which we'll get into in the episode. But I got up really early one morning this week and I sat down at my journal and you know, I was feeling kind of lost, like I didn't even know what to write about.
You know, those days when you're not even sure. , what you're not sure about. And so I just started writing and, but a page in the tone of the writing changed. It was almost like something took over my hand and words that I'm about to share with you came out. The block you have is not a physical thing and it does not require years of work or any complicated process to resolve.
All you need to do is begin to listen really. Watch and really see. Look for all the coincidences moments of strange magic inexplicable gifts and write them down. Touch the earth with your bare skin, but only every day. Listen strain to hear what the thing that holds the silence of an early dawn. Sounds.
do the thing you love to do as often as you can at least once a day and run dear one. Run as fast as you can toward the thing that scares you the most. and as soon as I finished writing that down, I immediately knew I had to share that with you. There's a little bit more about that on the blog. There's actually a blog post where I've written that down for you and wrote a little bit more about journaling, and you can go and read that kate shepard creative.com and just head over to the blog and, and I share a mission in life, and that is to be catalysts for the emergence of creativity in people everywhere I see my work, not only helping people connect with the creativity that's inside them, but helping.
Create ways for creativity to connect with the people that it wants to move through. It's a two-way street. You know, we talk about the muse and the flow state and, and inspiration. And this isn't something that just happens to you. It's something that gives itself to you. And then it's your job to learn how to receive and translate and ultimately transmit.
The gift that it created through you and put it back out there in the world so that somebody else can be inspired and then go off and do the same thing, and then that cycle just sort of keeps repeating. So an, Angie and I have a really deep conversation about this process and about some of the things that hold us back, things that we've learned through our education system and through our social conditioning and just things we've developed in order to survive this crazy ordeal of being a human being with a body in this crazy.
I wanna share a review with you. This is from an artist whose work I've admired for years and we've never met. I don't know how she found out about the show, but reading these words from her made me squeal with delight, and so I wanted to share them with you. It was written by a woman named Jodi o and she writes a new favorite.
I'm a new listener and have quickly become a fan of Kate's interview style, along with her warm and soothing style as she coaxes insightful stories from her guests, artists, and creatives of all types. Should pull up a chair or grab a brush and listen while you relax or work. I promise you'll be a fan too.
Jodi, thank you so much. Words mean a lot to me, so thank you for taking a moment to share a review over an Apple podcast. And if you're listening to this and you have not left me a review yet, please go and do that right now. You have no idea the impact it has on me. It's so powerful for me to hear how this show reaches you.
So please take a moment to let me know. You can do that over an Apple podcast. Leave a review and some stars and make sure you're subscribed to the show while you're there. And I wanna excitedly invite you to treat yourself to a creative genius Paton membership. They start at $5 a month, Canadian. And I have to say, I've browsed quite a few patons over the years, and I can honestly say that at this price point, this is truly an amazing value for money.
When you sign up, you'll instantly get access. Growing library of powerful resources. This is all thoughtful content that I create drawing on my now over four decades of being someone with a very strong relationship to an understanding of what creativity is, how it works. , what it wants from us and how we can better access it and cultivate it.
Every other week I do private bonus episode. Sometimes it's an intimate talk and other times it's a powerful guided meditation or worksheet, and it's all designed to help you shift any feelings of stuckness that may be holding you back and learn how to cultivate a deeper flow of creativity in your life.
By the way, when you do all of that, it spills over to into every area of your life. It's quite amazing how creativity. The feedback from people who've already signed up to become creative genius patrons has been absolutely wonderful. And, uh, for the price of a latte each month, you'll be giving yourself so much more than you might have imagined, and you will be supporting me to keep creating the show.
I don't wanna bore with all the details, but a ton of work and my own personal resources are currently going into creating this show. And I do this out of a passion and deep love for creativity. And for you. Uh, but there's no one paying me to do this. It's just me. I don't have an outside sponsor and I've intentionally done that for the time being.
That little commercial that you hear in the middle of each episode is for my very own jewelry company, morning Moon, nature Jewelry. Thank you to everybody who has become a Paton who has written into, let me know how much you're loving your membership and to everybody else, I hope you'll give it a try, and I have a really strong feeling you would not regret.
You can go to patreon.com/creative Genius podcast, or of course, kate shepard creative.com. The episode you're about to hear is beautiful. and is an incredible human being. And I think even if you just listen to this episode with your body, you don't even have to listen with your ears. I think there's a sort of energetic transmission in the conversation between us that will have a powerful impact on you.
So you can just hit play and go about your day, listen to it while you're in the studio or while you're out for a walk, and you can listen to it over and over again. And I'm fairly sure you'd get something new from it every single time. Here's my conversation with Ang Miller.
Kate Shepherd: There was a part of me that wanted to call you Angie. where does that come from?
Ange Miller: You can, if you like, if that feels right.
I think on American Idol, there was an Angie Miller, at some stage. So I think my, my name's tangled up with that
Kate Shepherd: aha. Okay. So you're not that Angie Miller, but tell us about the Angie Miller that you are.
Ange Miller: Now that I'm 44, I'm starting to be a lot more excited about myself, getting to the point where I'm undoing a lot of those programs that were very confusing being a young adult, like in my twenties.
I couldn't really see myself , I needed a facade and I had to measure up. And that's a lot of work. I was obsessed with appearance and making sure that everything looked as though it was running right. But underneath there was just so much insecurity and chaos, directionless, second guessing.
It wasn't until probably my early thirties I started to take the ball by the horns and figure out who I really was. because I was always painting. That was like an anchor for me, I probably didn't know it at the time, but that was the truest, , part of me without knowing it, I, my ego kind of wrapped itself around it, but underneath all of that, there was something here that was, uniquely mine and it was unfurling, regardless of what was happening in my life.
Like I could always come back to paint.
Kate Shepherd: even in the growing up with the needing to have the facade and because I think a lot of people can find themselves in that, right? this is how we're supposed to look and this is how we're supposed to sound, and this is what we're supposed to do and the choices we're supposed to make so much of our life energy is directed into this weird project of becoming this thing we didn't even sign up for or want
Ange Miller: Yeah. What even is that and, and you think that everyone else knows what they're doing? I think a lot of this comes back to, the education system, to the idea that this is what's required of you and you've gotta reach this benchmark.
it seemed as though everyone else knew what they were doing, . And I would rather not risk that exposure that I have no idea what you're talking about. almost to the end of my schooling, and I still don't know how to write an essay, but I'm not gonna expose myself , because that's so embarrassing,
it's just this patch together, like the best that I can do. Uh, I'll be okay, you know, , but then deep down, I'm, I don't know what I'm standing on and that, that, that really breaks my heart with the education system.
Kate Shepherd: When you were in school, did you know that you wanted to be an artist was there like a little voice or was it really an invisible voice and you, it was just kind of silently guiding you?
Ange Miller: I don't think I ever said that I was going to be an artist. I was always drawing and painting. Our home life was just like that. We didn't have television for the most part. Growing up, I've got five brothers and one sister, and we were highly creative. We were just always drawing together, you know, often.
on the same sheet. My mother had a big roll of butcher's paper and she'd just roll the whole big kitchen table with this paper and we'd figure out like little Where's Waldo kind of scenarios and just fill the whole thing with little characters.
So, so drawing and that kind of expression was always vital. But I don't remember ever thinking I'm going to be an artist until possibly my time at uni, and I was doing a BA in visual arts, but all the way through primary and secondary, I think I would've said that I was going to be a teacher,
Kate Shepherd: To do the thing that you thought you should do, like to, uh, an acceptable path.
Ange Miller: I think cuz my mother was a teacher and I felt some kind of connection there with teaching. I was a natural mothering kind of person I was sort of older than a lot of my younger siblings and so I grew up in that role. the more that I felt excluded from.
the education system, I wasn't good enough. I wasn't cutting it. I wasn't, you know, I didn't know what I was going to be, at the end of school, all my friends seem to have this solid idea of I'm going to, into journalism or I'm gonna be a nurse or whatever. We'd have those career path advisory days with all the little booths and let you go and find out about what kind of profession you wanna, you know, what, what your career path would be.
And someone can give you all that information. I would just be there just completely bewildered. I don't even know what is there a booth for someone who doesn't know no
There were all these experiences that excluded me over and over and over again. So insidious.
The messaging of that is there's no place for you unless you take on some other kind of persona value. Uh, you don't fit and, and there's no one here to even recognize, uh, your unique value. So good luck,
Kate Shepherd: But also go figure it out. You don't fit You have to go figure this out. Like go be successful. Go, right. So then there's this pressure you're like, I don't know who or what I am or what my gift is, or how to be of service or, cuz I think there's a yearning in all of us to be ultimately like when it all comes down to it, at the end of the day, what we really want is to help each other to be useful, to be used, to be, to be seen, to be in community, to be like offering the little thing there's a longing to to do that, to give that, but there's also then no support.
How do you figure that Cuz easy when you are the one who feels that way to think I'm the only one who feels this way. I'm broken.
Ange Miller: That's even more isolating.
Kate Shepherd: then the facade that you're talking about comes in. I better learn how to create a good mask that makes me look like I'm not broken. At least I can pass for a normal person or pass for somebody who, who knows what's going
Ange Miller: That's right. If I can't measure up, I, I'll at least look like I do you might look like your serene above the water, but like there's these little legs just constantly paddling furiously. It's exhausting.
Kate Shepherd: there's this other intelligence inside of you, the one that's been there with you since the very beginning that's been whispering to you, "Here's what you're supposed to be doing", I believe it comes to you in these like ridiculous urges of like, I can't buy enough paint, or I can't buy enough wool, or I can't, you know, I'm always writing or I, whatever it is the thing that you can't stop thinking about.
those obsession type feelings, I believe are creativity speaking to you, trying to guide you, trying to get you, like, "I'm gonna tempt you with this idea that you can't get rid of"
Ange Miller: The beckoning come closer
Kate Shepherd: We shut that down. and then there's that yearning cuz that's the thing that we wanna be connected to, arguably the most out of, out of everything.
My great commitment or my big intention, or the thing that I wanna devote myself to over and over again, and I find myself devoting myself to it over and over again is supporting the emergence of creativity itself in people
Ange Miller: Yes,
Kate Shepherd: And I know. And so like, when I when I, when I like started to get to know you, I was like, oh, we're,
Ange Miller: we're on the same mission.
Kate Shepherd: we're doing the same
Ange Miller: How cool is that? I love it. You've been living a parallel life
Kate Shepherd: So
me for you what that's been like to, to to know that you've been like, you've It's a call. I feel like it's a calling. I feel like creativity itself has said, oh,
a channel that can hear me
Ange Miller: yeah, that's right.
Kate Shepherd: be used, and I'm gonna download a bunch of stuff over here, and then she's gonna go off and open, you know, spread all these little of light and that
Ange Miller: Yeah. Set a fire in the earth.
Kate Shepherd: it sounds really fun and romantic and It is.
It is. And it's also, for me, it's been a, a tremendous responsibility and huge exercise in trust for the universe. Like, I don't know where this is taking me. I don't, it doesn't make money to do this kind of thing. It, there's not, it's not a day job. This isn't a, but this a calling and I, and I can't, know that I can't say no to it.
I know, because I know what would happen to my life if I did. , I wanted to just ask you, like, what, what has your experience been of that, of, of having this sort of calling in your life?
Ange Miller: Back at those career path advisory days, if I'd seen a booth that said, advocate for the creative identity of humanity, , I wouldn't have known that that was for me
Kate Shepherd: Right,
Ange Miller: So it's this little by little, uh, immersion, I guess, into what this actually is.
And, and I, you know, it was a tug of war because. when I started teaching my techniques, I had obviously unique art, especially when the alcohol ink craze first started, you know, five, six years ago. Nobody was adding the things that I was adding, you know, it was very unique and I had a lot of people asking, what's this?
What's this? And, and I had to really discipline myself to reveal to say, this is what it is. And I felt this tug of war because I was special with this, you know, and I was getting a lot of engagement and, you know, wow. Like you feel like a God . When I started to realize what this can mean to somebody else in their life, I had to just keep letting it go and, and then I created a course that was telling everything, all the details right down to my mindset, which is probably the most powerful aspect of my creativity.
essentially giving whoever wanted it a leg up into this, I guess it's like a portal into creativity itself. And I just know, I just know, I just know that when you connect to creativity that it changes everything. That it's this buoyancy that, that keeps you. Buoyant, regardless of whatever is going on in your life, no matter what drama, no matter what horrible things might be happening, and, and life is painful, life hurts.
And like, who doesn't want something that's gonna keep them buoyant through that? Like, and it's, it's not that you are going to be ignorant of what's going on or dismissive, it's just that you've got that extra strength, that extra reminder that there's something under your feet, that it's gonna be all right.
You are who you are and nothing can take that from you. You are so valuable with the way that you see, the way that you decode things and your expression. You know, when I, I started to understand myself as a receiver, a processor and transmitter, and nobody is going to receive and process and transmit the way that I do.
I started coaching, so I'd work intensively one-on-one with women who were pretty much in the same boat had just been left feeling very confused as to their identity value.
What am I here for? I just, I can't do my life any longer like this, and I just need something. And something you said made me feel like you might have an answer. , you know, and we would work with using art, Yeah. Different modes of creativity through art making to, to start, to unpack, like pull out all the, all the packed up, stored up things inside, inside the processor because we, we haven't.
Learned how to process. We haven't learned the values of that internal processing system inside of us. And then, and then we're not confident with the transmitting. So it kind of gets all stacked up and all jumbled up together. And then you don't know where to start. Like you feel like you wanna do something.
This is so much here, I've just feel overwhelmed to begin . So that's, I guess that's become my absolute passion because I have seen women's lives just completely flip . Like they're not the same. When, you know, after that 12 weeks everything is opened up. There's this new grace, you know, just in their voice and, oh man, that blows my hair back.
I'm giving, getting shivers just talking about it.
You know? what a gift that I get to do that . oh, I never could have predicted. But this is the thing about creativity. If you are connected and strengthening that intuition a path will roll out before you, that is too wonderful for you, even to predict.
Now that I know what this means, like when, when you can, when you can change somebody's day or they're week or, or give them a tip that like helps something flip that they've been stuck on , that just makes me so excited cuz I know what it means for me.
You know? I know when somebody has said something to me that I, it's, you know, it really gets me thinking and it opens up a whole new paradigm that you can, ooh, I can just move over into this . This feels better. This is expansive
I can feel myself. I can feel parts of myself that I haven't been able to tap into and I am wonderful and this is wonderful and like what a life
And we need that kind of joy. I think just society in general
has been so deprived of joy.
Kind of joy that comes from knowing what you are and what your mission is.
You know, joy is fuel.
Kate Shepherd: , I understand what you're saying, there's like a pathway that you're on where, like where Youer you evolved into, into the position, into the role that you are now for people, you, that there wasn't, like, you didn't just wake up in the morning and go, I'm gonna do this and then go build it.
Like it kind of, you know, it happened. How did you find your way to creating things that would reach people? Like what, what was your discovery process like and how did you put it into a package that could help people?
Ange Miller: It was really difficult for me because of, the gaps in the education system for right brain people we're not taught how to organize ourselves. And I don't, I don't believe that that we are naturally disorganized. I just believe that we are naturally interested in something else other than organizing, simply because the organization aspect wasn't presented to us in a way that was supportive of what we love.
If it was introduced in that way, I would be the most organized person you could imagine. and I would have all those skills, but I don't, and I'm trying to implement because otherwise you just float away. it was a very bit by bit process and it's, it's not linear at all, so it's actually difficult to describe how it happened , but it was just bit by bit.
And I think a lot of it was to do with feedback and listening to feedback. And understanding the ripple that I am sending out because even just my painting is speaking in a way that is too deep for words. And when I understood that, when I understood that, that my artwork was speaking too deep for words, ah, that was such an exciting thought.
And, and sharing my process seemed to be like it was just starting a contagion, a beautiful contagion, , fill people with this, this inspiration,
I just wanted to create tools to help that process because it is a lot more simple than what we think. so many times we get overwhelmed and it's almost like we're intimidated by the overwhelm or intimidated by, just the right way to start.
I don't know if I'm doing it the right way. See the education system thing coming back again. No. You just need to tap into your intuition. And I think that's been the most wonderful part of what I've discovered in teaching is helping. women connect to their own intuition and strengthen that understanding.
The simple, very simple actions done consistently that will enable that connection and enable that, that beautiful intuitive part of them,
Kate Shepherd: So, I wanna dig into this a little bit with you because it is in everybody and there's this like huge limiting belief that we hold culturally that intuition is just for certain people. And in fact it might be a little bit woowoo and not, I mean, I think we're kind of emerging a little bit more out of that dark place, but a lot of people don't trust their own intuition and don't, and it, I feel like it is the most important navigation system in our
to us.
So how do you work with somebody who, who's got a lot of stuff jammed up around that system, inside them? Like what are the ways that you use to teach people to access their intuition?
Ange Miller: I think simple activities like waking up before dawn and coming and watching the sky change looking at stars. Does lying on the earth like right with your face on the earth and smelling it because these things are all about connection to the natural rhythms that are already there. from my experience, my intuitive muscle seems to be linked to all of that.
So the more that you can relax into the natural systems, nature's so full of wisdom. So just going onto the earth and just smelling it , like, how simple is that? Anyone can do that, but just stay there until you don't feel like an idiot. And, and notice what comes up.
You know, how do I feel? What do I remember? A lot of it is to do with putting yourself into situations and noticing what memories and thoughts and feelings come up. So using experiences, I guess in the opposite way to how experiences hurt me in school This negative messaging what you have intrinsically isn't valuable. We don't care about it. We don't even, we're not even gonna talk about it
you need to be like this and we're gonna measure you this way, with these values. that messaging really hurt me, and I didn't even understand at the time that I was being hurt like that
Kate Shepherd: I wanted to go back to something that you said a minute ago about how, we've got this culture , that causes us to constrict around ourselves so much in terms of like, if we were, if creativity was a fire hose in us and it was like just wanting to come pouring out of us in our lives. The culture that we live in like this constricting thing and it ends up, like you said, all jammed up inside and we don't know how to receive decode and transmit, which I love. I love those, that kind of visual image, cuz that is, to me, I feel exactly that that's what's happening. what do you think are some really practical things that somebody who's resonating with that and feeling like, yeah, I I am really jammed up
what are some good broad first steps that somebody might take to, to. unjam themselves. And I wanna also like mindfully, cuz I think somebody listening to this might be tempted to be like, okay, I'm gonna go and like, trigger some bad memories and you can actually, that, that, I don't wanna say it's dangerous, but you have to be really careful when you're, when you're playing with these parts of yourself, especially as you begin to open, right?
Because there's tender protected parts that are allowing you to see them. And it's, it's really important that that's done mindfully.
Ange Miller: yeah. You need, need conditions of, of love. Like that's, that's the biggest thing that I've noticed. Love is the opposite of judgment, opposite of fear. So it's, it's really only in love that anyone is safe to delve into these spaces and, and you can extend that love to yourself. And I do believe that when you do extend that love that, that it starts a cycle pumping through.
Where I started was journaling every day and just pouring out all the memories, thoughts, you know, my journals were just full of tears because all the, the collateral damage of insecurity over, you know, the course of 20 years, there's a lot of hurtful stuff from relationships and things can really pile up.
So there's a lot to sift through and sort through and understand. it took a lot to extend that grace to myself to, to coax all of this stuff out. And it did take, oh, months and months of journaling before my daily entries were less whiny and more reflective and grateful, but I did see a big shift that when you do put pen to paper like that, with spontaneity, that's, that's the thing. You're not, you're not measuring up here. This is just a map, like you're trying to make a map to figure out where you are and, and how to move to the next,
Kate Shepherd: I am a big advocate of journaling and thinking about the person right now who's listening to this going, oh, I've heard about, know, journaling. And I've dabbled with it a little bit here and there, but I've never really I don't think I've maybe really done it. and I don't know how, like, for that person who just has no, you know, are you sitting down and, you know, dear diary today, I, are you sitting down with a, a prompt of go back to when I was 10 years old?
Or like, what's a good way kind of dive into journaling for somebody who hasn't really ever done it
Ange Miller: Oh, I love your questions, . You've got great questions. So, journaling for me was about connecting with what is right now, what's here. How am I feeling? I, I do this thing where I just, it's almost like with my eyes shut, I'll just sink as deep as I can, go inside of myself and have a look down. , does it feel yucky?
what's down there? And, and I just start to unpack the actual physical feelings or the, you know, the gut kind of feelings first. any observations about myself in my life? In the days am I feeling frazzled and like I'm not keeping up, or, you know, and I just pour out whatever is you just start where you are.
You don't, like, this is the thing too, where we kind of feel like we've got to create Like, oh, how do you do this again? What's the right way? How do I start it? Oh, have I, I, failed to include something important , you know, do I need a prompt? And I guess prompts can be useful if you are really disconnected,
I just show up.
I taught at university for 10 years. I had no idea what I was gonna do, so I just downward spiraled into unemployment addiction. Like for, you know, two, three years. I was just really stuck. And then, uh, my lecturer said, Hey Ang, why don't you come into my, painting class and help me
Because he knew, like that was one of my things that I was good at, was observational painting. And so there'd be a class of 20 plus students all trying to render something realistically. So I would come in and help them, like really see it and really figure out how to render that. And it wasn't long before he would say, This Andy Collis, I'm gonna say his name because he's just a legend
He said, why don't you take a class ? I was like, oh, okay. So I started taking classes and then it wasn't long before I was the lecturer of that class, and it was just the most wonderful. I can't tell you how providential that was, because that was when I started to understand, oh my gosh. people don't know how amazing their creativity is.
They don't know that if you just show up and just lean in, that it will meet them where they're at. They don't know this. it, it just like supercharged my sense of. Of creativity and, and, and the way that it is all encompassing with every aspect of our life.
It rolls everything together and it's, it, it kind of cuts out a lot of this context switching and we get to learn lessons from this over here and applied over there and the whole thing's just supercharged, you know? And because I had these students week, I would be thinking through the week, oh, like now this, now they need to know that too.
And, and I would have all this stuff just bubble out of me to them at the beginning of the class, to the point where they would say, don't be late, or You're gonna miss the meaning of life,
But we just had so much fun I felt like I was really shepherding them, you know? I really loved them and I noticed every semester as I had a new intake of students, I just had so much love for them right from the start, , so our, our art class wasn't just art class, it was life class
And I didn't mean it to be that way, but it just was,
Kate Shepherd: when you were speaking just now, what was coming through me was feeling that that there are people listening. I can feel them. There are people listening to this right now going, okay, when she said that people don't know how amazing they are, could could she have been including me? Like, am I amazing?
Ange Miller: Oh, yes,
Kate Shepherd: No,
everybody who's having that, almost everybody is. Who's having that thought right now is going, well, she didn't mean me. she means everybody else, but not like we do that to ourselves. Right?
Ange Miller: Mm.
Kate Shepherd: I feel called right now in this moment to say, if you're having that thought, that's your sign that it is you. The, the part of question is the part of you that's trying to get your attention. you talk about it as like activation. People being, they have this amazing treasure, I think this language, this, this living treasure that's inside of us and it's ready to be activated.
can you talk a little bit about that process, about the, the point in someone's life where they activate and where these things start to come through and what somebody might expect? Cuz it's not all unicorns and flowers and sparkles can be a really challenging and beautiful, but, Can you talk
a little bit for, for people listening to this?
Ange Miller: Yeah. I think when you've had enough of suffering for the lack of it, then that might be an indicator that it's time to just give that idea that there might be seeds inside of me. Well, what, what can I do to check if there are seeds? Because that's, that's how it feels to me too, the activation of a seed.
But, but for something to grow, it is conditional. there needs to be the right conditions. There's gotta be the soil and the water and the sunshine and the, the air. we can give this to ourselves. when you understand the simple ways to set that up for yourself, the simple way to extend love to yourself, cuz quite often that's the block.
that we don't love ourselves, that we don't understand that, that the way we need to relate to ourself is the way that you would relate to a small child and, and really harness that critical talk. think this is where journaling's powerful too. When you notice the thoughts, cuz thoughts are seeds and a lot of those thoughts you don't want growing in your life, So figuring out, well, I guess understanding that no matter whether you feel like you are a creative person or not, we all have a ripple out. We, we can't help it. Nobody is an island, you know? And I hear people saying, well, as long as it's not hurting anybody, they can do whatever they want.
Well, you can't actually because there's a ripple out. And, and even if you are isolated doing something that's destructive, I believe that like, that affects the earth. It affects the, the energy that our energy field. And there's so much that we don't understand that's going on energetically, that if we did, we would have different values.
I just love people . So if you are a human and you have ears and you are listening, then that's, that's you. That's you. With the seeds. With the treasure. And I don't think that treasure shuts up
Kate Shepherd: very few things that I know, but I do know that if you're breathing the same intelligence that's responsible for your automatic breathing without thinking about it, is not separate from the intelligence that wants to move your hand to create a beautiful painting
or
or help an aged parent like that intelligence.
Ange Miller: That's it.
Kate Shepherd: the intelligence that's animating the entire universe if you're breathing and arguably maybe even when you're not breathing anymore. I don't know. I can't speak to that. Part, haven't been there yet, but I know that if you're breathing, you still have, you are still communion with and being guided by and have access to that intelligence.
And there, there is, there is a, a moment when you become aware of that as a, like a conscious thought. You realize, oh, I'm being moved by an intelligence that's much bigger than me. And it's what you're talking about when you say you can sort of lean back and it can hold you become aware of that. And I, I guess what I wanted to just point to again is that there can be a moment in your life or a series of moments, and it can look like a couple years or whatever it is, or happens over and over again. but that can be challenging. Like it, it can cause you to have to there, you know, and I think about even with your analogy with the seed, even when the seed is opening, like the shell of the seed to be destroyed.
In order for the sprout to come out of the shells, there is a certain amount of destruction even right there in the birth of the new thing.
Ange Miller: Yeah.
Kate Shepherd: so for people who that path right now of I think it can be really helpful to help them say, okay, and here's what to expect. Like, it's not all gonna be, now you've found your voice and you trust everything in the universe and everything's gonna fall into place and
Ange Miller: And you are gonna have this amazing ripple out and everything. Yeah. True.
Kate Shepherd: Like there's
Ange Miller: Yeah. No.
Kate Shepherd: we warn you about? Not warn you, but what can we give you a little more a heads up about so that when it happens, uh, you're not panick.
Ange Miller: So much of suffering for us if we don't know how to see it or think about it, if we don't have enough, uh, underlying meaning in our lives in order to decode it or, or grow from.
Then we just get caught up in the pain of it and stuck. I honestly have to say that probably my, biggest accomplishment in my life is learning how to suffer well,
Kate Shepherd: It's a big one.
Ange Miller: Not resisting, uh, conditioning myself to walk towards what I'm scared of, , and, and learning that when something is hurting me, instead of being in that reactionary part of myself, it's like I steal myself away out of this, this turbulent ocean of emotion and energy up onto, the rock , there'll be like a lighthouse or something and I'm standing up there watching it all and thinking, Hmm, what does this mean? Look how it's affecting me. Where did this come from? How does it feel? You know, all of those kinds of it, it's very laughing, like, can you imagine a parent pulling a child out of a situation and just helping them ground?
It's like that. But the more that I practiced that, the more I started to understand the fractals, the patterns in my life and the patterns that I observed in, in humanity and other people and oh, this is where everything started to get really exciting. Cuz I think that's why I suffered so much in school as well, because everything is fragment.
it's all fragmented in our, in our society. It's all boxed, you know, all separated. This is this and that's that. context switching takes a lot of time and energy. But really, in reality, everything is in everything. And we've just made it hard for ourselves, dividing it all , bit by bit over the years. I can just see all the connections between everything now and it's a lot more connected than what we think, than what we are, we're aware of when we understand that too.
It's like you can do something little here. Art is a great example. If you are working intuitively, with art making here, it's going to affect the way that you relate to people over here. Like that is huge. That's powerful. And how efficient?
Kate Shepherd: Yeah.
Ange Miller: like, I'm not dissing therapy. I think there's a great place for it, but, but you can give yourself a lot more therapy just with simple showing up.
And if you just know how to think about it, how to set up your mind, which values to assign to this experience, then you can be doing a lot more
Kate Shepherd: Well, it's
to the gym. I mean, you could hire a personal trainer go and see them, you know, once every couple weeks, but if you're not working out at the gym in between, it's gonna take you a lot longer to reach your goals. You know,
the same way. And when you're, you know, you of course go to a therapist and work through some of these things and have a nice container and, but all of these things you can do in between are the actual moments that build up, that make up the,
Ange Miller: absolutely. And make it yours. Make it yours like you own it. And, and I think that responsibility and that commitment is a huge part of where you get to as well.
Kate Shepherd: I'm just trying to sort of imagine like a day in Ange's world. what do you, so you do, you get up at four o'clock in the morning and go and put your cheek on the grass in your front yard every day. because you mentioned, and so it's part, again, it's two part question. mentioned earlier, and I wanted to go back to this, about your mindset being of the most powerful tools that you have or things that has changed your life. So I wanna ask you to tell us a little bit about that, but connected to that I think is the, sort of the context of that, which is your daily practices.
what are the things you do to keep
Ange Miller: Hmm.
Kate Shepherd: healthy and connected and growing every day?
Ange Miller: Breathing Well, , that's a big one. I'm very intuitive in the way that I approach my days, but I also understand that if I don't have structure, I will just float away . So I try to, I try to have just some intuitive time.
I do wake up fairly early, probably not 4:00 AM anymore, but when I was, when I was doing a lot of the processing, I would wake up at four. every morning because my children would wake up, you know, around 6 37. And I knew that I needed a good amount of time to really relax into that that mode, without thinking, oh, it's half an hour and I've only got half an hour left,
So I, even though I was so tired,
, it was like I was giving birth . I was working through stuff. I was doing a lot of praying and listening and, and I was hearing very powerful things that I would write. sometimes the things that I would hear weren't actually clear to me until later in the day, like, this is how I know it was not me.
And later in the day, there would be some situation that would happen where I'd just think, oh my God, if I didn't hear that thing this morning, I would've reacted completely differently and flipped the boat, you know? I, I learned that this was, this was a really important part of me moving through, like navigating what I was going through.
And, yeah, it was so helpful. , but just journaling, journaling, journaling. Just writing out, like showing up and writing and connecting and often letting, like connecting with that intelligence and, and letting it speak through me. Cuz sometimes I would read back on my words and just think like, whoa,
that's a, that's, that's not me.
That's too amazing. . So, yeah, I was, I was doing that a lot.
Kate Shepherd: what's your practice now?
Ange Miller: these days. I'm a lot quicker. Like I, I wake up and I'm already there. I'm already there and I just, it's almost like I, I just spend time. Like I, I'd imagine, um, when you have like your lover, your husband or whatever, and, and you just wake up together and you just lying in bed together and just chatting, it feels like that , like, I, I just wake up and I'm just there and I just spend that time.
Sometimes I'll be, I, I'll feel drawn to listen to something or look somebody up who I often listen to, like, I don't know, podcast or I don't know, , it's very intuitive,
I dunno how to really describe it. I guess it's a time of, centering myself for the day and, and just having a little bit of a, a time of discovery.
like, I might wander into my studio and just move some paint around as well. Not, not like actually painting anything in particular. Just coming in and connecting, just connecting, just reminding my body that there's something inside that it can lean on. , think that's the biggest part of it, is reassuring myself, recentering.
Sometimes I do go out onto the, you know, barefoot on the grass and do my breathing and stretching, like facing the dawn and just gratitude, practicing gratitude and gratitude is not something that you just tell yourself that's, that's not helpful. Gratitude. It's, it's really settling into, okay, what's going on?
What's happened? What have I learned? What difference does that make? Oh my goodness. , I'm so grateful for that , you know, and then really letting the waves of gratitude minister to every cell of your body. I think that's where we kind of cut ourselves short. Like I, I once had a mentor, this is a couple of years ago, he would guide me through these, very, you know, using, using your imagination to kind of go into your soul scape, and sort things out.
And whenever I discovered something beautiful, he would say, no, stay there. Stay there. What else can you see? Like, let all of that wash over your body. And so I learned to do that. And there's so much more. This is abundance. There's so much more available for us. And when you, when you research your, the cells of your body, it's like we have this little team that we are often not practicing good leadership with.
Like if you think of all the cells of your body as being willing, team members who are all like, right, yeah, let's, let's do this. And then you are like, oh, nothing works out for me. Oh, this is terrible. Oh, I have to do this thing again. Like, what is the cells of your body gonna do with that ? So it's like, it's like rallying the troops, you know, when we wake up first thing in the morning, it's like, come on guys, there's something here for us.
Kate Shepherd: , I can't believe we're already at the end of our hour. I feel like we're 10 minutes in, but I wanna talk to you about mindset. I wanna, I want you to give us the sort of overview like, what is it you think that you do differently that yields such different results for you in your life could be helpful for somebody else who's like, oh, I see that I have a mindset that isn't the best.
What do I wanna change it? What's another alternative? Because I think that's the thing with mindset is you have it and you don't even know what else
you because you, you're looking through this
And so to hear, well, here's how I look at it and here's what my mindset looks like, I think can be helpful for people to realize, oh, there's another option for how to see the world.
Ange Miller: Absolutely. it, it just takes first at checking the landscape, the landscape of your mind. So what kind of thoughts are coming up for you during the day? Are they thoughts that are making you feel like you are out of control, like insecure, um, judgmental thoughts and, and, you know, unhelpful judgment.
If, if you don't feel like there's any way to go from this. , the unhelpful, destructive judgment just stops you in your tracks and pushes you down. You know, good judgment will say, this is what's going on, and if you just tweak this, like you'll, you'll fly. You know, that's, that's helpful judgment . But most of us have a problem with unhelpful judgment and that's why we get so stuck and lose connection with ourselves.
So, just keeping track, and this is why journaling is good too, mapping those thoughts that keep coming up. Cuz lots of times the moment that you shed light on whatever thought keeps popping into your head, it loses power over you. So the, the thought can often turn into an, an action or a word that isn't really authentically you, it's just you acting in a way that's panicked and freaking out, and that's not going to give you results in your life that.
Are favorable , and like you just don't want to do it. So figuring out the thoughts that are responsible for words and actions that are happening and just very lovingly shining a light on that. And then if you notice a thought that's coming up that is destructive, that's judgmental, like what's the opposite of that thought?
Cuz that's probably closer to the truth. So relandscaping the thought life and, and feeding yourself truth. And it might feel like, it might feel a little bit clinical at first, like it's not actually happening. But words are so powerful. Words are powerful. And if you say it over and over again, like me conditioning myself to, um, to move despite fear.
Like when I am afraid, I take a step closer. When I am afraid, I take a step closer. When I am afraid, I take a step closer. Like just saying it over and over again. And before you know it, there's this belief that grows inside of you. Like, yes, this is what I do, and I see what happens when I move this way.
There are breakthroughs coming for us, breakthrough after breakthrough, and I think we are made for that
Figuring out the thought life responsible for the actions and words that are happening. That's what I'd say is the most important thing.
Kate Shepherd: When kind of realize that your life that you were living before wasn't fulfilling.
There was something more for you and the seed is now opened and you've got, you know, you're doing some of this work and then you, and then you emerge into this new place. of course, you find your people, you will find your people.
there's a,
Ange Miller: Yep.
Kate Shepherd: little while where you don't have them yet. And,
Ange Miller: Mm-hmm.
Kate Shepherd: for, for the person listening to this going, I feel like I'm, I'm, I'm straddling two worlds.
I'm leaving my old world behind and I'm about to step into this new world or have already stepped into this world or am being pushed into this world. Whatever it is for you. I just wanna remind everybody that there is your be your people are coming and it can,
Ange Miller: Yes.
Kate Shepherd: lonely, but I think there's a wisdom in that loneliness because some of,
you're doing right now, you can't do with all your friends around you.
You gotta kind of be alone for a,
Ange Miller: absolutely. Abs. I love that you said that. What a beautiful note.
I, I think, oh, I know . it's actually a very sacred time of becoming you. For you, you know, because I understand now, just in hindsight, that all the times that I felt especially lonely, and craved the validation of somebody else to, to talk to in this way or to even just to see me, that I, I actually didn't need that the way that I thought that I did, and the part of me that thought that I needed, that needed to be attended to with love, like this was my becoming and, and it, it was right for me to, to be isolated for that, for that time because I needed to be very aware.
Of the strength that I had alone and, and the, the conviction that I had, it, it's nobody else's conviction. And it's, it's not right to impose that onto anyone else or to need anything from anyone else. , know, I can actually just connect and channel this and that's my, that's my best work.
Kate Shepherd: The tendency to reach out and is almost like a crutch, right? It's like the part of you that
Ange Miller: Yeah,
Kate Shepherd: grow or is too scared to grow,
Ange Miller: exactly. It will stop you from growing.
Kate Shepherd: what you're, who you're really waiting for is you. That's the, that's
Ange Miller: Yes.
Kate Shepherd: actually really waiting for in those moments.
Ange Miller: That reminds me of one of my favorite quotes that says, um, let me fall. If I must fall, the one I am becoming will catch me.
Kate Shepherd: I want you
us where people can come to find more about you and, uh, online or what, where do, where, what's the best place for people to go?
Ange Miller: My website is ange miller art.com, but I'm on Instagram, I'm on Facebook. I'm trying to be a bit more on Pinterest, .
Kate Shepherd: coaching? Do you still do that kind of work with people or
Ange Miller: yeah,
Kate Shepherd: So tell us a little bit about how people
Ange Miller: okay. So on, on my website, you'll see everything there. But I do coaching, I have online courses. I even have online courses that are kind of my coaching, but packaged as a course in case that's not something that, you know, it's sometimes a bit of a stretch to get one-to-one coaching.
So I do have, uh, courses as well. I've made a lot, I've made a lot of content , so just, I, I also have a free class. If you wanted to just start, dip your toe in there and get a feel for it. I've got a free class
Kate Shepherd: At the end of every episode, I ask everybody the billboard question,
for the new listener who hasn't heard the show before and who is like, what's the billboard question? If you had a billboard that knew was gonna reach every person who ever sort of had this yearning to access this intelligence yearning to be creative, yearning to open and activate and be connected with themselves and love themselves, and love creativity, and just be in the world the way that they were born to be meant to be, but they, just because of all the conditioning we've talked about, because of all the crunched up stuff that happens to us as people just living lives in this world, they don't believe that it's available to them, but this, they were gonna read this billboard and your message was gonna go right into their heart and they'd hear you. what would you put on it for them to hear?
Ange Miller: It's by David Bentley Heart and it's wisdom is the recovery of innocence at the far end of experience.
there's a lot of hope there because you can recover your innocence.
That's often what we grieve,
that lost innocence, but it, it can be made into something new. And be all the more beautiful for having been so sad.
Kate Shepherd: Thank you for coming today.
Ange Miller: you for having me. What a treat.
Kate Shepherd: I'm, I'm so happy that I,
Ange Miller: I wanna come and visit you.
Kate Shepherd: we'll get, I was gonna say, I'm gonna get your phone number and we're gonna text each other and we're gonna figure that out because
Ange Miller: Yes, because we're sisters.
Kate Shepherd: sisters. Thank you.
Ange Miller: Thank you, Kate. Appreciate you.
That was an absolutely powerful episode on every level. If you ask me. Ang has this incredible relationship to intuition and trust for the universe. You know, we didn't get into it, but she's been through a lot in this life, like all of us, and yet there's this unwavering trust in her that the universe has her back.
She can tune in and listen and be. A great deal of that. Trust is something that she cultivated herself through her journal practice. So if you take one thing from this episode today, I hope it's a spark of inspiration around starting your own journal practice, cuz it's one of those things we hear about in all the self-help books and all the inspirational speakers and all the manifestors and you know, across all kinds of different coaching and disciplines around life improvement, self-improvement.
We hear the power of journaling and I think we resist it and I think we resist. because the part of us that resists it is the part of us that actually wants us to stay small and to stay stuck and to not explore some of these bigger, miraculous things that are actually available to us. If you start a journal practice or if your journal practice has been reinvigorated by something you heard and say today, please let her.
and let me know. You can do that by tagging us in one of the comments on Instagram at Kate Shepherd Creative or at ang Miller. Art. We'd really love to hear about your experience with journaling, and again, a special thank you to Ang for joining us today. It was and continues to be an honor to know you.
Thank you for everything you bring to women everywhere, specifically women who are trying to get back in touch with this deeper part of ourselves. We really appreciate.
Leave a comment