28 May Time to #ChooseYou: Helping Creative Women Help Themselves, from Jane Ammon, of Jane Ammon Photography
When I launched my photography business, I dove head first into being a photographer, a business owner, a social media marketer, and an entrepreneur. I had this idea of what success was and it governed my life, my work and my head. I spent years trying to please everyone and anyone that would pay attention. My work, my business, and my life was all about taking care of everyone else. And I kept ignoring the most important part of my art and my heart: me.
Yes. Me. When I realized this, I began my creative journey back to what matters most the person who makes it all happen: Jane.
I hired a business coach, learned how to market based on the value of what I uniquely have to offer and started to see a light at the end of the tunnel of what I wanted my business and my work to be.
Yet, I still did not feel like I was completely happy. Something was missing.
Then, I broke my arm. In a quick moment, I broke my humerus bone into 3 pieces, had surgery, and was out of commission for 3 months. The gift of stillness forced me to listen for that missing piece. It was during that time of recovery that I rediscovered the power of my creativity.
Creativity has been a part of my life for as long as I can remember. From coloring in a coloring book, to knitting scarves, to redecorating my homes, to running a 5k, to writing poetry, to baking with my children, painting with watercolors and building with Legos … being creative has always been a source of soul satisfying, brain centering, time for myself.
I figured out quickly, as I sat on my couch recovering, mentally and physically, it was time for me to choose myself.
As I dug back into creative time for myself, I felt free again, I gave myself permission to be an artist putting me back into what I love, because you know what?
I matter.
As I began to share what I was going through I quickly realized I wasn’t alone in my need to take time for me and do something creative as a way to reconnect with myself. The more I shared, the more I recognized the universal need for all women to remember what matters: themselves. I launched #chooseyou soon after my initial recovery phase was over.
Now, it is my honor to help women in two ways:
I work with creative women as a 1:1 coach helping them choose themselves and make their businesses point back to them. I also work with busy women (mostly moms) and guide them through an online course where they make time each week to be creative, while reflecting on the things they value the most in the world.
Here’s what I need you to know: If you do not take the time to pour into yourself, love yourself, honor yourself, and give yourself permission to be YOU, how will you ever have room
in your beautiful, creative soul to do the same for others?
It’s time to choose you.
Thank you, Jane, for sharing a part of yourself and your journey with us! We just love the #chooseyou movement.
For more from Jane, please visit her website and blog, Like her Facebook page, and follow Jane on Instagram.
For more from #chooseyou, and to find out about joining Jane’s courses, Like Choose You, on Facebook.
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