Hello there,
It's been a wee while (like two years) since I did a hello/introduction blog so I thought, to allow new arrivals to get to know me and, to bring regulars up to speed on what's happened in that time and share some of the more recent stuff I'm working on and planning to bring to life.
So....either way....hello! I'm Amanda and my career path, passions and life in general have very much been shaped by my diagnosis with fibromyalgia, a chronic health condition which causes pain, fatigue and quite a few other symptoms, in May 2009.
Through learning to live with that diagnosis I've become self employed, originally as an artist/crafter but now as a wellbeing and creativity coach (which we'll come back to in a bit). I've become passionate about raising awareness of fibromyalgia and regularly volunteer and fundraise for fibromyalgia action UK (including a zipline over the river clyde which took me WAY out of my comfort zone....and turned out to be awesome....I'm sure there's a clever lesson there about the good stuff waiting outside your comfort zone!) I'm also still keen on the art/crafting for therapeutic, recreational and occasionally sales purposes (when I remember to put stuff on my sales places and actually show people!)
So as I said I began my self employment journey after having to give up on a deeply loved career in care due to the demands of the care assistant job not being compatible with the demands of fibromyalgia. I'd always had a "one day" dream of my creative hobby becoming what I actually did for work but initially spent a couple of years in denial/fear of that step until I had the light bulb moment and decided to go for it.
I was fortunate enough to have encouragement from a wonderful disability employment advisor at the job centre and gained access to a basic programme that got me started as a full time creative.
I plodded on for a few years from there loving what I was doing, working round my health needs going to craft fairs and occasionally hosting an angel art workshop(A creative workshop that tied in beautiful with my growing interest in all things spiritual) but with no real plans for growth or expansion
However the more I was realising the therapeutic benefits I was finding in creativity the more I found myself drifting down a path of wanting to share that with people so I did an introductory art therapy course which I really enjoyed. I almost went down the university/degree path after passing that first course but something stopped me.
I had enjoyed the studying though (and still do actually ) and over the years have added a pain management practitioner diploma, a meditation and mindfulness practitioner certificate, a therapeutic art coaching certificate and a social media marketing diploma (yes I agree that is a weird one amongst everything else!) amongst quite a few others.
The study and learning path, alongside the personal development and discovery happening thanks to being an outpatient at the NHS centre for integrative care saw me come to grips with actually managing my fibromyalgia and begin to develop new passions and new career paths.
Realising that many people who want to access the wellbeing tools that had helped me were unable to I set about getting the qualifications that would allow me to offer accessible and affordable services.
First up in my plans was a meditation and mindfulness group so I headed to get some business advice and see if there was any funding options available to me. There wasn't and, as my "numbers" weren't to the advisors liking (failing to understand that the why behind a business idea is often about SO much more than the financial side) she didn't see any positives in my going forward.
Fortunately I decided not to take her advice and ploughed ahead, first using a local church hall and then using the then Wevolution hub where I was starting to make connections and also friendships that would be crucial to the next steps on the path.
These shared spaces were lovely but I began to wish for and want somewhere of my own, somewhere I didn't have to carry bags to or worry about who needed the room after or what was happening next door.
Having no savings/finance behind me and with a trust that if I found somewhere it'd work out I began looking around paisley for a space of my own and eventually found a space that when I saw it, despite it being the spare office of a building company, just felt right. Knowing finance was an issue I asked my prospective landlord "what is the least amount of money you'll take for rent?" (Still not sure where that brassneck came from!!! ) He didn't send me off in disgust....instead he gave me a figure and off I went to try and figure it out.
After that meeting I set up further meetings with Wevolution , including their at the time business advisor Julie Hall who didn't discourage my lack of ability around the figures/numbers side of business and instead supported me in finding ways to make it work for me so I could put my pitch for funding together.
The pitch went well, the funding from Wevolution was secured and the butterfly room was born opening on the 1st July 2019 allowing me my own space to be of service to individual clients and run groups/workshops from.
All was fab and fine for 8 months, and then the pandemic hit and the first lockdown began which meant ALL my work went away very quickly!
After an initial panic I opted to work on embracing my fears of technology and being on camera and, as many businesses and organisations did, set about offering video calls and hosting a weekly Facebook live (which is still running to this day). I won't say it was easy from day one but once I got it in my head that it was about connection and authenticity over perfection it was SO much easier and I've since gone on to set up aYouTube AND tiktok accounts
Another change that came about during the pandemic was a change of premises, although it was technically a return to a previous space. Sadly the pandemic hit Wevolution's funding and they had to let go the hub that had been a creative gathering place for so many and a place of ideas and connections being grown.
One of the connections I'd made there was with a very talented textile/embroidery artist Catherine McAtier and she, very courageously at a time of so much uncertainty, made the decision to take on the space and create a creative hub. She very kindly invited me to move in as a resident business.....which I thought about for all of 2 seconds! The prospects of having the town centre space I had initially dreamed of AND the thought of having Catherine and other creatives around to bounce ideas off of, to collaborate with, or simply to share a cuppa and a chat break with was just amazing and my very understanding initial landlords released me from my tenancy with their good wishes (and I'm delighted that their business survived the pandemic too!)
That was almost 3 years ago now...what if will be 3 this summer and the butterfly room will be 4 and so much has happened in that time both for myself, for Catherine and for the family of makers, creatives and like minded souls who pass through the doors of what if.
In terms of myself there's been festivals organised, a gratitude journal and (with some accountability back up from Catherine and others) a book to come in February that will fill in the very few blanks that I've left out of this blog.... there is SO much progress and growth that had been made that I feel very far removed, in positive ways, from the crafter/artist who took her first faltering steps into self employment.
If you have played any part, no matter how small, in that journey I thank you from the bottom of my heart.....and I hope that this story will encourage you to find and spread your own wings to follow your dreams.