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Ep 17: Aligning Passion with Purpose: A Conversation with Artist Lionel Daniels
23 Plays3 days ago
In this episode, artist Lionel Daniels reveals the transformative power of aligning passion with purpose. By courageously leaving a six-figure job to pursue art full-time, he demonstrates how trusting one's intuition and maintaining a deep spiritual connection can unlock extraordinary personal and professional fulfillment. Through resilience, prayer, and a commitment to personal growth, Lionel shows listeners that true success comes from embracing authenticity and staying true to one's deepest calling.
Intro and Outro Music Credit: Savage by Beat Mekanik, Free Music Archive, License type: CC BY
Please visit: www.autumnswain.com
Contact: [email protected]
IG: @drautumnswain
FB: Autumn Alena Swain
Guest info:
IG: @LionelDanielsArt (Personal), @thestudioshow_ (art show)
Youtube: @thestudioshow_2019
Website: www.lioneld.com
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Transcript
Introduction to Align Living Podcast
00:00:05
Speaker
Hello there. I'm Dr. Autumn, leadership consultant, wellness coach, author, and I'm incredibly grateful to be your host of the all Align Living Podcast.
00:00:19
Speaker
I'm here to equip you with the tools, inspiration, and practical tips necessary to lead a life of wholeness and pursue greater Shalom in your life and that of your families, teams, and communities.
00:00:34
Speaker
My mission
Meet Lionel Daniels: Educator and Artist
00:00:35
Speaker
is to empower you to lead from a place of holistic wellbeing. It's time to say peace out to the fatigue, fog, and frustration of living in a place that lacks abundant wellbeing. Join me as we embark on a comprehensive exploration of spiritual, physical,
00:00:57
Speaker
mental, emotional, social, and economic well-being all within the comforting embrace of one podcast.
00:01:11
Speaker
So in today's episode, I get to interview Lionel Daniels and he is an educator and an artist, um but incredibly talented. When I started to hear a little bit more about his story, I knew I knew i need to have him on the show. ah So a little bit about what you guys can expect today. um Why an artist on my podcast about a line living? Well,
00:01:31
Speaker
um As I've mentioned in previous previous episodes, um this pursuit of aligned living is more than just health and wellness goals, right? It's like finding alignment in a way that really helps us get through day-to-day life more holistically, right? To live more whole um and fulfilled. And so for me, during some of my most stressful times, um just learning to kind of look at life maybe through an artist's eye was really beneficial to me. Like I would get out in nature And I would notice beauty. And interestingly, when I did some research, beauty in the world can have this profound and impact on our holistic health in so many ways from mental health benefits. I love what it does for our enhanced emotional resilience because just
00:02:14
Speaker
Appreciating beauty encourages mindfulness and presence, and it just helps people become more resilient in the face of challenges, which we'll talk more about resilience in Lionel's story in this upcoming episode. But this mindfulness just fosters this um greater emotional regulation that can improve even our coping strategies during difficult times. like Wow, just the under the nature of beauty and um it can help our physical well-being our spiritual connections just I love Noticing things and be like man like look at God painting this picture in the sky for me or just even noticing things within people social connections like I love what beauty can do and even I will talk briefly about just the value of creativity because you might not be an artist but we all are creative in our own ways in some way and And that also can have an impact on our holistic health, which is what Align Living is all about. So I just wanted to make that connection for you and what you can expect in today's episode and why I think um listening to this artist and his story can really give us some practical tools and insights and inspiration into living a more
Lionel's Journey: Art, Education, and Career Decisions
00:03:18
Speaker
aligned life. So enjoy this interview with Lionel Daniels.
00:03:22
Speaker
Hey listeners, welcome back to the Align Living podcast. And today I'm actually really, really excited because um I have a really fantastic guest with us today, Lionel Daniels. And he, the first time I i didn't even actually meet Lionel, I saw him.
00:03:40
Speaker
painting an incredible masterpiece like in in real time and um I was just super impressed because I am not an artist and I always have a deep appreciation for people's gifts and the different you know ways that God's created us like how we have different um Outlets for our creativity and then I got to know him a little bit more and just love what he has going on love his heart um so obviously he's an artist, but also I think a very innovative thinker and Family man wife and two kids. I believe right line only two kids twins
00:04:21
Speaker
twins. Okay, that's right. Twins, twins. So um I'm just really excited to have him on today. And so you're in for a treat. And so Lionel, I just wanted to start by asking you just to tell us a little bit more about your background and specifically, like, what has led you to where you are today? Yeah, yeah first of all, autumn thank you for for having me on your podcast.
00:04:50
Speaker
This is really ah really amazing, really amazing, and just um happy to be a part of it. ah I actually, I'm from ah Decatur, Georgia, Decatur where they say it's greater, and it it it really is. ah Grew up there, I'm the oldest of seven ah children. And you know yeah,
00:05:12
Speaker
ah being the oldest, you're you're you're definitely forced to to be a leader. And there's a lot of of pressure on you to make sure that you're doing the right thing because you have six other eyes ah really looking at you. And so like, whatever you decide to do, those other six eyes are watching you and like, well, basically, you know, do it, you know, do what you're doing. Because whatever you do, like, you're you're saying like, this is okay. And so just growing up, I always wanted to make sure that I was
00:05:47
Speaker
First of all, doing the right thing, the things that you know I felt were the right things, things that I knew ah would definitely help my siblings out and like make ah my mother, ah my family proud of me. And so ah I just made sure that I was doing those particular things. And one of those things was to always follow my dream, always follow my passions. Very early on, I was a gifted artist.
00:06:17
Speaker
I definitely started, my parents would probably say at two years old because I would just draw on the walls and get in trouble for it a lot. And so they ended up just getting me a sketchbook. And from there, I just kept on just drawing. whatever Whatever I could see, whatever ah the popular thing was at the time, I remember Pokemon.
00:06:41
Speaker
You know, a lot of people wanted to catch them all, but I wanted to draw them all. And I did in that sketchbook. And I got into drawing animals and then into into drawing and painting people. ah I would say like my story is definitely one of resilience and perseverance. Sometimes, you know, you Sometimes you you you try something out and it just doesn't, it might not work in the way that you want it to work, but ah you know just persevering and and pushing through um gets you to another side where you start to see that success. And so definitely, you know I saw that going from from high school to college. I went to Morehouse College.
00:07:30
Speaker
where I graduated ah summa cum laude, number five in my class as an art major, which is something that is rarely heard of at Morehouse. Usually you're hearing about ah policy or or business, you know, nature um getting within that that particular spectrum. But ah it was just a lot of hard work.
00:07:55
Speaker
ah And then also just sticking with my passion. I also grew up ah playing football. and And so I was playing football at Morehouse. And at one point in time, I was football and art. And I had to ah really choose because you know if you're doing any type of sports in college, ah sports really takes over your life. And if you're doing art in college, art takes over your life. So it's, you know, ah you know, hard very hard to balance. And I remember when I had to just be like, which one are you are you going to choose? Which which path are you gonna take? And so I definitely chose art. I went through this many different challenges, um but I came out ah just a better better artist, a better person. Again, like that resilience and perseverance is just something that has been really strong within within my life.
00:08:51
Speaker
And then taking that, I remember when I decided to leave Georgia and come up to D.C., ah not necessarily on a whim, but like I was promised a nonprofit job here. um And i you know I felt like, hey, D.C. was very close to New York, Philly, Baltimore. I could quickly get back to Atlanta, all these different art hubs. And I was like, hey, D.C.,
00:09:19
Speaker
It's a place that I think I want to be. So came here based off of that um that dream and then also that job. And then that job I got here, it fell through. And so I was just up here ah struggling. Really, really, really struggling, to say the least. But I always continued doing my art and then ended up getting into education, which ah just a lot of beautiful things came came from that, started off as a paraprofessional ah at a charter school. And I was doing that and then like my art on the side and I started doing paint parties. At one point the organization I was working for was one of the top ones in BC. We were located in Adams Morgan and it was it was just really, really amazing, really amazing. Then I, um on the education side, traveled into being an art teacher for a different charter school and started, ah
00:10:19
Speaker
a really great journey there in the heart of Southeast D.C. met and taught so many beautiful children there.
00:10:31
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um working Working in Southeast ah put a lot of things into perspective um for me and the level of of need and lack within the community that I was working in. And I wanted to make sure that, again, going back to ah those role model days for my for my siblings, making sure that for my students that I was always doing the right thing and always making sure that they saw art um as a way of being able to not only express themselves, but that you could also be successful.
00:11:17
Speaker
And so I wanted to make sure that I was just teaching them the fundamentals, all the basics. But then um outside of that, actually being a part of galleries and exhibits um and different things and making sure that they were actually seeing that. um Painting murals and making sure that they were actually seeing me painting those murals or incorporating them in ah was super, super, super, super important to me.
00:11:44
Speaker
um And I painted so many is painted so many um during during my time there. I ended up transitioning into administrative work. And with the administrative work, man, things get tougher. Things get tougher um the higher up you go. And so doing that administrative work, I was just super stressed out. Super stressed out. um Then we had our our kids, ah our beautiful kids. They're three years old now. like
00:12:15
Speaker
They came along and trying to really just navigate ah being a new father and having this administrative job was just very taxing and not being able to to do my art um as fully and freely as I wanted to really ah had some impact um on me. And what I decided to do about and two months ago, two and a half months ago was to quit my job and become a full-time artist. And a lot of people would say that's something that's scary, but it's been ah one of the top five best things I've done in my life.
00:12:59
Speaker
know Wow. Wow. so So many thoughts are going through my mind. um I do specifically want to ask you about like some of the ways that you've practically navigated some of those setbacks because resilience is something I think is so valuable and instilling in our kids. I talked about it in my book, The Playground Leader, and then even as adults, like it's so important to you know kind of grow in that space. So I will ask you about that. but first um I did want to, like what when you were talking about um showing up in the classroom for those kids and ah you know showing them what it's like to follow a passion. you know With Align Living, so many times within within this podcast, different areas of of health and and wellbeing, I talk about this gap we have like from where we are.
00:13:48
Speaker
to where we want to be. And yeah, we talk you know talk about like different goals that you might have um in and important strategies for helping you get there. But I think part of alignment that I haven't talked about as much is you know doing things in life that do utilize those passions and gifts. So not everyone in your classroom might ah you know might be called to do art, but I think them seeing you pursue something and being passionate about something might have inspired them to say, hey like I like am really into this and you know um I think it just helps us be in alignment because we're using some of the unique
00:14:29
Speaker
things you know and how God created us. you know so so I love that. um I just wanted to comment there. It wasn't really a question, but I would love to ask you before you talked to us a little bit about how you navigated some setbacks, because I know you have some pretty like awesome things to share there. I think also when I talk to people about bridging this a gap you know from where we are to where we want to be, sometimes we can pinpoint a life experience or something like pretty significant that happened. like and Something Someone said or something we experienced these aha moments, right? That's kind of shaped our journeys What would you say are one of those things that has most shaped your journey?
Intuition and Resilience: A Guide for Artists
00:15:10
Speaker
Like if you could, you know just mention one I'm sure there's many but I would just love to hear that. Yeah, definitely definitely many I would have to say like the most the most recent one which is like having the courage to put Quit the job
00:15:27
Speaker
a six-figure job. you know life very you know Life is very comfortable you know when you have a six-figure job. And so I remember just hearing God's voice multiple times in multiple different ways. And so I remember um Man, it's so crazy. I remember listening, there I was listening to a ah podcast and they mentioned, you know, hey, you you really gotta just live your passion. You gotta take risks. You know, even if it's, you know, hurting someone's feelings, like,
00:16:13
Speaker
ah you can't miss your your destiny. And i'm um I'm talking about like in ah in a positive sense, you can't miss your destiny. And I had already started to have feelings of like, I don't think this space is the space for me at this point right now. Like I i i feel torn because I'm seeing you know my art and my career um on an island. And I felt like I was just really like floating away from that.
00:16:42
Speaker
And God just kept pressing certain images within my head. But again, like different podcasts, like a podcast that came on after that was saying like the same thing. And then God even had my wife mention something ah about just me being a full-time artist. Then my kids even said something about it. And you didn't hear anything, ah none of the podcasts or like, or my wife,
00:17:10
Speaker
ah So God just kept like whispering. And then he was like, you know what, you're not getting it. So let me say it just a little bit louder. And I appreciate that he loved you he loves me enough to to do that. Because sometimes you know we hear those we hear that voice and we just keep ignoring it. And then we we miss out on the God has for us because we're just simply not listening.
00:17:37
Speaker
And so it was really it was really then when I was like, God, okay, I hear you. It didn't even feel scary. It was just something that felt different for me. ah Because I don't quit things. And so it felt different.
00:17:58
Speaker
But I did it. And I was very, very happy that I that i did so. um Because I knew like I could impact more people, more children ah and ah in a different way with me being me, as opposed to being within this this organization where you have you know You have to follow all their all their rules and and and regulations, and it kind of ah you know can take you away from being from being you, who you you truly are. So that experience has been just life-changing.
00:18:39
Speaker
yeah Yeah, actually something you said ah reminds me of a soapbox that I've been on lately because like, you know, what if, you know, somebody's listening and they're like, I'm just, you know, I want to hear God's voice. That'd be amazing. Like, but I'm not hearing God's voice i because sometimes people like struggle with what does it mean to be led by God. but One of these soap boxes that I'm on that I like what you're saying because you also trusted your your gut and your intuition and exercise wisdom. like you know Obviously, Aligned Living is a lot about like holistically, like this pursuit of wholeness and shalom holistically. right like We have physical bodies and a brain and a mind and emotions and people in our lives all for a reason, and God oftentimes uses those. and so
00:19:22
Speaker
But one of my soap boxes lately is just bringing people back to also like you know trusting ourselves more, allowing ourselves. the The most recent podcast episode I did before this one was about like asking questions of things, like being inquisitive, being curious, like asking why. like Like you said, you asked, is there a better way that I could be using my passion to impact more people that's more in a line with you know some things? so yeah like i just I think that would might be helpful for listeners to hear too, is just like how you know you were um just also like trusting your gut and your intuition. like Sometimes we we just lost the art of that. like
00:20:03
Speaker
you know trusting ourselves, knowing like God gave us these things for a reason. you know Our bodies are amazing um and and just also people surrounding us that you know might have a word for us. So
Overcoming Challenges with Creativity
00:20:16
Speaker
um that that's that's really great. That was not even in my notes, but like it's just, I think, a really, really important thing. um That we can all benefit from and grow and you know so. um Okay so so i'm really anxious to hear i want to hear i know more about how you have navigated somebody setbacks i know this is kinda like one of the big things i wanted you to bring to listeners is.
00:20:44
Speaker
you know what What have you learned about overcoming setbacks? um Specifically, ah just to get a bit more practical, like what are some strategies or practices that you specifically have used to help navigate challenges, to help turn them into growth opportunities? Yeah. Number one, I always talk to God. I talk to God, I let God know, and I'm i'm so honest with like how I feel.
00:21:10
Speaker
um And so like we just we we have we have this conversation, um like this honest conversation first. And then I asked i ask God, as it I ask like, hey, God, ah what are some what are some other ways? Because I know you know ah where my path is supposed to go. And I know there's some things that i'm not I'm not able to see that I know you are. So Father, please lead and guide me.
00:21:41
Speaker
ah in those ways um so that I am doing what you want me to do, what you called me here to do. So first, I have i just have that honest conversation about God. If I'm angry, I let God know. Like God, I'm so angry and upset that this didn't happen like this didn't happen the way that I wanted it to. And God is like, yup, yeah, I hear you.
00:22:07
Speaker
And then what usually what ends up happening, something better always comes along. And and I feel that. better Something better always comes along, and then you're like, dang, why was I so mad or upset about that? ah But you you come to find out like, hey, what's for me is for me. And that that wasn't for me, but this right here was so much better than that. ah Thank you, God.
00:22:37
Speaker
Other things that that I do, I do a lot of prayer and meditation. And so I just pray for the things that I want to happen. Usually we do a lot of, I don't want this.
00:22:53
Speaker
This can't happen. that Actually just saying exactly what I want ah to happen and really praying about it and meditating and visualizing on it, ah it really it really does help me um move move forward. I would say physical things that I do, ah I shoot hoops.
00:23:18
Speaker
And please don't get confused with playing basketball. No, not not playing basketball. Not playing basketball. ah i I do have an athletic build, but I'm i'm more of a football football player, ah body. But I do love to shoot hoops. There's something about being ah the form of actually shooting a basketball and then hearing the snap.
00:23:44
Speaker
of of the net when you when you shoot it just perfectly it does something for me being able to just bounce the ball ah and especially just doing it outside too with beautiful fresh air and the sun shining right and it's it's it's warm enough not too hot where you're sweating profusely but just warm enough It helps know really bring me bring me out and and pushes me to get back on track and actually using ah my cognitive functioning brain. right it just It helps to just reset reset me. um I also do a lot of drawing or doodling.
00:24:28
Speaker
I'm a doodler. I've been one ever but since I was young. You probably could look at some of my my old papers from elementary school and there's writing there, definitely, but there's definitely doodles in the corner. um So I do a lot of ah just doodling or just writing, just writing those ah various things out, um which is always just super, super, super helpful.
00:24:53
Speaker
um I just speak positivity. I would also say that just just speaking positivity um over yourself, um your family, whatever the situation is, ah has also been like extremely helpful. um And lastly, I'll just say like observation.
00:25:20
Speaker
Going outside and just being still and just observing nature because we're all observers. We might not all, you know, all consider ourselves artists and that's okay, but we are all observers each and every career that we have. ah It's based off of us being to observe and analyze um and think and formulate. So to me, the first step to that in really um working things out is just to be out and
00:25:54
Speaker
observed. And so I'll go out in nature and I'll just look at the the leaves, you know, rustling the wind or like the grass, how it flows or seeing, you know, insects walk up a grass stalk, right? Or watching birds ah interact with each other um or other various animals, watching water ripple um and just really paying attention. It all just brings a certain level of stillness.
00:26:24
Speaker
um and awareness and gratitude um that often, you know, just it just it just snaps you out of out of it and you're able to just ah think more creatively. Then again, and again, talking to God, but thinking more creatively and just figuring out whatever your situation is.
00:26:47
Speaker
Yeah, yeah, I love hearing you talk about these things from the artist perspective, because like we all have the capacity to observe and notice things. And actually, when you start doing that, it's very life giving. But you probably do so more than others. I'll tell you something we could all grow in. But I am a basketball player. And I've never like I loved hearing you talk of But I was like, I play all the time and I don't notice like kind of like the beauty in those details that you did in the same way. or like I do in nature for sure. like It's very life giving to me to get out. But I think if if people are asking, okay, so what does some of this have to do with like resilience and pursuing setbacks? like
00:27:25
Speaker
You know, ah so many things you talked about, like you're engaging your whole body and you're doing things that bring you joy because, you know, I always talk about the importance of doing things when you don't feel like it, like you can't get stuck in a red light, right? Like it's okay to experience those negative feelings and maybe be in a pit for a little bit, but it's our perspective around that. And if we can intentionally do things that fill our cup a little bit when we're feeling like life is just life-ing and struggle and challenge after challenge after challenge, it'll be easier to do some of the things you know you need to do if you're doing some of those things that just help fill your cup. So it was interesting because you talked more about
00:28:04
Speaker
that that type of thing, kind of like, you know, being in nature, observing beauty, um you know, doing things you enjoy. And then, you know, hopefully that just like helps our our perspective and kind of, you know, and in doing some of the things like, we don't feel like doing what we know we need to do. So I appreciate you sharing that. It's always fun hearing how people navigate this, because I don't say like, but we We prepare for challenges because we know they'll come. It's not like an if, it's like a when, right?
00:28:35
Speaker
so
Current Projects and Future Endeavors
00:28:36
Speaker
um yeah ah Well, I will tell you, I did a little research because I was curious myself because I love how the body works, just in how creativity and beauty and observing these things you talked about, how they impact our well-being.
00:28:54
Speaker
Really really like every single area I talk about in a line living physical health mental health emotional health social health Like there is some benefit in in all of these spaces from just you know using your gifts exercise and some creativity and so on and so forth so um it's It's very very real so I love getting to hear um from you and how that has played out in your life and I do want to give you some space as we wrap up. um I want to ask you, like what's the most exciting project or initiative you're working on right now? And then just follow that up with telling us, telling the listeners where we could find you. I have a lot of exciting projects happening. today
00:29:40
Speaker
ah Well, one that I actually had a setback, but it was actually a good setback because it allowed me to just reanalyze everything. But I have this children's art show that I've been working on. It's called The Studio, where I am my art teacher role and a puppet by the name of Ricky. um we We teach black and brown children um about black and brown artists.
00:30:08
Speaker
and their techniques and different skills and the elements of of art. And um for those those that will hopefully follow me soon, I actually built a 12 by 18 studio are in in our backyard. ah And I basically, I didn't actually build, it was a prefab, but everything else like I created within within it.
00:30:34
Speaker
to be like my actual like workspace, but also to produce this particular show um on YouTube. And so I'm super excited. ah We had a debut that we were working on and all of ah my technology, my computer just crashed.
00:30:54
Speaker
It crashed and it messed up the the episode as well as just a whole bunch of various things. And so it was like, okay, you know what? We got to go get a new computer. I think they just ah the new Max just came out today. So it's like, hey, go get a new computer.
00:31:12
Speaker
Let's push the date back and ah let's really produce some some very high quality work with this new um this new computer. And so the show, again, is called The Studio. And super so i'm I'm just super excited to to debut it. It's something that I started within the pandemic.
00:31:31
Speaker
ah for my students and it's something that has just continually is continued to grow and just eat just really beautiful. And so I'm excited to get back rolling with it and hopefully um have new episodes, seven episodes are gonna are projected to come out ah by January.
00:31:55
Speaker
ah But I won't put out a a specific date. We'll we'll make sure every one of those episodes are recorded, that you all it it will get out to um all the viewers. Just really excited about that. Awesome. If you want to find me um on social media, my name is Lionel Daniels Art. If you want to follow the studio, it's the Studio Art Show.
00:32:22
Speaker
And my website is www.linald.com. And just, man, i'm I'm just super excited to have done this and to be able to speak to all of you ah just about like my passion and ah We just hit the tip of the iceberg with it. I have so many stories. it's I'm sure. It's really crazy. But ah no, I really appreciate this, Autumn. Thank you so much for having me.
00:32:52
Speaker
yeah Yeah, absolutely. It's been a pleasure and I am going to include all of those things in the show notes so that you know your your website, your Instagram handles and all of that will be listed there. And definitely, um you know whether you have kids or not, like give the the YouTube channel a follow um because I think the mission is is pretty awesome and and worthwhile and I'm glad that you're doing that as well. And of course, if you're local to the DMV,
00:33:22
Speaker
and you give him a follow on Instagram. I'm sure you're going to be seeing him at some art shows and stuff, and good to see his amazing work. So um anyways, thank you, Lionel, and thank you all for listening. And until next time.
00:33:39
Speaker
Thank you for tuning in to the Aligned Living Podcast. I'm Dr. Autumn, your guide on this journey to Shalom or wholeness. Ready to embark on this journey of self-discovery and transformation? Head over to autumnswain.com to learn more and to dive deeper into the world of Aligned Living. Until next time, stay Aligned.