We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Yaz Canli a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.
Yaz , thanks so much for taking the time to share your insights and lessons with us today. We’re particularly interested in hearing about how you became such a resilient person. Where do you get your resilience from?
I think it is the result of an accumulation of many things for example the specific life circumstances that I was born into, being multi ethnic with diverse religious and cultural backgrounds, being exposed to lifestyles of multiple countries growing up, being on stage singing, dancing, playing the piano from the age of six and from very early on having the knowing of my purpose all build and drove a strong resilience in me as a person. And I believe it was part of my personality traits package when I came into this life. We are always equipped with the inner strength we need to overcome whatever life circumstance we find ourselves in. That is how we get to grow in that exact resilience.
Appreciate the insights and wisdom. Before we dig deeper and ask you about the skills that matter and more, maybe you can tell our readers about yourself?
I love visual storytelling and believe it to be an incredibly powerful way to reach people’s hearts. I grew up expressing myself artistically in many different forms like dancing, singing, acting, drawing, writing poetry, playing instruments. It really gave me an outlet to feel free and accept all my emotions that I didn’t know how to communicate in my personal life. As a storyteller I am drawn to write stories that open people’s hearts in a relatable way, where you as the receiver feel seen or heard in a very intimate way. Watching someone fight through their shame or hurt and be deeply moved by it is easier than maybe doing that for yourself and yet it creates an opening for change. That’s the magic of art.
If you had to pick three qualities that are most important to develop, which three would you say matter most?
For art – in whichever form – I strongly advice to immerse yourself in the world and resist the tendencies to overly be inward. I say that because I know it. You can not feel expressed and fulfilled as an artist, hiding in your apartment, doing it for yourself, by yourself alone all the time. Art is fully expressed and experienced when shared at some point. Of course there is an important inward and outward balance for the artist, but let’s not forget about the outward sharing and immersion. I know too many talented artists that never take it outside to fully express and therefore suffer terribly. Immerse yourself into your fellow artist communities, take classes, find open mics, writing groups, student projects, whatever it is that will allow your artistic expression. The world wants to see and hear you.
One of our goals is to help like-minded folks with similar goals connect and so before we go we want to ask if you are looking to partner or collab with others – and if so, what would make the ideal collaborator or partner?
Contact Info:
- Instagram: @yazcanli @myhomeunknown
- Facebook: Yaz Canli
- Linkedin: Yaz Canli
