Meet Amar Atkins

We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Amar Atkins a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Amar, so good to have you with us today. We’ve always been impressed with folks who have a very clear sense of purpose and so maybe we can jump right in and talk about how you found your purpose?

Well in a way, my purpose chose me. It was just waiting to be connected to and chosen back. For years, I experienced several painful and traumatic experiences. Such as having body dysmorphia, financial exploitation, slander and defamation, malignant narcissistic abuse, and even false imprisonment. I’ve endured a lot. Every time the experience was had, my purpose waited to be chosen. It simply lied on the other side of a question/decision. To heal, or not to heal? I will be honest, it took awhile for me to finally choose it. For it is so easy to wallow in despair once you’ve been perpetually victimized. I also grew up in a Christian household, so we didn’t discuss how to heal aside from giving the pain over to God. As easy as that was said and acted upon, I later realized that I needed to do the work. I needed to get off this hamster wheel of pain, get down to the root of why I kept finding myself on it, and ultimately learn how to prevent myself from ever getting on it again in the future. I needed to alchemize all of this pain and transmute it into power and purpose. For I didn’t go through all that I did for nothing.

I decided to choose healing and forgiveness, specifically through the lens of therapy, mindfulness, meditation, and life coaching. My life immediately began to change for the better. My mind and heart shifted and lifted, and before I knew it… I looked up and felt like a new man! For years, I felt like a prisoner within my own mind and heart, but after choosing healing… I was finally free from the burdens and chains that bound me for so long. I didn’t realize how much trauma affects you holistically. It literally can plague you from the inside-out. From that moment, I made healing my heart’s mission, my life’s calling-my purpose. My intention has been to help as many people as possible, through my spiritual and creative gifts, choose healing. For healing is the gift that keeps on giving, not just to the chooser, but to any and all who they come into contact with. For the world is in need of healing. The more one chooses healing, the more its affects ripples across the diaspora.

Let’s take a small detour – maybe you can share a bit about yourself before we dive back into some of the other questions we had for you?

I am a first-generation Ghanaian-Nigerian American earth angel and multifaceted creative artist from Atlanta, GA. I received my MFA in Acting from Louisiana State University and taught acting there as well. Artistically, I’ve rendered my creative gifts across the country and abroad. I’ve done everything from performing at the world’s largest Christian theater to live Broadway to film and television to worldwide commercial work. I’ve created art alongside some of the biggest actors, musicians, and directors in the entertainment industry. I’m so grateful! Spiritually, I’ve counseled, guided, rendered healing, and provided enlightenment to the minds and hearts of the many locally, nationally, and abroad.

I am passionate about telling stories that grant artist the opportunity to impact. Stories that touch the hearts, minds, souls, and spirits of its audience. Anything can be entertaining, but everything can’t impact. With the world growing darker and colder by the day, art and artists have the chance to directly bring about change. I’ve been through so much and due to choosing healing it’s availed me a wealth of wisdom and emotional connectivity. Getting the chance to perform in impactful shows is a healthy form of artistic alchemy for me. It’s freeing, it furthers my healing, and helps to ultimately impact and inspire.

Recently (Spiritually), I’ve spent a chapter in Atlanta rendering healing aid and enlightenment to family members, friends, artistic associates, strangers, and even animals. Recently (Artistically), I can be seen recurring on HBO Max’s The Chair Company, starring Tim Robinson and directed by Andrew DeYoung. Prior to that, I served as the Principal Standby in the Broadway National Tour of Moulin Rouge! The Musical directed by Alex Timbers.

Looking back, what do you think were the three qualities, skills, or areas of knowledge that were most impactful in your journey? What advice do you have for folks who are early in their journey in terms of how they can best develop or improve on these?

The three most impactful qualities that I would recommend are: Walking in Compassion, Choosing Alignment, and Being Fearless.

Compassion, it truly is a virtue. A virtue that one has to choose, just like how one has to choose healing. Connecting to compassion wasn’t difficult for me. I’ve always been a very loving and heart-centered person. My issue lied in being too generous with my heart and too forgiving to people who willfully took advantage of my kindness. That was a tough lesson for me. What helped was choosing empathy, for it is a core component of compassion. It’s so easy to criticize and judge how people should be or act based upon how one is and operates. When I began to choose to understand the why behind people’s actions rather than quick judgement, everything changed for me. For it was then that I understood that everyone is seeking a safe space, within themselves and externally. Some are blessed to have it, some are fighting to keep it, some are still in search for it, some lost it, some refuse to find it, and some have just given up on it. We’re all on a journey, just trying to get to the next moment, to ultimate and hopefully arrive at our destination. Compassion, in all of its beautiful selflessness, lends the helping hand, the shoulder to lean on, and the ear to listen. It provides safe spaces and that is what so many need, now more than ever.

Alignment is a mighty transformative process. It forces one to do the work. I’m an avid dreamer, and when I was starting my career… I loved to sit in fantasy. I would have all these dreams, desires, and goals, and they would ruminate all through my mind and heart. I realized, after much time passing, that I had to put forth the effort and action into bringing them into fruition. They weren’t going to just magically fall in my lap. One of my favorite scriptures is “Faith Without Works Is Dead.” – James 2:17. It is not enough to just believe and fantasize, for that coupled with the absence of work, gets one nowhere. Alignment is where the merriment of faith, purpose, intentionality, and holistic action meet. This forward and focused faith and action is the key to manifestation. We must never grow complacent or idle when it comes to achieving our heart’s desires. For that stagnation and procrastination is a killer of dreams. From the poem “Invitus,” William Earnest Henley wrote, “I am the master of my fate, the captain of my soul.” Achievement starts with and within us. Alignment creates the foundation to which bridges its possibility, transforming potential into reality.

Fear is a trap, a trick of the mind and heart. It’s a falsehood that steals, kills, and destroys possibility. When one chooses to be fearless, one taps into their divine strength and power. For it avails the energy to be tenacious, steadfast, and resilient no matter the circumstance. Many times, along my journey, I chose fear over faith. Such as fear of the unknown or fear that I wasn’t good enough to go after my dreams and desires. All of that time focusing on ill-possibility took away ample time to just try. To believe that I was deserving to have what I desired. It took me getting to my 30s to realize that knowledge is power, and knowledge is rooted within experience. Experience is the greatest teacher. So if I tried and failed, I could just take the knowledge from my experience, realign my actions, and try again. With this powerful viewpoint, the sky truly becomes the limit. So there’s never a need to be fearful when one can be ever thine optimistic.“Leap, you just might soar!” – A. Atkins

How can folks who want to work with you connect?

I would love to partner and collaborate with creatives, organizations, and businesses whose purpose is rooted within helping to make this world a better place. Be it spiritually or artistically, I’m here to be a force for positive change, and I believe that one must be the change that they want to see in the world. I’m extremely gifted and trained within the holistic, performative, creative, visual, and culinary arts.

You can connect with me directly through any of my social media platforms listed below or by direct email at [email protected]

Let’s create an Impact Movement, for the time is NOW.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.imdb.com/name/nm8304238/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/amaratkins_/?hl=en
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/TheAmarAtkins/
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/amar-atkins-05519a273
• Youtube: https://youtube.com/@amaratkins?si=httkuSwexyknXgBH
• Soundcloud: https://soundcloud.com/amar-atkins
• Other: TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@amaratkins_