We were lucky to catch up with Margot Rowan recently and have shared our conversation below.
Hi Margot, appreciate you sitting with us today to share your wisdom with our readers. So, let’s start with resilience – where do you get your resilience from?
When flying, there’s always ‘an in the case of an emergency’ steps demonstrated… the one that really resonates and applies to life, is putting the oxygen mask on yourself before your loved ones… Being blessed to be a stay at home mom I felt myself disappearing and only existing for others, I learned early on that it’s okay to take a day for yourself enjoying every minute of what was now a new term learned ‘me time’.
It made me a better person, mother and wife. So began my journey of knowing it wasn’t selfish, rather healthy to allow yourself to breathe and remember who you are, to keep inventing yourself.
So what keeps me resilient is self care, be it yoga, dance, boxing, swimming, walking my dogs, enjoying a cup of coffee and oh, almost forgot, the most important part is starting my day with an early mediation practice. Waking while house is still dark and silent and sitting as a new day starts, the mind is active and then when it slows about 30 minutes in an hour later I’m ready for the day ahead. This has been part of my experience to find tools to be resilient in a world that has become much too busy and disconnected. Find what brings you joy and do it for you. Oh and say yes to travel, I didn’t wait till my boys were gone and have a supportive husband that said ‘go’ I’ve got the house, I was able to say ‘yes’ to some amazing travel invitations before Covid hit, India, China and Thailand in three consecutive years… the world makes you grow. China was for an art show I was featured in, had to pinch myself.
Thanks, so before we move on maybe you can share a bit more about yourself?
Born and raised in Toronto, Ontario. I went to university in Canada with a fine art minor, and would like to pursue my masters, at the time I didn’t know my calling was to be an artist, the way I got lost in the studio time and classes, it’s where I was meant to be and keep growing. I’ve lived in Muskoka in Northern Ontario, Halifax, Vermont, Seattle and landed here. It was quite an adventure moving again and again and gave me a different kind of confidence having to start again and again. My father was a commercial artist and oil painter. I thank him for giving me the gift of creativity. He would always bring his paints and canvases when we vacationed, and now I find myself doing the same. Art was always around me because of him and our home was filled with his work. It definitely ignited my creative spirit because I was always watching and learning from him, a way to be one with a brush.
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?
Where your passion lies, search out any kind of extra learning, it will make you expand beyond your wildest dreams. When on the path with your gift you’re meant to share, the world of more possibilities keeps opening up, it’s a destiny thing that happens.
Okay, so before we go, is there anyone you’d like to shoutout for the role they’ve played in helping you develop the essential skills or overcome challenges along the way?
I sit with an amazing life teacher, Jennifer McKeown, who has taught me how to keep myself grounded and introduced me to a daily meditation practice. It has given me tools to see the world from a different perspective inviting constant growth and awareness that shows up in my work from a core level.
Contact Info:
- Website: margotrowan.com
- Instagram: @margotrowanart
- Facebook: Margot Rowan Art
Image Credits
All photos taken by me.
