We recently connected with Anastasia Kyprianou and have shared our conversation below.

Hi Anastasia, thanks for joining us today. Can you talk to us about a project that’s meant a lot to you?

Coming from a tiny island, Cyprus, moving to New York seemed the impossible dream. I had to face many obstacles, both physical and mental, and overcome challenges to be where I am today, but I wouldn’t change a single detail. It all led me to the project I am currently working on and it’s by far my greatest accomplishment! I am currently writing a novel, where I’m bringing together two of my favorite genres: fantasy and self-improvement. The story follows the journey of Celene, who has lived through a brutal war, losing her family, and finding herself in a new world, filled with magical, mythical creatures such as sirens, wolves and fae. Unfortunately, like all journeys in life she has to face not only herself and her demons but the additional challenge of staying alive, while 90% of the royals are hunting her. This book is more of a passion project which I cannot seem to stop thinking of. Its goal is to show Celene’s journey to discovering her authentic true self and to owning up to her voice, or in the book’s case her light, hence the name of the book “The First Light”. As a woman, she has been silenced and faded to the background, something that is coming from personal experience, so publishing this book will also be the first step of sharing my light and embracing my voice fully.
Lastly, a percentage of the profit will be used to create a non-profit organization which I’m currently working on that will provide women and children the means and opportunities to follow their artistic dreams.

Anastasia, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

Being the “quiet and shy” kid growing up has its pros and cons. On one hand, it made me very observant from early on and it gave the the ability to read people even when not talking. On the other, it taught me to simply observe life without taking action, and for many years I was a master procrastinator. I wouldn’t change any of it though. I learned how to express myself through art, whether it was by playing the piano or guitar, dancing or drawing. It also cultivated my imagination to extreme levels, because I would lock myself in my room and play with Barbies, creating stories and scenarios, and wholeheartedly feeling all emotions that would pop up, where now I can create a full story on the spot. There was this insident in one of my greek classes in 4th grade where I had to write a story over the easter break, which I did not do because playing was more fun, so when I was called in class to read everyone my story, I made it right then and there. Being the quiet and shy one has truly been a gift for the first 20 years of my life.
However, Covid and quarantine made me realise that, that version of me did not serve me anymore. During covid is when I went deeper into my inner work and healing journey and that’s where I discovered my gifts in the arts field, as well as my life’s purpose.

Now, I have created a course named “Find your Self, Find your Purpose” in which I have broken down all the inner work I had done that led me to finding my purpose, to “leave this world better than how I found it”. Throught the course, we discover our Core Values in life and fully addressing them, because for many, some of our core values are based on fear and do not fully serve us. We create a safe haven for ourselves, within ourselves and face the voice in our head, who often tears us down.
I am doing this with the pure intention to see people of all ages thrive on their lives. I want to see them create their empires!
I don’t think my purpose sets me apart. What it did, was bring me closer to like minded people who all want to create a better life for the collective, each one of us beaing a puzzle piece that fit together perfectly.
I heard once in a video the phrase “If you wan to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go together” and this is exactly it!

My greatest achievement is becoming my authentinc self. I won’t lie, I am still working on fully embracing who I am, with all my flaws, insecurities and trauma, because they are the very things that make me uniquely me.
Going from the shy girl that was invisible, and was told that I had the superpower of becoming invisible (which is not a compliment by the way), to freely speaking my mind and sharing my opinions and views.
Being invisible meant that I was willing to not show any character, to not speak my thoughts and feelings to please others, and to fade in the background because I was always the “shy and quiet” one.
However, all that is not true anymore. I find myself being a social butterfly, having meaningful conversations because I openly share my truths and opinions, and embodying my natural character has been more freeing and safe for me than constantly being scared of it and shoving it in a box.

For those who’d like to reach out to me, I would like you to know that I am here to hold your hand in every step of the way, if you allow me to. I have dealt eith depression and anxiety for what feels like forever and I made it on the other side. It would be my HONOR to help you while you figure your path out. Life gets to be easy and your dreams are yours to pursue!

You may question what does that has anything to do with art. The answer is very simple. The better we know ourselves the closer we get to our artistic gift. In order for us to be able to fully surrender to creation and enter that flow we need to be able to heal our wounds. That’s when true art comes to life! And as it has been said to me by many of my art teachers, “Art is a spiritual practice”.

Learning and unlearning are both critical parts of growth – can you share a story of a time when you had to unlearn a lesson?

Failing or quitting something doesn’t make you a failure! I’ve suffered from the good girl syndrome and that goes hand in hand with perfectionism. I’ve always found it difficult being a beginner in any activity that I would decide to try. I existed withing the limits of my limiting belief that told me “whenever you try something new, you HAVE to succeed at it on the first try, otherwise you are a failure” and that led me to give up and quit on many activities that I tried throughout the years.
Up until recently, where I had the epiphany that failing at something is actualy a beautiful experiece I get to go through as a human being. That is the right path to growth.
Observing a baseball match of young kids, I got to see firsthand how harsh we get with ourselves when leaning something new because we’re so used to comparing us with others or with ideals.
I had to teach myself that is okay to fail over and over again, because my worth is not found in my successes, so learning from my mistakes became very enjoyable and rewarding. Going into something new with no specific outcome or result in mind allws me to pefrom better and gives me the freedom to be more fluid with the journey I embark on, which I have noticed it always leads me to the most wonderful destinations.
Quitting is not a concept that exists in my mind because something either brings me joy and growth while engaged in it, so the only option is to fall and get back up again and again, or it simply doesn’t fullfil me so it instantly becomes an activity I am no longer interested in.
Failing doesn’t make you a failure!
Quitting doesn’t make you a quitter!

Is there something you think non-creatives will struggle to understand about your journey as a creative?

In all arts, from painting to creating a business, a structural fluidity is a must if you are a creative person. What do I mean by that? Creativity has its own breath, its own brain and a pair of legs, and it grows with or without our active pursut/attention/attentiveness. However, if you let it exist without a structure it might feel very chaotic, that’s why it is important to set a system that works for the individual. That let’s the creativity flow and grow without making us feel like failures. Being a creative goes againt everything that society has normalised. Some examples are: 1. Being free-flowing, 2. Being bored easily when an activity doesn’t involve creativity, 3. Jumping from one thing to another, 4. Moving at a slower pace than our environment.
1. Being free-flowing allows me to create without boundaries and with zero involvement of the brain. For me, being free-flowing means that I allow my body and intuition to guide me. Let’s say I planned to write a specific chapter of my book today, however I notice that my creativity takes me to a different point of the book and wants to develop that. I allow my creativity to do its thing freely as long as I make sure that I write down something and I honor my schedule. It might also look like, instead of going to the gym and lifting weights to going for a walk in nature.
2. Being bored in general is a sign that the artistic side of me needs to create and because that need within me is so strong, whenever I am involved in an activity that is not necessarily creative leads me to boredom. With this, it’s VERY important to give myself the time to create daily and whenever I feel bored to not go on my phone, because I’ve come to realise that going on social media to “entertain” myself leaves me depleated.
3. Jumping from one thing to another. This one has its ups and downs. On one hand, I get to work on multiple projects and tasks while remaining enthousiastic about them because I don’t “beat” them to exhaustion. On the other hand, it can become very overwhealming because I find myself working on multiple projects at once. I’ve come to realise that there is a sweet spot between doing too much and forcing myself to work on one project only and that is beneficial for a creative mind!
4. Moving at a slower pace than our environment. This point is the most important one! We live in an overstimulated society that races from one task to another without allowing ourselves to breathe and relax. This puts us in survival mode that actually shuts down essential systems in our body such as our digestive system and nervous system. In order to be able to create freely and endlessly, those two functions are a MUST. Our creativity lives in our gut, our intuition, and taking the time to nourish our bodies with nutritious foods and allow it to rest daily can actually help us reconnect.
These are topics that I have recorded videos on and will soon be uploaded on my YouTube channel for a deeper and clearer understanding of them. On those videos you get affirmations, journaling prompts and action step so stay tuned 🥰

Contact Info:

• Website: thefirstlight.us (under development, will open by the end of June)
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/anastasiaxkyp/
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCuSAKF7VsXveyQhERqQZ13g
• Other: email: [email protected]

Image Credits
Red Carpet picture by Julio Mendez- 2K (@twokeii on Instagram)