Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Melissa Wozniak. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Melissa, we’re looking forward to hearing your story. When did you first realize you wanted to pursue a creative path professionally?

I don’t think I ever considered anything else, to be honest. I was that wild-haired kid who wrote about cats and wanted to be a Rockette and dreamed of opening an art gallery in her front yard because she loved making things outside. My creativity was never discouraged, but there is a bigger society-level belief we end up buying into at some point that says, “OK, but be practical. How does this fit into the real world? What vocation ticks enough boxes of what you’re good at?”

For me, it was journalism. I got really good at writing a certain way, for a certain audience. Even though I met amazing people, there was a disconnect that grew from shutting off my voice. School doesn’t teach you how to follow your inner guidance. Instead, you learn to push. So I did. I kept pushing until one day the words wouldn’t come, no matter how hard I tried. That moment kicked off a good decade and a half of searching for my purpose like it was some map buried in the desert, taking divergent paths feeling completely lost, and coming home to myself through spiritual practices and healing work that I pursued out of necessity to manage the symptoms of being out of alignment.

Now I see that none of those paths were divergent. I went through the depths to clear away the things that were keeping me bound, and that was what prepared me to reignite my creativity and encourage others on the path.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and what you do. Was there a calling?

I help people connect to the truth of who they are through energy healing, intuitive guidance, and mentorship. I work with a lot of artists who feel blocked in their practice and people who are knowingly or unknowingly on a path of spiritual awakening, often prompted by a sudden life transition or a chronic stressor calling out for change.

The way we perceive and deal with problems in a modern culture that adulates the thinking mind separates us from an intelligence that lives much deeper. If you look at the body’s energy field like it’s an electrical grid, one of two things is often at the root of imbalance: a brain in overdrive that’s churning through all the power, or a power center that’s not getting enough charge from the soul’s passions and creativity.

I hold a presence for individuals to remember their connection to an infinite source of energy so they can step into their greatness. Those who work with me know there is something inside themselves they aren’t tapping into and share a hunger for growth. We create the conditions for transformation in an eight-week series of sessions, which can take place online if you’re not based in New York City.

Energy medicine came into my life at a time when I was burned out and questioning everything. Months of anxiety lifted after some distance Reiki sessions from a friend, who later became my teacher. The anxiety didn’t just go away; I felt a shift in my being, and I needed to know more. I became attuned to Reiki, eventually at the Master level. I spent a year in Africa, traveled through Southeast Asia and North/Central America, relocated to India. And I learned from every perspective and lineage I could find: yoga, meditation, breathwork, bodywork, metaphysics, hands-on healing. The driving force behind all of it was finding the common thread, because it just didn’t make sense that this vast universe of ours could be held together by anything other than a common thread. I met people all over the world who radiated light, from high saints to the poorest of the poor who slept under duct-taped tarps. They were living in a different place than the rest of us. That’s where I wanted to go.

So I am on a journey from head to heart. The biggest shift happened when I began to feed my own creative practice again. It’s like a broken circuit repaired itself—the more I turn myself over to a source greater than myself, the more inspiration flows. And when I express it, my energy expands, which allows me to take on a healing role for others.

My practice includes writing and visual art, movement, music, and dance. I started writing short fiction, and one of my stories earned a place out of more than 13,000 submissions in an anthology that was published this spring. Another story was shortlisted for a top international writing award. I’ve also nurtured a deep connection with nature through art—I make ink from plants, flowers, and foraged materials like acorn caps and copper scraps with an intention to be a channel for human and non-human consciousness to interact in physical form. The colors that emerge are unpredictable and sensitive to factors of chemistry and environment, so working with them is a practice of releasing control. I have the butterflies of a new relationship getting to know these plants; every step, from foraging to painting, is an energy exchange. There isn’t a week that goes by when I don’t dance.

One of my heroes, Gabrielle Roth, noted that in shamanic societies, if you went to see a medicine person feeling disheartened or depressed, they would ask you four questions: When did you stop singing? When did you stop dancing? When did you stop being enchanted by stories? When did you stop finding comfort in the sweet territory of silence? These are the things that bring the soul home.

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

The only thing to understand is that there is no such thing as being a non-creative. If you are living and breathing, you are creating. Everything external is a creation of the internal—the world mirrors the frequency of the thoughts and beliefs held in the mind. Play with it, and you’ll start to see the immense power you hold.

Is there a particular goal or mission driving your creative journey?

My mission is to be so rooted in the frequency of love, so anchored in the present moment, that everything in life becomes an expression of art. That’s what we’re here for, nothing less.    

Contact Info:

• Website: www.worldwidewoz.com
• Instagram: www.instagram.com/mstacywoz
• Other: Energy healing: www.theawakenedwave.com

Image Credits
Bryn Sumner @threedropetch