Ep 100 Why I Create: How Creativity and Reflection Help Us Truly See Ourselves

In this milestone 100th episode of The ARTwork of YOU, Lori Gouhin opens her heart to explore the deeper question: why do we create? For Lori, creativity is not optional, it's necessary. Whether through painting, podcasting, or coaching, she shares how every act of creation becomes a mirror that reflects not only who we are, but who we are becoming.

Lori takes you inside her journey as an artist, coach, and podcast host, showing how creativity is a practice of courage, vulnerability, and self-belief. From facing doubt and limiting stories to celebrating the triumphs of showing up 100 times, she invites you to see that creating isn’t about having it all figured out, it’s about finding clarity in the process itself.

Through personal stories, coaching insights, and reflections from her own work, Lori illustrates how art, conversation, and even accountability act as mirrors helping us see our strengths, weaknesses, and potential in new ways. 

Lori also poses the powerful question: Are you willing to truly see yourself? Not the polished version, but the real you the one who carries doubt, courage, and untapped strength.

This episode is an invitation to pause, reflect, and recognize how creativity builds belief in yourself while giving others the gift of seeing themselves more clearly too.\

Episode Highlights:

• Why creativity is a necessary practice for self-reflection and growth
  
  
  
• How art, coaching, and podcasting each serve as mirrors that help us see ourselves
  
  
  
• The role of accountability in creating transformation and alignment
  
  
  
• Why abstract art carries not just beauty, but courage, belief, and personal stories beneath the surface
  
  
  
• How showing up 100 times builds confidence and deepens connection
  
  
  
• The question that can shift your perspective: Are you willing to see yourself?

If you’ve ever felt the pull to create, wondered why expression matters, or needed encouragement to trust your own voice, this milestone episode will remind you that creativity isn’t about perfection it’s about presence, reflection, and courage.

Thank you for celebrating 100 episodes and remember to show up in your life like the masterpiece you are because YOU are the ARTwork.

Thank you for sharing your time with me and remember to show up in your life like the masterpiece you are because YOU are the ARTwork!!!

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Have a fabulous day!

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Transcript

Lori Gouhin: [00:00:00] for me, creating is not optional. It's necessary. It's how I face myself and I create to offer you the same chance to see yourself and to believe in yourself in a way you maybe didn't before. Hello, my friends. I am so glad that you are here with me today because today is a very special episode. It's number 100, and while I'm definitely celebrating the number just for the sake of it, because come on, [00:01:00] 100 is a big deal. What I'm also celebrating is what that number represents. It means that I've shown up here.

100 times to create something, 100 times to share thoughts, ideas, questions, stories 100 times to hold up a mirror, not only for you, but for myself too. Everything I create, whether it's this podcast, my coaching, or my art, has really always been about one thing, and that's reflection, and it's about seeing ourselves more clearly.

The mirror isn't one directional. When you tell me that an episode resonated with you, that reflects something back to me too. When someone stands in front of one of my paintings, tells me what they see or what they feel, I'm also seeing myself in a new way. And so today in this milestone episode, I want to talk about why I create and how at the core of everything I do, I see myself.[00:02:00] 

As kind of a creative mirror, someone who creates spaces, conversations, and art that helps people recognize themselves while helping me to recognize myself at the same time. And as you listen, I want you to think about when was the last time you looked at something? Maybe it's a piece of art, or maybe it's a conversation you had, maybe even a quiet moment and really saw yourself reflected back.

When I think about coaching, what strikes me most is that it's never really about me giving people answers. It's about helping them see themselves more clearly. When a client comes to me, they might think that they need strategy or a plan, and yes, absolutely those things matter, but what really changes them?

Is when they see their own patterns, their own habits, their own strengths and weaknesses reflected back in a way that they hadn't noticed before. That's when something really [00:03:00] shifts I would say that accountability is one of the clearest mirrors because you're seeing in real time whether they're showing up as the person they say they want to be, and that reflection can be uncomfortable sometimes, but it's also freeing.

Because as they say, once you see it, you can't unsee it. And that's where the growth and change happens. And as I said before, it's also a mirror for me too because every time I coach someone, I'm also asking myself, am I walking the walk? Am I doing the things I'm encouraging them to do? Am I embodying the strategies and the mindset?

I know work coaching holds me accountable to myself just as much as it holds my clients accountable to their goals. Again, that's what I love about it. I'm not trying to fix people. I'm holding up a mirror and saying, look, this is who you are. This is who you're becoming. What do you wanna do with that?

And this podcast is [00:04:00] also a mirror, but I would say in a different way than coaching. Coaching is intimate, very one-on-one, very direct. But the podcast, this is me holding up a mirror in a much wider space. It's me putting something out into the world not knowing exactly who will hear it or when, or what part, if any, will resonate with people.

And yet, that's the beauty of it. I'll say something that feels almost ordinary to me. Maybe just a passing thought or a story from my own life, and then someone will reach out to me and tell me that that exact sentence made such an impact on them. That's the mirror at work. It reminds me that what feels small to one can mean everything to someone else, and this podcast also forces me to pause and ask questions I might otherwise be rushing past.

 I've recorded episodes on all kinds of things. Things like regret, accountability, time, even the idea of creating a life that you would actually want to hang on [00:05:00] your wall, like a painting in each of those episodes, they were not just for you. They were for me too, because when I prepare an episode, I have to face those questions myself.

I can't just talk about regret and theory. I have to ask where am I still carrying it? When I talk about accountability, I have to ask where am I avoiding it? And if you listen to last week's episode on the topic of finding your why, why that matters, and what a true why really looks like. I had to go down that rabbit hole for myself.

And in doing that, I decided that what a better episode than episode 100 to share why I create. And again, that all stemmed from creating the episode last week. And so the mirror here is kind of layered. It's me reflecting something out to you. It's you reflecting something back to me, and it's me reflecting inward.

Every single time I sit down to record, [00:06:00] that's why this podcast matters to me. It's not just content, it's connection. It's a shared space where we get to see ourselves more clearly together. And I would say at the center of everything I do is my art, because it's where this all really began for me. And the thing about abstract art is it, it doesn't tell you what to see, right?

There's no fixed meaning, and instead it invites you to bring yourself into it. When someone stands in front of one of my paintings, what I hope they see isn't just brush strokes or colors or textures. I want them to look deeper and see themselves, their emotions, their memories, their questions mirrored back through the work.

That's why I would say, unlike many other artists, I've never really been interested in repeating one single style of art or a formula for painting. Each piece I create is different because each one is its own mirror. So what I want you to know is [00:07:00] that what you're looking at on the surface is only part of the story.

Every layer underneath carries something of me. The limiting beliefs I've had to work through the risk of judgment, the fear of not being good enough, the resistance of learning to let go, the courage it's taken to keep painting when I wasn't sure that anyone would care. The confidence that I've filled over time, one painting at a time.

The proud moments where I realized I was capable of more than I thought, and recognizing the belief in myself that I didn't always have, but that I've had to grow in order to create the work that I make now. That's what abstract art holds. It's not just outward beauty. It's the story underneath of what it takes to create something honest, something vulnerable, something that reflects both the struggle and the triumph of being human.

My paintings are my way of processing life, of seeing and knowing myself more clearly. [00:08:00] Sometimes someone will tell me that they see something in one of my paintings, and completely surprises me. It's not what I had intended at all. But again, that's the beauty of it. The painting becomes a mirror that reflects something back to them entirely different than it did to me.

In that exchange, I realize the work has a life of its own. It's not just my story anymore, it's theirs too. And maybe that's what keeps me coming back to painting this ongoing dialogue between myself, the work, and whoever encounters it. Because in my opinion, art at its best doesn't just decorate a wall.

It reveals something about who we are. So why do I keep creating? Why does it matter so much to me, whether it's a painting, an episode of this podcast, or the work I do with clients? It's because creating is how I built belief in myself. It's how I've worked through doubt and faced my own limiting stories.

And chose [00:09:00] courage even when I didn't feel ready. Every painting, every episode, every coaching conversation carries some part of that journey. I don't create because I have it all figured out. I create because I don't, and I need a way to process what I'm learning, what I'm questioning, what I'm still working on.

And each time I put something out into the world, whether it's on canvas. Behind this microphone or with a client. I grow my own confidence a little more, and I prove to myself that I can trust what I have to say, what I have to offer, and who I am becoming. And at the same time I create because I know it can do the same for others.

When someone listens to this podcast and finally hears themself and what I'm saying, or when a client sees their own strength reflected back and they realize that they've had it in them all along, or when someone stands in front of one of my paintings and tells me this makes me feel something [00:10:00] really powerful, that's when I know the work has done its job.

And for me, creating is not optional. It's necessary. It's how I face myself and I create to offer you the same chance to see yourself and to believe in yourself in a way you maybe didn't before. And so here we are to wrap it up 100 episodes in. And when I look back, what stands out to me is the fact that I've had 100 chances to create something.

That didn't otherwise exist. And I wanna thank you. Every time you've listened, every time you've reached out to me to share what connected with you, you've been a mirror for me too. You've reflected back the impact of this work,  and you've reminded me of why I keep showing up my art, this podcast, my coaching.

They're all different mediums, but they come from the same place. And so I wanna end this milestone [00:11:00] episode with a question that has stayed with me, and it's one that continues to guide so much of what I do. And that question is, are you willing to see yourself, not the version of you. You put on when you're trying to look like you have it all together, not the version of you that follows the rules and plays it safe, but the real you.

The one who carries doubt, the one who second guesses, the one with flaws, the one who also holds potential and strength and more courage than you realize, because isn't that the whole point to notice what you're willing to see in yourself when you take the time to look? That's what I hope my art does too, because it sure isn't just about something to match a sofa or fill a wall.

It's an invitation to look beyond the surface at the layers, the risks, the belief it took to create it, and maybe to see something new in yourself reflected [00:12:00] back. And so again, I'll leave you with that question. Are you willing to see yourself?