Tanya Regan is a speaker, creator, and filmmaker in Mandurah Western Australia. She uses her art of storytelling to teach, heal, connect, and inspire.
I reached out to Tanya about sharing her fearless journey and sent her some questions so that we can get all up in her fearless living business. This is what she said…
1. Tell us what life was like before you began your fearless journey into making short social impact documentaries?
In late 2016 I was heavily pregnant with my third child and my mental health was not in a good place.
I was having a baby girl and I wanted to show her what a strong woman looked like…. AND I DID NOT FEEL LIKE A STRONG WOMAN.
I spent my days counting down the clock to when my husband would get home from work. We had only recently moved to a new town, where I did not know anyone. I was isolated and lonely. I never felt like I was doing a decent job as a mum. I felt like I did not know what I was doing. I poured all of myself into my children and there was nothing left for me.
Going into 2017 I made a new year resolution to be more creative. It was my attempt to fill my cup and do something for me, but I also did not know where to start with creativity. Just after my baby was born, I started developing myself as a creative person by doing a self-guided course in creative recovery called The Artist’s Way by Julia Cameron.
Every morning I would breastfeed my baby until she fell asleep and then I held her for a couple of hours while I worked through the exercises in the book. I was scared my baby would wake up if I put her in her cot, so I just kept holding her all through her nap while I worked on ‘me’.
My creativity started to open and how I saw the world changed. I realized that creativity was not something that I had to magic from nothing, but it was an energy that I could learn how to tap into. By the time my baby was one year old I was so creatively inspired that I was making my first short film.
When I made that film, I did not even have a camera, so I borrowed my dad’s old handy cam. I used what I had, borrowed what I did not have, and I just made it work. That film was a finalist in a film festival and played in a local movie theatre on the big screen.
I knew that I had to find a way to fill my own cup again.
2. What made you want to take the leap and start your company?
It was in the process of making that first film that I was able to re-create my identity. I had lost myself in being a mum but then I found myself through being creative.
I have now made ten short documentaries. My films are about the themes of creativity, connection, and nature. It is an art for me and a way that I express myself.
3. What have you learned about yourself during this journey?
I have learned that wherever you are in your personal life story you can always choose to be your own hero.
I was a lonely and sad, 37-year-old, stay at home mum when I made my first short film. I did not own a camera. I was new in my country town and did not even know anyone who I could interview.
Working on myself and connecting with my creativity empowered my inner magic.
4. What would you do over again before you took the leap? (If anything)
If I could do it all over again, I would have started sooner. I lost time doubting myself.
5. What is life like since you have taken the leap into fearless living?
I feel like me again, but a better version of me because I am doing fulfilling work now. My biggest challenge now is balancing being a mum of three children who are still young, with being a filmmaker and creative person.
6. Tell us about your films.
My films are 2 to 5 minutes long and are all human stories with a social impact message. I believe that creativity, connection, and nature have been devalued by our society and so those are the messages that play throughout my films.
My films are available to view online at www.tanyaregan.me
7. What is one useful tip you would share about how to juggle motherhood with all the other things you are doing in life?
My biggest tip for other women juggling motherhood with all the other things we are meant to do is to know your season.
It would not have been possible for me to make a film when my baby was a newborn, however, I could breastfeed her while I developed my own creativity.
Even now, I would love to be working on a feature film, but my children are still young and of course demanding. I do not want to miss that so for me it is about finding a balance and that balance is constantly changing.
The key for me to be a good mum is to fill my cup. Creativity is one of the ways I do that, but I have also found other ways now too.
8. What has been the most difficult part of your journey?
When I have mum life and filmmaker life in balance, I am great. When I am out of balance, which is what happened for me again at the beginning of the pandemic, it all goes a bit pear shaped.
Celebrate yourself for your own baby steps, for your own progress and know what your own limits are.
9. What has been the most rewarding part of your journey?
The most amazing part of the creative journey is when that creative spark first hits you. There is an excitement and aliveness of making something that does not yet exist and bringing it into form. Receiving feedback from people that they feel “seen and heard” in my films as they connect to the messages, that is the cherry on the top for me.
10. How do you stay motivated when things get tough?
(laughs) I usually have a temporary breakdown, I might cry for a bit, I let myself feel the tough feelings. Then I dust myself, take a deep breath and work with what I have.
11. Share something about your journey that you feel is important that we have addressed.
If it feels good, do it.
If it feels heavy, put it down.
Excitement and fear can sometimes feel remarkably similar. Feel into the difference and then take inspired action.
Then take one intuitive step after the other and if things mess up be kind to yourself, be ok with mistakes, and then take another step.
One foot in front of the other, one step at a time, that is how we move forward.
Wanna keep up with Tanya and her story? 👇🏾www.tanyaregan.me
Leave your thoughts on this wonderful story in the comments…
Stay Fearless 💋
