474: A Spiritual Encounter With Kat McDowell

Kat McDowell has always loved music. She draws inspiration from artists like Foo Fighters and Jason Mraz, Kat’s fun Ocean Pop sound delivered in a blend of Japanese and English is definitely her own. Her career kick started when her first record went to no 1. on the vinyl charts in Japan selling out after two days, and has since released 3 albums and appeared on several TV commercials. She has also performed at festivals like Summersonic and has opened for artists like Switchfoot and Colbie Caillat. Her mission is to connect people through music, which shows through her openness in her youtube videos and highly interactive performances. In 2015 she was a top 5 finalist in the Guitar Center Singer-Songwriter competition out of 14,000 submissions and in 2016 her youtube channel was selected as a winner in Youtube Next Up’s creator program. She is currently working on her new Ten year anniversary album “TEN” which will be out in the Spring of 2018. When Kat’s not singing for a princess in Japan, girls in a safe house in Nicaragua, or at a college in Oregon, she’s in the studio recording, or baking cookies, or surfing at Venice beach.

Kat shares how a spiritual encounter has helped her learn to love herself for who she truly is and transformed her into the confident person she is today.

Bio

Kat McDowell is a singer/songwriter.

Cultural Background

Kat is Japanese and New Zealand descent.

Favorite Self Confidence Quote

Now that she had nothing to lose, she was free.

Definition of Self Confidence

Self confidence is knowing and accepting who you really are and not letting other people define you.

Her Life Before the Discovery of Self Confidence

When Kat was a child and a teenager she hated everything about herself. Her self worth was totally caught up in whether she had friends or a boyfriend or if people liked her and most people didn’t so she felt worthless. She was even suicidal when she was 13 for 6 months.

The “AHA” Moment

Kat’s AHA moment came at 15 when she went to this Christian camp and had an amazing spiritual encounter with Jesus. She was raised a Buddhist so she didn’t grow up in church and had heard about Jesus from friends but had no idea what that truly meant until she had this incredible super natural experience that completely transformed her and healed her from the inside out. She had never felt peace or acceptance or love in that way before.

Her Life After the Discovery of Self Confidence

It no longer really mattered to Kat what other people thought. She felt secure about who she is and truly loved in the depths of her heart. She finally had the ability to love other people from a place of overflow instead of a place of need.

She still have her moments of weakness, and on a daily basis she still has to choose Love over fear. She is still far from the person she wants to be but she knows that striving or self condemning won’t help her to get there so she tries to have a lot of Grace for herself and other people with God’s help and love.