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Each time I run Be Your Own Beloved I’m in awe of the things that come up, that challenge me to create new prompts, that I discover about ones that I’ve used so many times in this class but a participant experiences it in a new way, and by the depth, bravery & honesty of the participants.
Last session one participant mentioned that they found that when they did a prompt where they could set aside over planning the activity or let go of creative expectations, the healing awaited them.
This put to words something I’ve been feeling in my own self-portrait journey for a long time but have been fearful to talk about in my work as the wildly creative self-portraits are selfies people take are AWESOME and I don’t want to put words to their experience of taking selfies and say it isn’t as ‘healing’ as another.
I can only share my truth with you.
The more I try and plan out a shot, the less I feel like I leave room for the new stories that could arise for me. And when I do leave that space, they flow in each and every time.
The healing happens when I stop trying to plan out a shot. When I keep it as simple as possible. When I just make space to look at the woman in the lens and say “What’s your truth today my friend”.
I’ve shared this here before, that sometimes I see people’s wildly creative selfies and wish for a second that it could be my path. Yet I know that my path is all about finding my way home to my body, of taking photos that invoke freedom and the reclamation of my own voice defining how I see myself. I know I’ll go deeper into elements of this as time passes, but they may never be the kind of photos you’d see up in a gallery, and that is 100% good with me. Because I’m not taking these photos to get anyone else’s approval or to have anyone else say they are enough. I’m taking them so I can see myself clearly and tell the woman in the image that she is enough, that she is beautiful and that I am proud of her.
I’ve learned that the more clearly I want to connect with this as healing journey, the more I need to take the pressure of myself for it to be anything other than a conversation between myself and the camera and let creative magic happen through light and playfulness.
So I wanted to share this with you today in case you’re feeling the pressure from yourself to get a technically creative or ‘new’ type of self-portrait for yourself, but really crave to return to the simple conversation that selfies can be.
Or if you are taking everyday selfies and putting pressure or judgement on yourself that they aren’t artistically composed enough.
You get to define how this journey goes for you.
And it’s not a ‘who can take the best selfie’ competition.
It’s you, showing up for the person in the lens and in the mirror and saying “I’m listening”.
So follow whatever path your intuition tells you when you pick up that camera to share your truth, but know that sometimes when we let go of the pressure to get a perfect or a creatively unique shot. When we take the pressure off of ourselves to get the right shutter speed or aperture. When we keep it simple, sometimes thats where the deeper story we need to tell begins…