Join me and make your camera your ally rather than your enemy on your body acceptance journey and using it as a tool to SEE yourself and to put your body acceptance into action.

You’ve been working so hard at body acceptance and then…a photo appears. Maybe it’s one someone took of you and posted online. Maybe it’s one you took yourself and felt unexpected. Maybe it’s an old photo of you that you just came across and old stories are rising up.

I hear it all the time, that folks feel like they are working so hard on making peace with their body and then a photo catches them off guard and they feel like they are failing at body acceptance.

But they are not. You are not.

Here’s the thing…photos play a role in body acceptance, one that we might wish we could do without actually taking or being in photos (and our learning, self-discovery and self-compassion) could just permeate our relationship with photos but the challenge is that we have to ENGAGE with photos in order to change our relationship with them. But that’s why I’m here to help you embrace that challenge with curiosity and compassion.

We have to invite them into our body acceptance journey as an ally rather than seeing them as the enemy.

And it  isn’t about fixing ourselves or meeting a standard of perfection in our photos.  It’s about waking up to the ways we’ve been told we need fixing and realizing how the unrealistic demands of perfectionism affect our relationship to our body.

Yes, even if they feel vulnerable, even if they feel scary. We can’t lurk around them to make peace with them…we have to open that door and step through.

But don’t worry friends, I’m here to help! I’m Vivienne McMaster and for the last 7 years I’ve been teaching folks from around the world about using the tool of self-portraits (and yes…selfies) as a doorway to self-compassion and body acceptance. Indeed, I’ve been teaching this since before we actually had the words ‘selfie’ and ‘body acceptance’ to work with! During the I’ve been teaching this work, I’ve also been deepening my own relationship to body acceptance and practicing what I preach (cause that’s how I roll).

This series is about claiming our power back over how we respond to photos. It’s about finding our resilience. It’s about stepping into visibility on our own terms and about being our own ally through the lens.

Almost weekly I find myself being tagged in conversations within the body positive community that often go something like this: “I’ve been working so hard on making peace with my body through food and exercise and waking up to diet culture and I feel great and empowered…but then I see a photo of myself and it all comes up again”.

This is really common in our body acceptance journey. And it doesn’t mean that you’re doing this wrong or that the “proof” of your old stories that come up in photos are true.

IT’S SIMPLY THAT FOR MOST OF US, TO MAKE PEACE WITH OUR BODIES IN PHOTOS, WE HAVE TO DO SO THORUGH THE ACT OF TAKING IMAGES OF OURSELVES. THE PHOTO IS THE DOORWAY TO A DEEPER RELATIONSHIP WITH BODY COMPASSION AND ACCEPTANCE.

And of course, I always respond with some suggestions for how they can start to make the camera an ally on their body acceptance journey.

I think that often in body acceptance work we leave the camera out of the equation, thinking that the work we do in general to make peace with our bodies will translate but most often it doesn’t. The camera is a doorway to deepen our relationship to body acceptance.

Join the series:

Join the Body Acceptance Selfie Series and join in for 5 Classes + 5 Body Acceptance Webinars spread out throughout 2018 to support and enrich your Body Acceptance Path. The series includes:

WE’RE RECLAIMING OUR OWN DEFINITION OF ‘BEAUTIFUL’.

RECLAIMING THE LENS WE SEE OURSELVES THROUGH

RECLAIMING THE POWER TO TAKE A SELFIE NO MATTER WHAT OTHERS MIGHT THINK.

RECLAIMING OUR RELATIONSHIP TO ‘VALUE’ AND WHERE WE PLACE IT.

RECLAIMING OUR POWER BACK AND LEARNING TO STAND GROUNDED IN IT.

RECLAIMING THE WAY WE SPEAK ABOUT OUR BODY.

RECLAIMING THE RIGHT TO BE THE NARRATOR OF OUR OWN STORY.

RECLAIMING OUR CAPACITY TO SEE A PHOTO OF OURSELVES AND FEEL NEUTRAL ABOUT IT RATHER THAN CHARGED…TO SIMPLY & CLEARLY SEE OURSELVES AWAITING US.

And yes, it is hard word work to reclaim that back for ourselves. Yes, it’s vulnerable. To clear off the lens of those expectations and truly see ourselves awaiting us. To start a conversation with ourselves and invite in compassion for our body right here right now.

That is why body acceptance is at the heart of all of the Be Your Own Beloved programs.

In these five 10 day programs you’ll spark your relationship with your body, reclaim your voice, reclaim your power back through the lens.

You can take each program individually or get an even more powerful dose of body acceptance discovery this year by joining in for all 5, spread out throughout 2018.

In the Series you receive:

• 5 Powerful 10 Day Classes spread out throughout 2018
• 5 Teaching Webinar Series called Smash the Scale & Pick up the Camera that you can find out more about here!
• A Private Flickr Group where we’ll be sharing our photos throughout the series.
• A Private Facebook Group where we can find support, connection and inspiration during and beyond class. We’ll share our realizations and have community support on days we need community support in being resilient and bouncing back from critical moments!
• A Body Acceptance Selfie E-Book to start off and support your journey, arriving as soon as you register. In it we explore what Body Acceptance & Body Neutrality are, how we can use selfies as tool for body positivity, technical and creative tips for inviting yourself into the frame as well as links to hashtags, inspiring selfie-takers and resources for your body acceptance selfie path with a focus on diversity and intersectionality.
• A Copy of the Selfie Starter Guide to get you started (and answer any technical selfie questions you might have).

 

The Body Acceptance Selfie Class Series Includes:

Compassionate Conversations

March 5th-16th

The Compassionate Conversation E-Course invites to  spark a dialogue with yourself through the camera. We make room for the questions that arise and break the silence of our relationship to our own compassionate inner voice and work towards cultivating a more non-violent communication with ourselves. It’s a powerful way to spark this year as a whole and to reconnect with ourselves.

Find out more about Compassionate Conversations here!

Body Curiosity

May 7-18th, 2018

One of the most healing things we can do for ourselves on our body acceptance path, especially through the lens is to get used to seeing ourselves from all sorts of persepectives. In this class we’re digging into that process with curiosity, creativity and compassion and exploring the healing that seeing ourselves from all sorts of perspectives brings!

Find out more about the Body Curiosity E-Course here!

Take Your Selfie For Yourself

July 9-20th, 2018

Who are you taking your selfies for? Yourself? Or others? Especially in this day and age of selfie culture it’s hard to separate the act of taking selfies from sharing them publically. But often that’s exactly what stops us from feeling healing through them.

In this class we reclaim our power back through the lens and explore taking selfies for ourselves first and foremost.

Find out more about the Take Your Selfie E-Course here!


Photo Resilience

September 10-21st, 2018

We all have those moments when we see a photo of ourselves and the old stories come flowing back and shake us up. How do we bounce back and reclaim our power in these moments? In this class I share my 10 favourite activities for building photo resilience in taking and seeing images of ourselves.

Find out more about the Photo Resilience E-Course here!

 

Body Neutrality

November 5-16th, 2018

We don’t want to ‘hate’ our bodies anymore so we swing the pendulum the other way and aim for body love. But trying to always LOVE ourselves is a lot of pressure and can be as consuming as self-hate, having us feeling like we’re ‘failing’ if we have a tough body love day. But there is another option in body neutrality. In this class we explore tools for finding body neutrality through the camera lens.

Find out more about the Body Neutrality E-Course here!

 

PLUS Included in the Body Acceptance Selfies Series this year is a Supplementary Webinar Series! 

Smash the Scale and Pick up the Camera

You receive 5 live teaching seminars in between the class sessions digging deeper into the ways we can support ourselves on our body acceptance. This series is designed to help wake us up from the ‘diet culture lens’ that has us seeing our photos with critique and embrace our power, our resilience and find our way towards body neutrality.

Find out more about the Smash the Scale + Pick Up the Camera Webinars included in the Body Acceptance Selfie Series here!

 

If you’d like to join in the classes individually, click the class page above to sign up for our individual class. Of course, you’ll get the most benefit from taking all the classes together.

Register for the Body Acceptance Selfie Series:

 Join in for 5 powerful 10 day classes that are going to wake up, shake up and deepen your relationship to body positivity through the camera lens.

Join the Full Series in 1 Payment:

You’ll get 5 Live Classes, 5 Powerful Webinars and so much more!

The Cost is: $499 CAD (approx $399 USD)

 

 

Or join in for the 2 Payment Options here:

Cost is $499 CAD (approx 389 USD) and you’ll pay in 2 payments of $249.50 CAD (approx $194 USD).
Click here to join via payment plan!

If your Email Address is different than the one listed in PayPal, let me know so I can make sure to reach you at the right address!

 

 

Your Guide Vivienne McMaster:

I’m Vivienne McMaster, your guide in the Body Acceptance Selfie Series and the Be Your Own Beloved E-Courses. I deeply believe in the camera as an ally on our body acceptance journey and have been teaching online classes, in person workshops and taking portraits rooted in this philosophy for the past 7 years.

I teach these classes because I grew up with a deeply critical relationship with my body, one I thought I could never resolve. Until in my late 20’s I started exploring photography and realized it’s unexpected potential for shifting my critical relationship into a compassionate one. I continue to practice what I preach as I now teach these tools that helped me make peace with my body image.

Join the Body Acceptance Selfie Series:

Come join the full Body Acceptance Selfie Series and explore let’s make our Body Acceptance and Self-Compassion this coming year! Join me for these 5 powerful classes + 5 seminars!

What participants of the Beloved Programs are saying:

 

Questions:

Can I  join in ONLY for the webinars or only for a couple of the E-Courses?

Yes! While I recommend joining in for the full program to get the most out of the experience, you can indeed join in for the Ditch the Scale and Pick Up Your Camera webinars here or if you click individually on the classes above you can register for them individually if you’d like.

If you’d like to join in for just the E-Courses but you’re sure you’d like to take them all, click here and you can sign up for them altogether (it’s the same price as signing up for them individually but can use the code IAMENOUGH and you’ll get the launch weekend discount on this option). While it’s a bigger investment, the best deal is to join in for the above and get the full experience but I definitely wanted to have options for folks for whom that wasn’t an option.

Do I have to have taken Be Your Own Beloved?

You don’t have to be a Be Your Own Beloved alumni to join in at all, especially if you’re already accustomed to taking selfies and are in the process of learning about body acceptance and are interested in digging more into how the lens can play a part in that.

If this topic or the idea of using the camera as a tool for self-compassion and body acceptance is really new to you, I probably would start with the Be Your Own Beloved class though…it’s even more gentle and I really do ease you into being in front of the lens throughout the month and we really gently explore body acceptance too.

Of course, feel free to connect with me via the contact form if you’re wondering if its the right fit for you.

Can I just get the E-Book?

At this point, no it is only available as a part of taking the full series of classes. It may be available as a separate E-Book down the road but right now it’s only available as a bonus of taking the 5 classes and a tool to get you started.

Is this a self-portraiture class?

All of the Be Your Own Beloved classes including the Body Acceptance Selfie Series is an adventure into self-portraiture, using any type of gear you have (smartphones welcome). It isn’t a how-to class but in each activity we focus in on a different kind of selfie (like taking photos of your hands, your feet, your reflection or the perspective we are taking it from). You learn so much simply by doing and experimenting with the activity and I’m available for any technical or creative questions that arise!

Do I get feedback on my photos?

We have a course Flickr Group with each class where we’ll be sharing our photos. I will be spending lots of time in the Flickr group exploring photos and I love to comment on photos and cheer you on! The feedback you will get throughout the course will be encouraging and as you’ll find, it becomes fun to cheer each other on in this adventure! You will definitely receive supportive feedback from me (as well as your peers) on many of your photos during the class.

Is the class for women only?

No, the class is welcome to all genders and all bodies. While the class is often mostly women, it is open to men and folks who identify outside of the gender binary. I use gender neutral pronouns in the class to welcome folks of all genders and to not assume the gender of anyone’s partner either. Safe space for all of us, including women, trans and gender queer folks, LGBT community and men dealing working through body acceptance is of the utmost importance to me. Each class I offer, I’m always in awe of the diversity of backgrounds and life experiences we each bring to the group and the safe space we create together.

Why is the program listed in Canadian Dollars?

The class is listed in Canadian Dollars because well, I’m Canadian! I make sure to list the approximate US Dollar beside it because I know a lot of folks who join in are in the United States. I also know that we have folks joining in from around the world. Last years program had a number of folks joining us from Australia and the UK and the Be Your Own Beloved class is in general have had folks joining in from France, Germany, Brazil, Japan, New Zealand and so many more places around the world. So there is not one ideal currency to charge, so it makes the most sense to me to charge my own currency.

Lots of us may be used to paying in different currencies, but if you’re not…don’t worry, it’s super easy. In fact Paypal will actually just do the work for you and let you know what the price will be in your currency. Plus, if you’re from the US, this actually works in your benefit right now as you can see from the approximate US Dollars listed beside the CAD. And if it feels like a roadblock to joining for you to pay a different currency, don’t hesitate to send me a message and I can send you paypal invoice in US Dollars instead (but do try the paypal button first, it’s really way easier than you’d think).

Could I do a payment plan?

I’m more than happy to set up payment plan for you on an individual basis. Click the contact form to connect with me!