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The goal all along for me on this path to see myself with kindness, the destination you could say…has always been Home.
To feel at home in my own body, not like a stranger in it.
To feel the safety of home, of a place of refuge where there is quiet from outside sources.
To feel at home in my life and to take photos that include me in it.
To have that ease that you feel when you are home.
To feel the embodiment of being at home in my own skin.
To find my way home to myself.
Sound familiar? I know its a common thread I hear a lot of folks joining me for Be Your Own Beloved sharing…that we’ve gotten lost from ourselves somewhere along the way. That we are seeking the resonance of home.
I knew I couldn’t spend my entire life feeling so disconnected from feeling at home in my own skin, in my own life, so I picked up my camera and started to chart my course there, having no clue if would actually help. But it did, slowly but surely.
Photo by photo by photo.
Day by day which led to years of walking that path.
Along the way finding moments of recognition, sometimes it was a feeling of home in my body as I’d dance playfully in front of the frame,
Or other times when I’d look at the photo and feel like one photo out of the bunch just felt like me, like the woman I could finally see clearly.
A woman I started to see as home.
I’ve been at that place for a year or so now, settling into the feeling of coming home to myself.
Of course, it isn’t a place we get to reside and not cultivate.
So every few days (with some iPhone selfies in the middle) I get out my camera and find a place to take photos.
This is self-care to me, continuing to show up in this exploration of self-compassion through self-portraiture, this seeking and finding of home.
What has helped you find your way back home to yourself? Yoga? Art? Dance? I’d love to know.
If you’d like to explore taking self-portraiture as a part of finding your way home to yourself, there is a session of the powerful online class Be Your Own Beloved starting April 1st (next Tuesday) as we explore the tool of self-portraiture as a way to see ourselves with kindness and chart our course to feeling at home in our bodies and our lives.