Author Archives: vivienne

May 30, 2013

What Message Would You Leave?

I so love coming across messages as I go about my day.

They might be carved into the sidewalk like the ones near my house saying things like: Love, Love Yourself or Why Not?

They might be painted or written with a sharpie, at risk of being painted over or cleaned off. Perhaps not as permanent but there at the exact time we need to see it.

Or sometimes they are very impermanent, written in the sand and will be gone when the tide comes back in or perhaps in chalk on a sidewalk.

I’ve been thinking about this lately, especially the permanent ones.

If I could leave a message, one for people to see for decades to come as they walked down the street…what would that message be? And would I get up the gusto in the moment to actually do it?

I have a feeling I’m pondering this so when the day comes that I come across that drying pavement I’ll just go for it….and why wait?

Why not grab some chalk and write it on the sidewalk today.

It might be no surprise that I would want to write ‘Be Your Own Beloved’ somewhere but am also craving to put more ‘Love Yourself’ out there or ‘You are Enough’ or even ‘Its going to be okay’.

But I wanted to ask you this today. What message would you leave?

What would you want people to read and ponder?

Or even help them get through the day.

What message feels like the one you are meant to share?

So tell me, what message would you spread?

And why not do it today?

For some extra love note leaving inspiration I’ve gotta also send you over to visit the amazing Andrea Jenkins aka HulaSeventy. She so inspired me to do more of these random acts of kindness and leave messages for someone who might need it.

She shares this idea to use stickers and some amazing polaroids of some love notes she helped create.

This story of her family leaving love notes around the city and this one of leaving 50 suns around Portland in the grey season.

The options are kind of endless aren’t they.

Chalk, paint, stickers, notes, posters, marker.

Permanent, impermanent.

How can we not resist but spread the love?

May 28, 2013

Vanity and Self-Portraiture

Let’s talk about vanity!

Now, I’ve been wanting to write this post for a long time as this is probably one of the biggest ways that self-portraiture gets pigeon-holed, as an act of vanity.

I so deeply feel that when people assume taking selfies is ONLY about vanity, we actually disempower ourselves (or one another) from the act of telling the story of our lives through images. I think we also make the idea of seeing ourselves as in these images and feeling good about what we see as wrong.

This has been one of the core values I’ve been building these courses around, taking vanity out of the conversation and focusing in on storytelling, on just picking up the camera and showing up for ourselves.

But is vanity wrong?

I feel like self-portraiture invites us to explore our relationship to our self-image and yes, vanity.

Truthfully, I don’t feel like I can say that ‘No, self-portraiture has nothing to do with vanity’ because I only have my own experience of it.

We all likely have different experiences of it.

For a teenager trying to figure out their identity, taking self-portraits (yes, even of the facebook/myspace profile variety) might be an incredible tool to dive into finding self-confidence and figuring out who they are.

For those experiencing invisibility through gender stereotypes, the whitewashing of media and advertisements and for those who’s bodies don’t fit the mold of what is typically seen as ‘beautiful’ the act of taking self-portraits can be a downright radical act.

For me, having felt invisible for much of my life and not beautiful, taking self-portraits in which the goal is to see my own beauty and even dabble in vanity has been deeply healing.

For a person who has always been seen as typically ‘beautiful’ the act of taking self-portraits might be about telling the story of who she is beyond her beauty.

Is seeing ourselves and liking what we see (especially if that is a new experience) wrong? Is it any less the experience of storytelling if we are telling the story of self-hate turning into self-love and reclaiming a bit of vanity?

So truthfully, I don’t think it is as simple as saying that self-portraiture isn’t about vanity.

But I don’t think the act of self-portraiture is vain.

I do feel like self-portraiture invites us to explore our relationship to seeing ourselves with in a positive way, to see ourselves kindness and that involves liking what we see. To reclaim vanity or to throw it to the wind, whatever our story and our relationship to our self-image needs to shift towards a place of self-love.

I think self-portraiture can be a radical tool to see ourselves with love. That’s what I know.

Whether it is through embracing vanity, getting dressed up and seeing ourselves as beautiful because society (or people in our lives) don’t tell us that and we need to find it for ourselves. Whether it is ditching vanity and focusing on the story in the photo or whether it is focusing on the every day moments or the artistry because that is what calls you. I feel like all of these ways of taking self-portraits are deeply worthy. You are deeply worthy of taking self-portraits for any darn reason you’d like!

What matters is that we chose to pick up the camera and give ourselves the chance to feel worthy, to feel like enough, to see ourselves truthfully in the moment, to even feel beautiful or to feel more than beautiful, to feel in control, to feel empowered…to make space for whatever experience needs to unfold.

There is no wrong or right reason to take a self-portrait in my mind, yes even for the sake of vanity.

What matters is that we give ourselves the chance to be seen with kindness, by ourselves.

So bring it on, any way you like!

If you’d like support on your path to see yourself with kindness, come join me for the upcoming session of Be Your Own Beloved. Class starts November 1st!

May 27, 2013

Cultivating Self-Care

I’m so excited to share this new Be Your Own Beloved class all about creating self-care policies with you! While we dabble in using photography as a tool to document self-care in this class, it is really a class about YOU and diving into what ways you can cultivate more self-care in your life.

Now, this class isn’t about self-care as being just bubble baths and treating yourself to massages…that is, unless that is what you need the most.

It isn’t trying to fit a mould of what self-care should be. It is about listening to what we each really need and honouring that need.

I have gathered up some somewhat outside-the-box approaches to pondering self-care in a way you may have never approached it before. In this class we will ask ourselves lots of questions, spilling our own answers into our journals and through our cameras as we find our own individual answers to what we need more of to take care of ourselves in our lives.

I’ve been using these tools over the past few years to hone in on creating more self-care in my own life and I’m excited to share them with you. Like all my classes, this one isn’t about telling you how to take better care of yourself….it isn’t a list of rules for you to follow to make everything okay. It is about empowering you with tools to find your own voice through, the voice that will guide you to create more self-care in your own life.

It is about helping you help yourself thrive and make more space in your life to fill up your own well.

Class runs June 1st to 14th and while this is the only group session I am planning to run this year (so if you love the community aspect of courses, this is the one for you) this class will be available as a self-paced class too.

Come join us and make June the month where you make space for yourself to thrive.

I thought I’d share a few of the ways I’ve been making space for more self-care in my life (photo-style of course):

What are some of the ways you are cultivating more self-care in your life these days?

May 23, 2013

Exploring my Relationship to Social Media

Finding my way in social media, especially since I added running a business into the mix, hasn’t been simple. It has felt like a big mix of questions.

How do I share my work without feeling like I’m selling out or over promoting?

How do I keep up with all these types of social media (which are all quite different)?

How do I find a way to share in social media that really feels like it is my voice?

Who’s work do I excitedly click as soon as it appears in my social media and where can I find more folks like them?

How do I honour the urge to have space to be me, the unguarded me?

How can I stop feeling so overwhelmed by all things related to social media?

I feel like I’m in the middle of figuring out some of those questions, still a few pieces to find the right spot for in the puzzle. Of course, knowing that by the time I figure them out, social media will be continuing its amazing evolution and there will be new questions.

Some days though, I have to pause and ground myself from any overwhelm or frustration by the fact that this evolution of social media is kind of amazing. Seeing the way things have changed even in the last 5 years and how it is allowing this gal on the west coast of Canada to encourage people around the world to use their cameras to cultivate more self-love and compassion. I need to remember in my social-media-frustration moments, that being an active part of this ever evolving world of online connection is actually kind of amazing.

Then on the other hand, as an introvert, it is totally unsustainable to try to rock all kinds of social media. Each time something new comes up I join in and get excited and then overwhelmed and unable to keep up with it all. So over the last year I’ve really been honing in on what my social media plan is and how to rock social media in a way that feels energizing, inspiring and makes me want to share in those spaces!

Here are a few of the things I’m weaving together as my Social Media Philosophy:

Let Yourself Shine

Quite honestly this has been the hardest part. As I started dabbling in social media, especially once I started sharing about my business, I will confess I felt like I was intruding on people’s inboxes, twitter feeds or facebook feeds. I didn’t want to overwhelm them with promoting my work but at the same time, as people joined me in those spaces they were there to connect with me inspired by my business.

For most of us, sharing on social media isn’t coming from a place of ego. Its coming from the fact that we are creating work that we are proud of be it something in an etsy shop, an e-course or a blog post we just poured our heart into. Sometimes I have to ask myself in relationship to social media : Are you going to hide your light or shine it today? Then it is about finding a way to share it that feels right for us and that does indeed connect to the people we’d hope will resonate with our work, right?

Are you letting yourself shine in social media or hiding your light?

What Lights You Up?

This is at the core of my social media philosophy and deciding which mediums to share in. For any of us sharing our work online, it can feel like we need to spread the word everywhere, that we aren’t doing enough if we aren’t everywhere (or anywhere). Yet when I sit down and think about this question….what social media tools light me up and make me want to share there, its totally clear. The list is short too. Instagram, Pinterest (once I activated part 4 of this post…curate your spaces) and my Public Facebook Page, which I try to treat as though it were my personal one and share most everything there.

I also can’t help but notice that the places that don’t light me up, its probably pretty clear to the folks following me there too. Truthfully the ones that fall into this category are Google +, Twitter, my personal Facebook page (it doesn’t light me up only because it is where I am most craving to create some personal space). After a long time of guilting myself about not posting there, I’m finally letting myself off the hook and focusing in on the mediums of social media that feel energizing and inspiring and trusting that those are the places I’m meant to share.

What types of social media light you up?

Live Your Work

Being a photographer, its natural to take photos and share them in social media and of course benefits spreading the word about my business, but alongside that it gives me a chance to practice what I preach! Teaching self-portrait classes & self-love focused work, it feels important to live my work, to show up in spaces of vulnerability and bravery as I navigate the world of being my own beloved too. This has become more and more of a focus of my social media philosophy as it allows me to show up in my own work and process while at the same time hopefully inviting people to get intrigued and inspired by the work and the message!

I also then have a preference for social media spaces that highlight photos, the main one of course being Instagram! That is my happy place online where I feel like I can share these little moments of my day truthfully and also share the work I’m doing through living it. That truly is the primary place I share this as while Facebook does indeed highlight photos (and it is a great place to catch people’s eyes) they irk me with the way that they invite people to download your photo so I have a pretty clear boundary with Facebook about not sharing high quality files. Instagram saves the day again of course as it allows me to share photos to Facebook and sharing inspiring visuals through living my work!

I think this piece isn’t just for photographers too. How can you share the way you are living the core ideals of your work?

Curate, Curate, Curate!

One of the biggest awakening moments in social media for me is the other side of social media: what I consume of it. I don’t want to just go to these spaces to share my own work and disappear again. I want to connect, share, repost, comment. Yet, back to that introvert piece, so much of the time I spent on some social media felt wildly overwhelming. At a certain point I started to get really excited with the idea that we curate our influences. That we get to decide what types of posts come into our feeds…just like other people have the opportunity to do the same for us. So I started focusing in on ways to let those posts that really inspire me or folks who’s work really makes me want to click over to read it.

So, tell me…what is your Social Media Philosophy? Do some of these ideas resonate or do you have your own approach on navigating social media?

This post is part of a really cool project, the Social Media Consciousness Blog Hop. Head on over here to learn more about it and check out some of the other folks sharing their perspectives on Social Media.

May 20, 2013

Little Adventures

On this weekends adventure to Washington State, even though it was just a day trip, it was fun to just engage in the energy of travelling, even if only for the short time.

One of the things I love about getting out of town is the unexpected, the in between moments. The bits of time in between plans where you can just look up at where you are and take a little self-care photo walk.

Just wandering around a town I don’t know makes me seriously happy (with my camera of course). Something about being in a place I don’t know brings up the energy of acutely noticing, of just seeing with new eyes. I especially love taking these little photo walks because while being in a car is a much easier way to travel, just getting feet to ground in a new place makes me really feel like I’m experiencing a place, not just seeing it rush by the car window. I had 2 little bits of adventuring at the start and end of saturday’s photo adventure and in each of those short stretches of time I went on a little wander just to see what might catch my eye.

In Bellingham, just after getting off the bus I spotted it, this patch of tall grass with yellow flowers across the street. I wandered over there and couldn’t resist putting down my iPhone and using the Gorillacam app…stepping into the frame to capture some photos of this day of adventure.

Then, off on the grand adventure away from the rain, through the mountains to the sunny forest that I shared a bit about in yesterday’s post. At the end of that beautiful day I ended up needing to change my travel plans and found myself taking the train home from a town I had never been to: Everett Washington.

After getting my train ticket I had some time to spare and while the town looked pretty industrial in that area, I felt drawn to wander around a bit on a photo walk. I headed up the hill and there it was, this gorgeous mural. It was kind of the last thing I expected to find in that moment. This week in Be Your Own Beloved we had been seeking out messages of love (hearts, words, notes) as reminders to cultivate self-love and I smiled big when I saw that there at the bottom it was…the words ‘You are Loved’. It was a beautiful reminder that wherever you are, there is indeed love. Here are a few more iPhone captures of that sweet little one city block photo walk in Everett!

Have you found that too, that sometimes it is the little in between moments, the unexpected explorations that really add something special to a trip?