So I am taking a four week photography class by Vivienne McMaster, called Wading In. This course is dedicated to self portraits… expressing yourself through turning the camera around and snapping pictures! It is hard to muster the courage to do this, at least it has been for me… but it’s rewarding too.
I have been exploring photography a bit because I’ve needed to learn how to take pictures of my art for my Etsy shop and pictures of just about everything else in my life because of this blog, and I really love it. But I’ve never had any instruction in it, and I honestly don’t know half the functions on my camera. In fact, I STILL don’t even know how to use the timer. I better figure that out for next weeks assignment… hmmm…. where the heck is that manual I never read?
This first weeks assignment was to use mirrors… play with mirrors. I am going to share those with you today, and my assignment pictures for the following three Fridays as well!
A mirror in my backyard!
I wrote this caption on my bathroom mirror because I just love it so much, and frankly, I need the reminder some times. I talk about this a bit in my Health Reset eCourse… which by the way begins this Monday, so if you’d like to join in on this next course, sign up over the weekend and I’ll add you on to the class!
Anyway, here is a snippet from that class as to why I love this saying and what it means to me:
What if we could look our life square in the eye and say yes to it… yes, I choose this life.
Yes.
I choose this life with this dis-ease. Yes, I’m here for it and I am open to experiencing it. I am open to trusting the journey of it. I’m not rushing through it for the end, but living it. I know that it is constantly evolving and I am open to the joy of being present for the evolution. I don’t want to miss out on any of it.
I mean, we already *are* doing this anyway, aren’t we? We are living it, we are enduring it, we are surviving it, we are perhaps even enjoying it.
So why not commit FULLY to this experience? Why not appreciate it and even choose it? You are living it. You are here. You can choose this day and this path, and feel it all the more keenly… releasing all urges to *wait it out* or rush through it…
If I choose to be here, in this lifetime, then I choose to be here FULLY.
What if I can commit to this particular life. This body I have chosen to help me live it. Grateful for the life it allows me to experience.
By fully committing to this life, we re-affirm to ourselves and the Divine that we *want* to be here.
We are not wasting our life away, waiting for the next thing. We want to be here *now*.
As we send out this message, this strong desire to be here in this body right now, we set in to effect a powerful cascade of intention that we will be here, our intention is to stay here, and we are grateful.
With this intention, our body immediately responds.
The cellular intelligence can feel this intention, and can renew it’s strength and efforts to repair and heal our bodies. “We are staying!” our cells rejoice! “The wait is over! Let’s get healthy now!”
If your cells are getting mixed messages from you… you love your life but you want to be healthier… you like this part but not this part of your body… you like being alive but are waiting for it to be this way before you fully commit… then your cells are working at half strength… not sure if you really wanting this or not.
There is no *but*. Leave all the “but” words out. Just:
I LOVE MY LIFE.
I LOVE MY BODY.
I AM COMMITTED TO THIS EXPERIENCE.
I AM committed to being here. I am 100%. I want to be here for the whole shebang… not just the good parts or the pretty parts, but all of my messy, real, authentic, roller coaster life. I appreciate it all.
And this was my favorite picture I took all week…. this is me, my higher self (on the left hand side of the picture) looking down at my little Earthling me in the mirror, and reminding myself — that it’s all good! All is well! Enjoy the moment, my friend, this is it! Looking at myself through the eyes of love, the eyes of the eternal… and giving myself a thumbs up. Cool!
It’s hard to take self portraits… truly, it feels narcissistic and ridiculous to take a dozen pictures of myself in a single day… by why? Why not take hundreds? Heck, if we can feel comfortable taking 50 pictures of our children playing in the bathtub, or 35 pictures of our backyard to revel in the joy of the blossoming spring, why shouldn’t we take 100 pictures of ourselves, right in this very moment? This moment is so precious, never to be repeated again. I have really enjoyed having “permission” to take pictures of myself, but it begs the question… why did I need permission? Why is it so tabboo to give our self a little love?
Maybe as this course goes on through the next few weeks, it will feel easier and easier to hit that button and capture the moment on film. I will share it all with you here, each Friday. Have a great weekend, my friends! xoxo
