Learn to See Yourself with Compassion

April 6, 2012

Re-Writing the Story

I’m so excited about the upcoming YAYOM: Re-Writing the Story class. I adore creating curriculum and bringing classes to life but this one, its coming straight from my heart. It feels like the one I was meant to create and also, the one I feel like has an extra doze of transformative potential…if folks are willing to dive in and turn the camera on themselves.

You see, self-portraiture is not just a style of photography. It is a tool.

A tool we can use to create a new relationship to our self image.

A tool we can use to take control of the way we look at ourselves.

A tool to tell new stories and let ones that need to speak have a voice.

A tool to document what we are going through and to be a visual narrative of where we are going.

It is created in particular for the people who probably will see this post and say “oh, I could never do something like that” or who are completely convinced that they are not photogenic.

This one is for you, not because I have a magic wand that will suddenly transform your self-image from negative to positive, but because I have found some powerful tools for rebuilding, rewriting our stories. The power to build a loving relationship to our self image is in our hands.

Of course, as always, my philosophy is that playfulness is an antidote to fear, so there is a thread of playfulness that runs through the entire class.

This one is already half full so I do encourage you not to wait until the last minute if you are interested. I have a limited number of spots in my in-depth classes because I do give a lot of feedback and encouragement in the class, especially since you will be bravely sharing self-portraits (even if you don’t think you can at this moment).

So, come join me for Re-Writing the Story!

April 5, 2012

Adventure

April 4, 2012

Community

This past week in my Nia Dance class we were doing an incredible routine.

As we danced around the room, each completely moving our bodies freely.

Had you told me years ago that I would completely love freedancing? I’d have thought you had to be kidding. But its true.

I let go of control and just let my body move how ever it wants to, without forethought.

There we were dancing around the room and my teacher said.

“This is community”

She speaks of community in Nia often but somehow today it hit me differently.

This was community. A room full of women moving their bodies freely and confidently (something that I’m sure for none of us came easily).

Dancing together in a room to beautiful music. Feeling safe enough in each others presence to dance like no one is watching.

How beautiful is that?

It got me thinking further about the idea of community.

That there is no one way that it looks, feels, is.

Sometimes I hear about friends having hours long deep, connected, sacred phone chats with each other and I get it in my head that that is the way that community looks/feels/is and that if I’m not doing that, there is something wrong with me.

Which is so silly.

I’m an introverted leo (which means you may not be able to see my introversion when you meet me as I have the Leo social energy to me) but its true. I need a lot of time alone. I avoid the telephone if at all possible. Something about skype makes it all so much better, to get to look someone in the eye.

But I simply know that I’m not the kind of person that can do those kind of chats every day, at this point in my life.

That doesn’t mean that I can’t have beautiful community.

There is no one way that community looks.

And whatever kind of community we crave, it is out there somewhere.

It may not look like what we expect either. We don’t have to all be exactly the same or fit into a box.

It may be in an e-course with people from around the world.

It may be ordinary women coming together for a dance class.

It may be looking our neighbours in the eyes and saying good morning.

It may be found in moments of kindness.

It can centre around aspects of our identity or beliefs.

It can be that beautiful deep connection, which for me tends to work best in person, like at an art retreat or workshop.

It can be simple or powerful.

It can be creating together.

Let’s erase some of those stories of what we feel like community might be and the ways we are are outside of it. Let’s rewrite a new story of community and open our eyes to it.

March 30, 2012

Dive In!

I’m so excited to be running Swan Dive one more time!

I’ve had some questions about what this course is all about so I thought I’d share more about it today and tell you about why I love post-processing.

When I first found photography, the relationship between the way taking pictures invited me to slow down and notice the beauty around me (and eventually within me) was thrilling enough. Just the taking of photos felt invigorating and exciting.

Then I found the wonderful world of flickr and being able to share images with folks around the world, join group and get feedback was thrilling.

But I started to notice that what came out of my camera and what many people shared online were very different. I assumed they just had magic creative powers and magic cameras but soon realized that in fact it was that they had some pretty fabulous post-processing skills.

I discovered that photography and post-processing felt really different to engage in creatively and in fact, to me, were two completely different art forms.

So I started to explore all the possibilities, to fall in love with layers, textures, borders and all of the different programs there are to process with.

And Swan Dive emerged. It is not a how-to Photoshop or Lightroom class (though there are lots of demos that I’ve created specifically for this class in those programs). It is not a dry or boring post-processing class. You don’t have to define yourself as a ‘photographer’ or ‘artist’ to take part (though I will warn you that you may end up saying those words in reference to yourself by the end of the class).

It is all about engaging in the art of post-processing and seeing what incredible things we can create.

It is about making beautiful mistakes and going against the rules in order to discover unique ways of creative post-processing.

It is about making friends with post-processing programs (yes, like photoshop or lightroom or other online and free programs).

It is about creatively experimenting with things like layers, textures, borders, light leaks, cloning and double exposing!

It is about being in a creative community…and we have an incredible group gathered for this class!

I have also gathered TONS of resources for this class so if you’ve been wondering that to do now that the program Picnik is closing, you will be sure to find lots of options to replace it through your Swan Dive experience!

The course also has interviews with incredible artists like Kim Klassen, Roberta Murray, Lelainia Lloyd and more…and we’ll get a glimpse into their incredible work!

And class starts Monday. You can sign up over here!

If you have any questions about the class don’t hesitate to email me. This is the last time I’m planning to run the class so if you’ve been wanting to take it…now is the time to DIVE IN!

Below are some examples of some of the things we’ll be exploring. I hope to see you there!

March 26, 2012

Running Lessons

Its 3 weeks to my first running race.

I’m starting to get excited and nervous. I have yet to run the distance that we’ll be running at the race so though all is going well (and injury free yahoo) I’m not yet believing that I can really do it.

Yet only 10 weeks ago it was so difficult to even run for a few minutes at a time and now I’m doing much longer stretches. It got me thinking about how its hard to remember how far we’ve come sometimes, especially when we feel like we still have so far to go.

Of course, I can’t help but think about how this overlaps with the creative world too. About how so many people that I’ve known for a long time in the creative blogging world have come so far with their creative dreams, whether it be going offline more so they can write a book, or getting a show at a gallery, or creating e-courses or launching their etsy shops. How once upon a time we were all beginners and in some parts of our lives still are.

It makes me look back at how far I’ve come. About how at some point, like running for one minute at a time, putting an image up on flickr was a really big accomplishment. That one minute, that one image, let to more minutes, more images, more possibilities.

I know how I get caught up in all that I still want to do, that doesn’t yet feel like something I’m sure I can make happen (like my dream of writing a book) yet if I decided to put myself out there again and again and go for it, it could even be a possibility (like actually running 10 km)

I feel like I need to pause more and recognize how far I’ve come rather than get caught up in how far I feel like I still have to go both in my adventures in running as well as my creative life.

How about you?

If you’ll join me today, I’d love to hear about a way that you have come so far, be it in your creative life or other parts of your life. I’d love to celebrate how far you’ve come!