A pivotal piece of making peace with our body through the lens and in our lives as a whole is SEEING our body. From all sorts of angles and perspectives.

Getting curious about how our body looks from angles we might only see in photos, from angles we only see with our own eyes.

Curiosity is a pivotal part of this though. Because this isn’t about getting picture perfect selfies of our body from all sorts of angles. It isn’t about perfection AT ALL. The opposite in fact.

Because aiming for ‘perfection’ along with being unrealistic assumes that we know the result of the photo we get whether that’s a positive or negative outcome we’re envisioning.

But the truth is that perfectionism, unrealistic body standards and assuming we know what the outcome is going to be are our familiar responses aren’t they.

And I don’t know about you, but I want new responses, new outcomes. I want to SEE my body through a new lens. I want to start seeing myself through a compassionate lens and let that grow.

Curiosity, especially through the lens, allows us to see our body in new ways.

Curiosity invites in possibility and healing.

Curiosity allows us to get playful through the lens (another element where we might be feeling the pressures of perfectionism).

Let’s get curious about our body as a tool for inviting in body acceptance.

When I say curiosity…what comes to mind?

When we get curious about a subject, we open up to possibility. We don’t assume we know what we’re discover and instead we open our minds to that which we can’t yet see, which we don’t yet know. It’s playful, intruiging and mind opening.

Now, when I ask you about seeing yourself in a photo? What comes to mind?

Probably quite the oppposite. Likely you have a rock solid perception that comes to mind. Likely one that you’ve thought for a while. We think we know exactly what we’re going to see when we take a photo of ourselves, don’t we?

But in my experience healing my own body image, curiosity has been a pivotal tool that has transformed my self-esteem especially in relationship to how I see myself in photos (a place where we often have remaining self-critique in our body image or self-love journey as a whole).

What if we were to approach seeing ourselves in images with curiosity? 

What if we were to give ourselves permission to take selfies without concluding what we’re going to see before we even take it? It’s a simple but profound tool, something we often don’t even think of offering ourselves.

Or we might be fresh out of shifting our paradigms (like ditching diet culture) and are in the transitional place where we are wondering who we are now without these things we ‘thought’ defined us.

In this process we are getting curious of about seeing our bodies in a new way.

We are getting curious about the person looking back at us in the lens continuing to learn and cultivate connection with ourselves. 

We are getting curious about who we are outside of what our inner critic says.

We are getting curious about what our compassionate inner voice sounds like.

We are getting curious about how the camera can be a guide.

We’re going to explore 10 playful activities (actually this class could be alternatively called 10 Unusual Ways to Take a Selfie) that will invite you to shake up what you think you might see in an image and welcome in a curiously compassionate way of seeing yourself.

 

IN THIS CLASS WE EXPLORE:

• Breaking out of the box of the ways we’re ‘supposed’ to take a selfie, often rooted in societies desire for women and femmes to make their energy, their voice and their bodies ‘smaller’. We’re claiming space in this class, for ourselves…by ourselves.
• Stepping into the curious and sometimes vulnerable place of seeing photos from angles we probably haven’t taken photos from. But we’re doing that because the more we see ourselves from these perspectives, the less ‘charge’ and power they have over us.
• How curiosity and playfulness can open the doorway to healing.

The Body Curiosity class includes:

• 10 Days of powerful activities delivered to your inbox (Monday through Friday for two weeks with a weekend break in the middle)
• A PDF of the class activities to keep exploring at your leisure
• A private Flickr Group for us to connect in!
  
  

What You’ll Need for Class:

• A camera of any sort. Smartphones 100% welcome (in fact, they work great for these activities). Point and shoot or DSLR’s too. You don’t need fancy gear or photo knowledge to take part.
• Around 10 minutes per day to playfully explore the activity. The activities are meant to be something you can easily integrate into your daily life.

Dates:

November 9-20th, 2020

Cost:

Cost: $59 CAD (approx $45 USD)

 

Past participants shared:

I felt so many things with each assignment! Scared and panicked to confident, powerful and proud. I loved challenging myself and being surprised with how much I have grown to accept my body through the class.

-Amanda Mittman

I loved doing this, and I found lots of new ways to take pictures that never occurred to me!

-Beth Platt

 

Register for Body Curiosity:

Registration is now closed but keep an eye out for more classes in 2021!

 

Questions:

I’ve never taken a class with you before but this sounds like something I need right now. Do I need to have taken a class with you before?

Anyone is welcome in this class be it your first time taking a selfie or your 1000th time. No fancy gear is needed for this class and I give you lots of suggestions for taking your photos. Where this class differs from  Be Your Own Beloved is that they are a bigger jump into body acceptance as a pivotal part of the work. That class or the Recognizing Ourselves class is more of a gentle easing into using the camera as a body-compassion tool so if you’re feeling new to that idea, I would start there. But if this idea of taking selfies for yourself and reclaiming your power over how you experience taking and seeing your photo resonates, then you are most welcome.

Is this class only for women only?

No, the class is welcome to all genders and all bodies. While the majority of participants are usually cisgender women, it is open to everyone. 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 non-binary folks, LGBT community and men dealing working through body acceptance is of the utmost importance to me.

It says the prices are in CAD. What would that be in my currency?

Indeed, I’m Canadian, so the prices in Canadian currency but when you put the class into your cart, paypal will let you know what it will be in your currency before purchasing the class. You can check here to get a sense of what it would be though it may be a slightly different rate via paypal.

If you have any further questions about this don’t hesitate to click the contact form and connect with me!

Do I get feedback on my photos?

We have a course Flickr group where we will be sharing our photos throughout the class. 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, if not all of your photos during the class.