Healing Pictures
I used to participate on a regular basis in Self Portrait Sunday. My friend Cass used to host it over on DigiCass.com. I think she does it over on MidlifeMusings.com now. I got away from doing it for awhile, and the blog I used to post it on, I put into hibernation. I decided to take a picture this morning and tell you what happened to me when I started doing Self Portrait Sunday before.
I'm very self critical, or I should say, I'm self critical about some things. I'll be honest, it used to be very hard for me to see a picture of myself that I liked. I either looked too fat, my face was too red, my hair looked bad, I had a double chin in it, and so forth. You get the idea...it was always something....and the thing is, I saw it more than others did.
When I started getting into the habit of seeing myself weekly in a picture, I found myself going from "I hate this picture" to "This one isn't so bad". You see, honestly, once I got used to seeing myself in a picture, it wasn't as traumatic to me. It sounds silly, but others started getting used to it also, and they were less critical over time. Instead of seeing things like, "I look bad today, but here it is", you'd see "This is me".
It's healing to be able to look at yourslf, and not be disappointed in what you see. I used to wear make-up daily, and working from home, I got used to seeing myself without it. In the beginning, it really bothered me; now it doesn't phase me in the least bit.
We become more comfortable with ourselves when we can be okay with what we see in ourselves.
So....this is me, taken this morning May 18th. It could be better, it could be worse, but true enough, if you were at my house today, this is what I look like. You know what? I'm okay with that....and that's a nice thing.
If you haven't tried participating in Self-Portrait Sunday, give it a try. You may find it healing your inner critic as well.