Love the Skin You’re In
How to Love the Skin you're In
It's time to love the skin you're in
As a portrait photographer, often my clients come to me with body shame and the feeling of not being good enough. It is a discussion I have with many women and men and the idea of being photographed is very scary to many people because of this feeling. How do you overcome the fear of not being good enough? How do you begin to love the skin you’re in?
Look at Yourself in the Mirror
Look at yourself in the mirror
When is the last time you have actually seen yourself? And I don’t mean the quick glance in the mirror or the quick makeup check and hair check. I mean to actually stand in front of a mirror and look at your entire body. Do you actually own a full-body mirror? If not, that’s your first homework. Go to the furniture store and get a full-body mirror. The most affordable one is $20.
Look at yourself for at least 10 minutes every day
Now that you got a mirror, for the next 2 weeks, I want you to look at yourself for at least 10 minutes. You can be naked or in your undies but I want you to start being comfortable with who you are and how you look.
Avoid the Hate Talk
This exercise is not easy but it becomes much easier if you don’t hate yourself while you do this. So, for the length of the exercise and beyond, I want you to avoid any hate talk. No words of shame, no words of hate, whether you are in front of the mirror or not.
Give yourself 1 Compliment Each Day
For every day you look at your body in the mirror, I want you to give yourself one compliment. Here is the thing, I don’t want the compliments to be about your personality, although those are great too. The compliments should be about your body and how you look.
NO body is perfect
No Body is perfect
No person and no person’s body is perfect. No one’s body in the world is perfect. Do you realize that? If you google the history of a perfect body, you’ll find that the ideal changes over time. This website outlines it perfectly. The ideal body type changed throughout history from a slender body with narrow shoulders, a high waist, and a symmetrical face, to a plump, full-bodied person with light skin, to ample bosom, a rounded stomach with full hips, all the way to the athletic tall body with no curves at all. If you look at the variation, it tells you that the perfect body is not what is identified by the society, but it is identified by YOU.
10 things you love about your body
In the next exercise, I want you to get a journal and write a list every day for the next 2 weeks. In this list I want you to write down 10 things you love about your body.
Every day this list has to be different. It doesn’t count if you just write the same list over again.
Every day you must write 10 things you love about your body and say it out loud to yourself. If you want to say it standing in front of the mirror, do it. It will be that much more powerful.
Book a Photoshoot
see how the rest of the world sees you
The best way to start loving your body and yourself as an individual and the amazing human being that you are is to see yourself how other people see you. Booking a boudoir photoshoot will do that and I’ll tell you why.
A professional photographer, such as myself, is trained to look past the blocks and walls and to capture what is on the inside of a person. That’s the goal and the whole point of a photoshoot such as boudoir. What is boudoir? Read more on that topic here.
People come to me because they want me to capture the true real self of their person. But that’s not all I do. I am also trained to see you in the best way possible. I don’t see your imperfections, I see what’s the best about you, your spark, and I capture that.
Let me capture you in the way I see you
I love people laughing and smiling. I see your spark, your glow. I see your sunshine. I don’t see what you see. My goal is to capture only the best there is about you, and everything else will step into the dark. It will still be there but it won’t be as important as it was previously. You just won’t see it as you once used to. You will now see what I see instead.
