Nature is the wisest, your body is part of it

We are part of Nature, our bodies are part of Nature and Nature has its own timing, that we don’t fully understand. The divine timing of the universe that moves, shifts and arranges everything and everyone.

So often we fight it all. Our ego wants to call the shots, test its own creator is Nature. Our human desire for control and knowing it all is what drags us back and puts us in uncomfortable situations. Living in this highly materialistic world is not helping us much either. But can we let go a little and learn how to trust? Can we double up on the flow of Nature instead of our singular aim for management?

Our bodies experience it all. By forcing control, we often hurt ourselves physically and mentally. By aiming towards goals, we often pay with our own body health and sanity. By neglecting the needs of our body, we fall into the path of suffering.

How can we help ourselves? - By spending more time in nature, being quiet, listening. By re-connecting with the source we all came from. By acknowledging our own inner voice that guides and supports us in any step of the way, so we know when it’s time to step back and when to jump forward.

If we don’t listen and ignore - we suffer. If we listen, we take the inevitable downsides of life more lightly as they come. Nothing is permanent, all we need to do is find our own balance within this creative realm.

Do you allow yourself?

Do you pay attention if you’re allowing yourself? If you do things for you or the way you’ve been told/think it will be accepted? Do you live according to norms set by somebody else?

Childhood patterns and all the experiences we go through put us in situations where we collect certain behaviours, believes, expressions. Often down the line in life, carrying and using them by default, we usually accept them as our nature, the way we are.

This is not entirely true. In fact, many of the believes and behaviours we carry don’t serve us well and we feel it. But trapped in the years of conditioning, forget to look them from aside and make the conscious decision to change them.

Lately I’ve been in a period of seeing, understanding and desiring to change something seemingly simple in my life, but that has been tripping me for years without me even knowing. I replied I don’t allow myself to live the life I actually want. Why? - because of my childhood condition to follow rules and guidance, that long ago now don’t have any value. I proved to myself I can do things I want, things I desire, if I put my mind into it and take the required steps. Now it’s another transition, seeing how much really all those patterns mean nothing to the adult me now. The child inside tho, scared of rejection, still believes them and here is when it’s time to change the pattern.

By taking actions, small different steps that what used to, we’re able to rewrite the script and change the pattern. Yes, it will take time and it won’t be easy, but the fact that is actually possible keeps be believing its also possible for me.

Don’t let voices, expressions trapped in your inner child’s memory from years long ago to affect your adult life. You have the power to change, to better your human experience simply by making the decision to take action in beneficial for you direction.

How often do you look at your soul?

The soul, our eternal part that accompanies us in this life, before and after. The soul, those 21 grams that contain the whole Universe. The soul, what streams when looking in somebody’s eyes…

The way we intent to see the soul is when we look deeper in the eyes. When we strip down the physical, temporary outfit and focus on that matters most - our essence.

As we live inside our bodies, we don’t really see our eyes if we’re not looking at a mirror. But how often do we really stop and pay attention to our should when we pass by a mirror? How often we sit and patiently observe, without agenda, without rushing tick the next bod on our to do list? How often we choose to stare in our own eyes, instead of looking for external entertainment?

We look at others much more than we look at ourselves. We drawn into our partner’s eyes when in love, we feel the pure love when looking at our children’s, we even insult and harm others using words told straight in other’s eyes. But we can’t see ourselves from the aside.

Usually we use the mirror for checking if our body is clean, in shape or ready to face the world. Often when in front of the mirror we often look everywhere else but in our eyes. It might be even something we avoid on purpose. We might face the judgment of the ego or the dreams of our inner child that we’ve neglected. Often when we began the practice of looking into our eyes intentionally, we find resistance, emotions start bubbling up, tears are just the beginning.

Mirror work has this powerful effect to connect us more with our mind, body and soul, simply because it’s the only way to bridge the physical with the spiritual part of ourselves. It’s a way to practice self love, beginning with talking lovingly to ourselves when looking in the mirror. Here is where you’ll find a lot of resistance at fist. But once you push throw it, you’ll find the most beautiful feeling there is - loving who you are for what you are.

I began using mirror to learn how to love myself and my body, as all the negative voice was harming me inside and out. I even used mirrors to feel less alone when living by myself, especially during the quarantine. I made sure I have a mirror in every room in the house, during all the activities I do daily, including the most mundane ones like eating, cooking and showering. I would sit and stare, talk to myself, dance and simply observe myself from aside. How do I look from aside, what others see when see me, how do I carry myself in the world.

This personal practice helped me with my professional work, my personal work and see esteem. The more i began to learn about and accept myself, the more liberated I felt. Now I can even make the difference when I’ve been away for too long from looking into my own eyes. That little girl inside, that soul is what nurture me and I better pay my part in the relation.

I dare you to try. You won’t regret it.

Anxiety, are you real?

Our bodies, so magnificently created, are constantly communicating with us. Especially when somethings is out of balance. Well, that’s the whole point in a way isn’t it - if it’s good, you don’t need to be warned, to be alerted. In the case of the opposite though, you better listen carefully.

I’ve been living my life with anxiety unclear from how long. Back in the days I thought it’s me, it’s my problem, that there is something not right with me. But never I thought that I might be having a condition that might have collected from somewhere or appeared after certain experience. I used to believe anxiety and depression are jokes, an excusses that people use to explain their fear or lack of ambition. Until after my dad’s passing away I heard that he was struggling with it. His death changed me completely and thought me not to make assumptions but first to learn about the conditions themselves.

So, I started asking questions, digging information related to my feelings so I can understand more. Turned out I have anxiety. Still continued to ignore it in a way as in my upbringing and home country talking about mental health is not a common subject matter.

But with time, information, conversations I became more and more familiar with it. Since recently I can actually feel it - when it comes and when it goes. I pay more attention to my bodily feelings, I listen more. And it turned out it’s not me, it never was, it’s just something i feel sometimes and that probably I might be even able to let go completely.

Our bodies know us better than we think. We’re intangibly connected to everything and everything is connected to us. And out bodies are the bridge between, the vessel that transmits the information, the best friend that always has our back.

Do you listen? Do you allow yourself to stop and really listen to yourself? To observe what your mind, body and soul are telling you, and how sometimes there is an argument? Those two voices in your head, do you listen?

Or are you scared? Is there something that you avoid facing? Is there a pain that you’re scared to let go of because yore so used to it? But what if you let it go and it all works out? What if by listening to your own body you understand that life it’s lighter without that pain even if the pain is so familiarly satisfying?

We’re all in this together. But each of us has it’s own personal work to do.

Why Photographing Yourself Is Beneficial For You?

Throughout art history, self portraiture has been a way for the artist to reflect and capture themselves in a unique way. Nowadays, with the phone camera we have a constant access to we also have the ability to capture, portray, and record ourselves. Being an artist or not, photographing yourself can be beneficial for you in a few ways.

• Helps you release emotions

As living life and going through experiences, we’re faced with variety of emotions, that often can be overwhelming. All of us humans have moments where we’re faced with challenging emotions, very often unable to express them due to lack of understanding or deep rooted traumas that might not allow us. Here is why standing in front of the camera (and ideally a mirror) by yourself, honest and with all of those bare emotions, you experience an allowance to realise and share. Movement, facial expressions and gaze are all channels to release what you’ve had trapped inside. Unreleased emotions get stored in the body and convert into diseases at some point. Therefore releasing what is bothering you, what has been hurting you, is healthy for your mind, body and soul.

• Helps you get to know yourself better

Self portraiture is true mirror that you put in front to observe, examine and learn more about your own self. Trapped in the human body, your soul is directly expressed through your eyes. How often do you look in your eyes? How often do you stop and stare, examine your facial and body features, but also pay attention to the energy that your souls is transmitting to you? By portraying yourself you get closer to your own soul by paying attention to what’s inside that wants to get out.

You can also learn to accept your physical form, your body. We’re here for a certain amount of years, occupying a body that we often want to change and modify instead of accepting and loving it so it can serve us longer, which is directly related to our life time. Getting to know yourself and accepting yourself as you are here and now would benefit you enormously - you’ll live a more fulfilled and peaceful life, with less anxiety and worries. Because fighting and denying it will only lead to more suffering.

• Helps you learn more about photography

You have a constant access to yourself and your body. Photographing yourself is the quickest and easiest way to practice posses, to play with light or explore further. By practising it you’ll become more confident in your craft and with your clients/sitters. You’ll see and correct mistakes that you might be making often. You can learn more about how light and position can change the feeling of a final image. Never the less, you will end up with interesting body of work that you’re proud of, can use in other ways for variety of purposes, but it will also give you a memory of the captured moment in time that will never return. Self portraiture can become a present that you leave behind to your family and children, to the future generation to remember you and your special light.

In conclusion, photographing yourself is beneficial for you in the form of therapy, art or memory. It can enhance your professional work, but will also develop stronger connection with your soul. Practiced regularly, self portraiture can give you a personal, mirrored look of yourself and where you stand at this point in life, that you can’t find anywhere else. A unique reality check to learn from in a deeper level. Looking and accepting yourself is powerful practice. Being your own art piece will give you joy that you can tap into anytime you want.

I’d love to know how you get along. Let me know in comments! :)