I can 100% in full confidence say that my boudoir session has forever changed me for the better and I will never be the person I was before it. Here’s why:

It was the catalyst I needed to literally see that my worth should have never been tied to my physical form. Seeing myself look a certain way that I NEVER thought possible, challenged my entire belief system. Because if I had been lying to myself my whole life about how I looked then what else was my mind tricking me into believing? The photos just proved it to me and it became undeniable with that physical evidence, that I had been looking at things all wrong. 🤯

Sure there were a lot of physical features I had noticed about myself previously but there were also a lot of things I was never able to see within me, before that photo session. It evoked feelings of guilt and grief for wasting so much of my life feeling such hatred towards my self because of how I thought my body looked and how I thought it needed to look. I also realized I was putting the majority of my personal self worth on how my body looked vs. how society told me it should look.

I remember crying the next day and feeling like I needed to just hug myself. Why had I been such a “mean girl” to my self? Where did my head trash come from in the first place? What else was going on up there that needed to be put into perspective? I remember standing in front of the mirror the next day naked and just mentally appreciating my body for simply existing! I felt so overwhelmed with true self-worth and self-love.

I used to never have any of those feelings when looking in a mirror. I would only look in the mirror and pick myself apart and criticize myself and my body. Sometimes I’d literally tell myself I was completely disgusting.

You know how when you’ve been hurt by someone in a certain way, & then you decide that it feels terrible and that you never want to end up doing that to someone else. It’s like that….I finally realized I had been hurting myself in a BIG way and that I would never do it again. It lit the fire in me to now help other women, to stop hurting themselves in the same way I have hurt myself. I notice that this same spark is lit in other women who have also had this eye-opening experience. They want the women in their lives to do it too because now they know the same thing…. and don’t want to let the women they care about to continue hurting themselves in this same way either!

I witnessed this in person at a really special image reveal session. It’s a special story that I think deserves it’s own separate blog post!

An unexpected side effect of my personal boudoir session was this sort of eye opening realization, that what I once believed about myself and what I believed others expected of me, may not actually be accurate or healthy for anyone and is worth revisiting and questioning at the very least. 

This essentially created a never ending ripple effect that has ultimately led me even closer to “finding myself” by unlearning the societal conditioning that led me to literally hate my body, hold myself back and prevent myself from living as my true authentic self. I realized that my body image was affecting my overall self-image and seeping into every aspect of me and my life.

I stated that this ripple effect is never-ending because we have been conditioned our entire lives so it’s going to take even longer to completely rewire the brain. On top of that, we’re constantly living out new experiences and thus picking up on even more conditioning that we will always need to consciously recognize and then decide if we want to allow those beliefs and ideas and thoughts, to become a part of us moving forward. 

So it really is never ending BUT once you have begun this mindset shifting journey, it will be hard to completely turn it off and entirely go backwards to who you were before that initial shift that sparked everything. And that’s fantastic news, I would NEVER want to be that person I was, again. Now that I have seen things through a different lens. I‘m going to continue shifting my narrative and questioning my thoughts and allowing my authentic self to lead me. The best part- no one can stop me! I know I have the power within me to create serious shifts in my thoughts & beliefs all on my own now, and that is SO EMPOWERING!

Of course I fall into ruts where my hardwired negative thoughts dominate at times, but the more I keep recognizing that and reframing things, the easier it gets to shut that down and the happier I am and the more at peace I am with myself and others.

The ripple effect I mentioned isn’t just effecting me, but everyone around me!

It sort of rubs off on those around you or at least gets them thinking and questioning things.

This is contrary to an old belief that tells us, it is selfish to spend time and energy on ourselves. It’s not selfish to be our best selves for the people around us. It allows us to give more and be more to everyone in our lives. This old belief that self care and self love is selfish, is still holding strong in many lives but the status quo is shifting and people everywhere are embarking on a journey of self growth and empowerment! It’s becoming more and more evident in today’s world that everyone deserves love & care from themselves FIRST and everything else will flow more smoothly for everyone not just themselves when they begin practicing self care and being able to show up as their best selves.

This ripple effect is made possible when something occurs that shifts our way of seeing things and thinking about things. Choosing to have an empowering portrait session is just one of the ways you can step outside your comfort zone and challenge your perspectives and beliefs. I am SO honored to be able to kick start or solidify this shift for so many women through the art of photography!