DAY 3: EMERGING INTO THE IMAGE
HOW HAS IT BEEN EMERGING INTO THIS EXPERIENCE?
Today's prompt is all about emerging into the process and our photo using one of my favourite creative ways to take a photo. It's a great one to help us emerge a bit more into the photo and this experience. How has it been emerging into the experience as a whole far?
May 3, 2022: Over the last month, I have been working on temerging from my shell of #anxiety, #loneliness, & #depression. I’ve also being trying to break free from my moments of intense #selfloathing as well as my sense of #unworthiness.
What have I done to get here?
Well, the biggest thing I did was to work out & implement a plan to save my spring #semester at @kwantlenu. Most mornings I get up between 5-7am & head to either @aldercrossingstarbucks or @southpointsbux where I work for anywhere from 2-5 hours on stuff I’ve needed to get done for my courses. Sometimes I’d take a break & run errands, to end up at @lauras_coffee_corner or one time, @everbeancafe to continue my work. And it’s been #productive. And I thank these places with the deepest #gratitude for letting me nest there, living off tea and snacks.
I committed to doing this as part of my plan, as both my place & my Mum’s are still really #unorganized. The mess has been a hindrance to getting things like my university classes done. Term after term, I thought I could spend a week or two going gangbusters on tackling my messes, to then go back to my classes, but that just wasn’t working. The cleaning would end up taking too long, I’d get behind, & then the depression would slip back in, & I’d end up wasting my days in bed, leaving everything to remain undone. Six terms in a row this happened… & this spring was almost the seventh.
I USED THE WORD 'EMERGING' BECAUSE I THINK IT'S IMPORTANT TO LET OURSELVES EASE INTO THE PROCESS. WHAT ARE THE COMFORT ZONES YOU'RE NOTICING SO FAR?
Are you noticing that some prompts are more outside your comfort zones than others? If you find yourself coming up against a comfort zone, could you let yourself use a tool like this and emerge into the photo gently rather than push yourself and make it all or nothing? Can you think of any other times you let yourself stretch into an experience, step by step and let yourself emerge gently?
Today I shot this photo of myself as I prepared to head to @stjohnambulancebc for day two of a Mental Health First Aid course I’m in, after working for an hour at Southpoint Starbucks on one of the outstanding #assignments due for my Interdisciplinary Expressive Arts classes at Kwantlen. Doing this has formed a large part of my routine since late March: going to classes, or going somewhere to study. And then chipping away at everything else. Even now, as I write this caption, I’m doing so in the parking lot of St John’s Ambulance following the completion of the Mental Health First Aid this afternoon.
I still have a lot to do. But I’m trying. I’m trying to stay positive. I’ve said this countless times before but I really am. I’m tired of being down on myself.
123/365.
This photo was originally posted to Instagram and Flickr.
Today’s photo prompt and reflective journaling questions for today was a part of the BE YOUR OWN BELOVED photo workshop challenge which is run several times throughout the year by photographer VIVIENNE McMASTER. It’s well worth signing up for, and doing alongside other participants.
#depressionhelp #depressionawareness #startingover #selflove #selflovejourney #selflove #dailyselfie #dailywriting #subvertedselfies #subvertedselfie #art #photography #photo #windowcleaning #soulconfessions #tryingtogetbetter #selfie #subvertedselfie #instaselfie #selfloveisnotselfish #sad #depressed