I found this photo and felt like I wanted to write down my thoughts.
I turned it into a creative writing exercise, which took me about 30 min.
I edited the text, and now I feel that I need to put it aside for some time. I will get back to it later and probably edit more later.
I would like to work on connecting my ideas better.
Here is the result of today's practice:
I found this photo in the archives, in a folder with other random pictures.
To see your own progress, look at your life in retrospect, and you will see everything, including what your eyes can't see.
This photo wasn't selected to be retouched or edited, but I like it. It was taken when I turned around, before I was ready to be photographed.
I can see now that I was still afraid of my own wild nature back then. That's why I chose to "forget" that this picture existed.
If I could give one advice to my younger self on this photo, I'd say "Be bolder. Be braver."
Have I changed since it was taken? A lot. I have embraced my wild, extravagant, and untamed traits, and I'm still welcoming them, one by one, as they keep introducing themselves to me.
I have learned to be more present and honest with myself. I fell in love with my bare face, my body, and my spirit. I learned to be beautiful without needing makeup to cover my face. I still love make-up, but in the year when this photo was taken I used makeup to hide my acne and my shame. I learned to take better care of my skin, and I healed it. I created practice routines to change so much of what seemed normal. I created the new "normal" for myself by transforming my pain into empowerment. I reinvented many areas of my life when I realized how big my influence was.
Each of you plays the main part in your own life, but somehow people are taught to believe that their part is not important, or that they failed the audition.
What do you see when you look at your old photographs?
So many people want to go back to what WAS, feeling resentful toward what IS. They want to lose weight to look just like they USED TO look when they were 25 or to be as happy in a dysfunctional relationship as they USED TO be at the beginning of their story. People set goals to travel to the past, and I say - look into the future. You can achieve the unimaginable and the unachievable (yet). You can't see your goal clearly from where you are (because you haven't been there yet) but you can feel that you're certainly traveling into the future, toward your authentic self. It only gets better there.
When I look at my photos from a few years ago, I have no regrets. I understand more than what I understood back then, and this understanding propels me forward.
To do YOUR exercise, go to the post In the Community of Practice
Если вы ищете пространство для самостоятельной практики английского языка, где есть упорядоченная система творческих упражнений для студентов с высоким уровнем английского, живая обратная связь, и люди, которые уже давно занимаются и делятся своими результатами, присоединяйтесь к Native-Like Fluency. The Community of Practice. Здесь вы найдете упражнения для целенаправленной практики и развития речи и когнитивных навыков на английском языке. Первые 7 дней без оплаты и привязки карты.