188-Healing Body Image with Photography with Ashley Sherwood

Show: It’s Beyond The Food: Non-Diet Health Coaching

On today's episode, we talk about Healing Body Image with Photography

Do you struggle with seeing pictures of you?

Avoid them altogether maybe?

For all of us women who have struggled with body image, taming our self-image via observing our reflection on picture is a very important step in the process of healing body image. Taking pictures of ourselves and choosing compassion over self-critique is key.

On today’s episode, we are joined with a professional photographer who is using photography to heal her own body image struggle and the one of her clients in amazing body love photoshoots.

Our guest today is Ashley, a professional photographer from Toronto, Canada. Her work has been published in nationwide campaigns with international brands such as Air Miles, Mattel, and Bluenotes.

Ashley has also co-founded GRLCHILL which is a passion project about friendship, self-love, and womanhood.

What you’ll learn listening to this episode:

How to harness the power of photography to move forward with healing your body image struggle
How to coach yourself into confidence before taking a picture of yourself
Tips on how to take selfies in a powerful and authentic way and tame your self-reflection
Why family photos are so important and how to overcome the fear of taking them
The power of friendship in your journey towards self-acceptance

Ashley’s tips for getting in the mood to embrace your beauty

Everyone loves taking a selfie when you’re feeling yourself, but what about when you don’t? Here are a few tips on how to get on that vibe:

Find a few minutes and throw on your favorite song and just shut your eyes and let the moment take you. Jump, dance and sing your heart out. Nothing will make you feel sexier and empowered than moving to your power tune. Put on something you feel sexy and confident in and just have some fun taking some photos of yourself.
Find your LIGHT! You don’t need a fancy ring light to snap a photo of your beautiful face. Find a window, face that window and let your energy shine through.
Run your photo through a quick app to correct any colors that are off or play with some fun filters. You won’t find any Facetune over here. Some apps I like using when I don’t have my computer are: A Color Story, VSCO, and Lightroom CC Mobile. All of them are user-friendly and provide some great filter options to play with.
Take your photo for no one other than yourself. As much as likes and comments make you feel good, take a photo to document YOU in this very moment. Having photos to look back on as we age and change will remind