Say Cheese!

They say a picture is worth a thousand words. It is so cheesy and cliche, except that it's true. Photos are meaningful. They are an archive of your life's mot precious moments. The memories that you will cherish when you are old and gray and pass down to your great grandchildren.

So, it's important to actually capture those moments. I know for so many of us, that cam be very hard. It is especially challenging when you don't feel confident in yourself. You'd rather avoid capturing your "flaws". I relate, completely. And I am actually trying my best to work on it myself, since it is a huge struggle for me.

A huge part of self confidence is mental, you have to accept that you look good as you are, and you can even accept that it doesn't matter how you look, because real beauty comes from within and the people that love you will do so no matter how you look. I wish I had the mental stability to do that.

Another thing you can do, is work on your "flaws" in reasonable ways that help boost your confidence (not in ways that are harmful to your health or sanity.) For example, I have been working on my weight, and while I still have many flaws, I feel much better about myself with the pounds I've lost gone.

Similarly, some years ago I had cosmetic dentistry done to fix my broken front teeth. My teeth have always been bad and having broken ones right in the front was a huge blow to my confidence. That made me wary of taking pictures and of smiling in general. If a similar issue is concerning you, I highly recommend looking into smile design. Not only will you likely feel better aesthetically, but it is beneficial physically as well.

Getting my teeth fixed helped me so much when it came to photographs. I still hate photos of myself, which I am working on, but at least I feel like my smile is as good as it's going to get, and I can accept that. I am glad that I can show happiness in my photos without second guessing myself. Who wants to look back on memories where they are frowning or pouting? I sure don't, and I don't want my kids looking back and wondering whether their mother was unhappy spending time with them.

We only get one life, and I intend to make the most of it. I want to remember everything and make sure my kids know they were loved. I want them to show pictures to their great grand kids of when they had the "best day ever" at the beach with their mom. I want them to have proof of every cookie baking mess and frosting face birthday and everything in between.

That's the biggest thing I realized. One day, I'll be gone, and all my kids will have is the memories we made and the physical form of those memories, the photos we take along the way. And I decided "who cares if there are ugly ones?" Life isn't always perfect. Why should the photos we take have to be? Isn't it better to have real memories than no memories? I certainly think so. Even if I still have to work hard to battle my demons every time I reach for the camera.