Worthy of being seen

How do you feel when you look at a picture of yourself? I can tell you how I used to feel. I hated pictures of myself. I would be hypercritical and nitpick. There are stretches of years where no pictures of me exist. Starting as a teenager, I remember I used to always duck whenever my dad pointed his camera at me. I didn’t want to be seen. I think on some some level, I felt like I didn’t deserve to be seen. I wasn’t pretty enough. I wasn’t skinny enough. I wasn’t worthy enough. I didn’t want to be seen but you know what going through my journey has taught me? That at heart, we ALL want to be seen. We ALL want to be acknowledged and we ALL want to be accepted for who we are. But that can’t truly happen until we accept ourselves, every part of ourselves, good or bad. Today I finally took a self-portrait at my studio which I’ve been putting off for months and do you know what I feel when I see myself today? I feel beautiful because I accept myself fully. I truly SEE myself and I am worthy of being seen. I hope you can see that about you too and know that you are beautiful.