Getting Out of Discomfort

Few of us enjoy spending time in discomfort and in this blog post, I’d like to share how I get out of discomfort and how you can apply the same techniques.

One thing to know about me is that I don’t enjoy having my picture taken by myself.

With a group of friends or family? No problem. With my grandkids? No problem.

But me, up front and center, in front of the camera? Problem.

This problem has to do with my thoughts and what I’m making it mean when I’m in a photo by myself.

Why is this an issue? As an entrepreneur, I’m posting regularly on social media and maintain a website. Photos of myself are prominent in both locations.

I recently scheduled a brand shoot and I wanted to go into it feeling confident and wanting to enjoy myself.

This is what I did to make that happen.

First, I did a brain dump and wrote down all the thoughts I had around having pictures taken of myself.

Some of those thoughts were, “I look old in my photos”, “I didn’t know I had those wrinkles”, “The poses are awkward” and “I feel fake.”

Once I had all of the thoughts rattling around in my head on paper, I picked thoughts I wanted to examine and understand more fully on how they were making me feel.

For instance, the thought, “I look old in my photos” had me feeling vulnerable and when I’m feeling vulnerable, I tend to withdraw, which isn’t how I want to show up for photos.

I did the same process with the rest of my thoughts and then I took those notes to a coaching session and went through them with my coach to really examine and gain clarity with what was going on in my brain.

While in session, she asked, “What do you want the photos to do for you?”

Upon realizing I wanted the photos to help me connect with current and potential clients I began to let go of my old thoughts around taking photos.

I shifted my mindset to thinking about the person who would be on the receiving end of the photo and the desire I had to connect with them.  

And so, I came into the photo session with Madison Thomson Photography much more comfortable and relaxed, which is the result I wanted.

I was able to move beyond myself by shifting my thoughts and as I looked into the camera lens, I imagined connecting and laughing with potential clients, which resulted in photos that reflect a more relaxed and engaged me.   

If you’re dealing with discomfort, try doing the steps in my example to ease the discomfort and gain the results you want.

1.    Do a brain dump in a journal (piece of paper works too) of all the thoughts causing the discomfort.

2.    Pick out a few (or all) thoughts and put them in the TFA model to process.

3.    Take those models to a coaching session for additional clarity and to create intentional models.

4.    Let go of the old thought errors and discomfort while stepping into the results you want to achieve.

All photography in this blog post was shot by Madison Thomson Photography at the Light Box Studio.