Take a Step and the Path Will Appear
Take a step and the path will appear.
Last weekend, I attended my first wellbeing festival here in Southwest Wales, The Big Welsh Festival of Wellbeing. One of my goals for this year was to further activate my wellbeing practice, and signing up with a stall at the festival felt out of my comfort zone. I wasn’t sure what to expect, but I’m so glad I was there. I remembered how much I enjoy meeting people and connecting with them.
While the primary purpose was to showcase and offer my therapeutic practices, I thought it would be fun to offer ‘quick portraits’. Unexpectedly, it’s my photographic work on display with a book of my portraits and the quick portraits that really caught everyone’s attention. While I spoke with a few people about my wellbeing practice, I had many more who wanted to speak with me about my photography and have their portrait made.
In every case, I spent a few minutes with each person to help arrive at an intention – joy, connection, peace, love of family, comfort with self – and then captured the moment. See if you can tell from the photos below who was holding each of these intentions.
Aside from fully enjoying the experience, I took away a couple of things from the experience. I learned more fully that part of wellbeing is being seen by others and by ourselves. Photography is a way to experience that in the moment and through the act of witnessing ourselves in photos. The responses I got from those I photographed were truly heartwarming.
“Some of these brought tears of joy to my eyes.”
“You really captured my soul.”
“They are Fantastic photos, the best I’ve ever had.”
Because my photography was more popular than what I featured, I was reminded that sometimes when you venture into the unknown and take a step, the path appears. I’ll remain open to providing wellbeing support, but I’ve already decided to feature my soulful photography at the next festival. If you’re in Southwest Wales on the 15th or 16th August, stop in the Carmarthen Show Grounds for a soulful portrait from me and a beautiful day out at the festival.
