Many strong and capable women squinch to the thought of having their photo taken. There are many reasons for that reluctance. The two most common reasons are fear of being perceived as vein and self absorbed and inability to think about ‘self’ and always concentrating on others.

Due to the same misconceptions you may find layouts about your significant other, children, grand-children, close family, heritage but either very few or more often none about yourself.

Same goes for journaling. You write about your family, friends, your day but you seldom write about yourself in a documentary manner. You seldom (or never) describe yourself and document the “dry” facts about yourself and your own history.

Why not changing this RIGHT NOW?

To embark on your autobiographic mission start by painting a self portrait with your words.
Describe yourself as you are right now:

You can concentrate on physical traits, characteristics, actions or all the above. You may write in the first person or the third person. Past tense or present tense. With or without adding any background. Just start, then go on.

She sat against her blinking white screen. Her mahogany hair was clasped back with a couple of black bobby-pins. A number of unruly curls had broken through the thin metal prongs.

Her somewhat long and slim fingers ran frantically across the keyboard racing with her blazing mind. She was desperately trying to catch up with the downpour of thoughts and beating waves of self awareness.

Her green eyes opened widely amazed at what the broken dam yielded. Every freckle and each mole suddenly assumed a role in making her the unique being she is, differing her from any other person in the universe.

She took comfort in concealing herself under thick masks of anonymity but that day, a glimpse of realization had made her take a peek inside and the view was overwhelming.

The winds of change had taken her by surprise and she grieved everything that was lost forever, not even caught by ink. She promised herself she would linger no more.

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How would you paint yourself with words? When was the last time you took a self portrait – either by journaling, photographing or scrapbooking? Please share by leaving a comment on this post.

Tags: journaling, Journaling Prompt, yourself