Healing through Photography, nurturing your inner child (149)

Hello, my friends. I am so excited to be with you here today. I recorded this episode also for my YouTube channel. So I hope that everything sounds good. You guys let me know. Just tell me if it sounds a little off because I'm happy to find other ways to do it where it works better for my podcast too. I hope you guys are doing well. And I've absolutely been thinking about my podcast lately. It's been number one on my mind. I'm changing things around. I'm rebranding a bit.

I've already renamed it Creative Entrepreneurs Unblocked. If you can't find it, that's why. And the art will be changing soon. So if you have anybody or if you are somebody who can do podcast art, I am so open to referrals right now. It's not even funny. Like I know I can do it myself because I do everything and I don't want to. I want to see what this could look like through someone else's eyes.

So if you could please refer yourself or somebody that you've worked with to me that does graphic art like that, please send an email to Aubrey, A-U-B-R-E-Y at A-B, as in Aubrey Barr, storyteller.com. And I will put that also in the show notes. I'm so excited to hear from you guys. And thank you. Let's have a beautiful day today day and enjoy this episode.

Hey friend, welcome to Deep Healing for Creative Entrepreneurs. My name is Aubrey Barr and I am a subconscious release technique practitioner and photography business owner. I know you are sick of ending your day feeling overwhelmed and exhausted and you are seeking a solution to help you feel creatively inspired and actively engaged in your business as well as professional life.

In this podcast, we are going to dig into any limiting beliefs or subconscious programs that are keeping you in a space filled with anxiety and stress. This work is not a temporary solution for your life. No, this is a complete transformation. So grab your coffee or tea and let's start you on the road to healing. And let me just say, you can do this. You are worth it and you are meant to thrive in life and business. So let's dig in. Music.

I want to start by sharing with you guys a story. So when I was younger, 12 years younger, so I was like 30, I was in a situation where I had this little child and she started walking and she started moving and it was like, whoa, what is happening here? Time was moving so fast and I continued to see her and see the growth that she was experiencing. And I was like, wow, I feel like I'm missing out on everything and I need to

find a way to capture these moments, to freeze these moments. And so I did. I asked my husband and we got together and we found a way to pay for that first camera kit. It was very expensive for people who had a lot of issues with fertility and had to do IVF to conceive her. We had a lot of medical bills. It was rough, but man, I just felt such a pull towards being able to capture those moments.

And I remember looking at a picture I had taken with my cell phone, which those cameras were not good 12 years years ago. And I was like, oh my gosh, I really have an eye for it, you know? And I just led with that. I just led with this hope that this would become something that I would treasure. I did not think I was going to become a photographer. I did not think I was going to fall in love with it. And I never, ever thought I was an artist until I got that camera.

And then I started to see how I was an artist and how I was creating things. So there's this beautiful story I think that unfolds in all of us when we come to that point where we're like, what is this? How can I create this? And some of you started that from when you were young. You know, it's easier to look back and see it, isn't it?

But I think the biggest draw, and I don't know that everyone realizes this, but But one of the biggest draws towards creativity and towards art is because it is healing. There is a lot about it that feels so good. I know for me, there was a part of me that didn't want to share myself with the world. So I was experiencing that in a lot of different levels. And just a tiny backstory, I am middle of seven children. And so, you know, I mean, you can imagine how much attention I got.

I have amazing parents, but that's a lot, right? I have one child, and I can tell you that having seven is just a stark difference. So I always felt like I knew I was around, but I didn't want to be seen. I didn't want any extra attention. I didn't want the spotlight. I had no, no way that I wanted that spotlight on me. And I remember carrying that feeling with me even through photography. And I would take a picture and I think, should I share this? Should I just, you know, keep it for myself?

But slowly and surely, I started to share it. And I started opening myself up to like, maybe I'm good at this. You know, people really like it. Maybe there's something there, right? Maybe I should start a business, right? That whole conversation happened very organically for me. And when I look back, I can see how creating art and diving into it absolutely started me on a healing path that I, you guys, I needed. Okay, I absolutely needed that.

But it got to a point where all the creation I was doing wasn't quite enough.

And so at some point, I had to also tackle that mindset part of me. I had to look at my stuff and say, what about this am I still holding back on? You know, what parts of my past am I still like, I want to, I got the death grip on it, right? Like, I don't want to let go of this part of me. And a lot of it was around being seen. And so I was, I'm also a massage therapist and I have been for two decades. And I was taking my Reiki master class.

It was like probably four years ago. and I remember sitting there one of the last days she said we're going to do this meditation and it's called a candlelight meditation I hadn't heard of it some people had some people had done it but it was new to me and what you had to do was we sat on the floor and we put a chair in front of us that could hold a tiny candle and she went around and she lit the candle and she had already explained to us, you are going to stare at this candle,

the flame, specifically the flame, and you're going to stare at it as long as you need to until you see or feel a message that's for you. I'm like, I didn't know that. And of course, I'm a little cross-eyed too, so that was fine. But I'm like... I stared at it for several minutes and I really thought that I was going to get a message like from one of my cast on family members because I do get that sometimes, but it's not that often.

But it's more like I hear something or I feel something. It's not always like stark, like this is the message. So I'm staring at this flame and I saw little Aubrey and she was was like five, maybe I see this little girl and I'm like, Oh, snap, that's me. You know, that's me as a little child. And I'm like, wow, I did not think that was going to happen. But I totally leaned into it. And the overwhelming feeling that I got, like right away, I didn't hear words.

I didn't, didn't see too much. It was kind of foggy, but I knew who she was. And I knew I was looking right at her. And I got this feeling like, I just need to hug her. And so I did. I gave her a hug. And then I said, I get choked up. Then I said, someday, shoot, I'm going to have to rerecord this. I said, someday you are going to be loved by so many people. You just don't know it yet. And I felt like it felt so good to say that.

At the same time, it was also very sad, right, that I had to say that to her. I had to say that to a little five-year-old. Anybody who has kids knows having to say something like that to them, or you can even imagine if you don't have kids yet, it's just not something. It's like the world is not perfect, right?

Sometimes it's ugly. and it's almost like acknowledging that maybe they're not the happiest maybe they're not receiving everything they need and maybe they actually know that right so i have just loved that experience i i loved after the fact being able to say that it felt accepting and i know that for me it did unlock something in me that made me recognize that it's okay to heal the past it's okay to acknowledge that maybe everything wasn't perfect.

And that's not to blame anybody. I have zero people to blame. I 100% do not do the blame game. So I'm not here to blame anything on anyone else. I'm here to accept that from that perspective of that young child, she was not getting everything she needed. Right? So when I can look at that, and I can know then that there's hope to heal some of that in us. You know, I do a lot of work now with people where we can actually plug into those memories and get rid of a lot of those feelings.

We're going to release those feelings around the way that that felt. So I wanted to share that message with you guys today because I know that art can be healing. I know that photography is amazing. I know that, you know, if you're a painter, that's also a healing modality.

And I also know that I've been in the healing world for two decades, and I've done a little bit of everything when it comes to that. And there's just something really incredible when you could dig even deeper than what your Your art will bring you into that version of yourself that needs a little bit more love, that needs some more support. I know sometimes that people will shy away from that level of healing because they subconsciously want to hold on to that hurt little child.

They subconsciously want to hold on to those lessons, which, you know, spoiler alert, are not always the best lessons to hold on to. They're the ones where, you know, you feel abandonment. Nobody loves me. Nobody's showing that they love me. I can't trust anybody. Those are not the best lessons to hold on to for a lifetime, right? That puts us in a state of fear and scarcity and untrusting, right? So I know sometimes, though, people want to hold on to that because they feel

like they're doing little version of themselves justice, right? Right. If you, for instance, forgive the people around you that harmed you in some way from your childhood, then you're therefore letting that little person down.

Right. And that's a fine line, but it's one that needs to be crossed at some point in life. Like we have to be able to recognize that for what it is. And we have to say, you know what? I know that sucked. Like, I know. So, but I don't have space anymore to hold that feeling. I don't have space to hold the anger and the frustration and the sadness, right? So being able to move past that is way more healing than what would happen to you if you held on to it.

So I hope that that speaks to you and I hope it gives you some level of understanding what needs to happen. And I strongly encourage you to try that candlelight meditation. It's super cool. If you have time, I think it would be an awesome way to kind of connect with something a little bit deeper. All right, guys, that's all I wanted to share with you today. I hope that you received it. I hope it was for you. And I'll talk to you soon. I hope this podcast spoke to you in some way.

If it did, please go ahead and leave me a review and subscribe so that I know you're enjoying what you hear. And further, if you know somebody else who owns their own creative business and struggles with anything that we spoke about, please pass this on because it is my hope that we will be able to build a community of like-minded individuals who love on each other and appreciate the many facets that make our creative business so unique.

And lastly, check out the show notes to find my free Facebook community and other useful links to work with me. All right, friend, see you soon. Music.