The Reflective Self-Portrait: An Awesome Exercise for a Possibly Awesome Selfie

Take a piece of paper, a index card, a journal, hand-bound or spiral, the notes app on your phone, a word processor on a laptop where-ever. And a pencil, or pen, or your fingers tapping on a glass screen or your fingers on your keyboard.

You have five minutes to do the following:

Write about what you are feeling right now, in your mind, and in your body, and around your mind and body.

For instance – are you grateful to be here, confused, annoyed, distracted?

Is there something else weighing on your mind right now? More than this elusive and probably unimportant “Awesome Selfie?”

What are you happy, angry, sad, confused, or embarrassed about right now?

What are you seeing, hearing, smelling, touching, or tasting right now, in your body, and in this room?

Now, you have thirty seconds to do the following:

What is the singular most important thing about what you’ve just written, that you want other people to know about you right now.

Star that thought, re-write it somewhere else if you want to.

Hold that thought in your mind.

Now pick up your phone, and without thinking about anything else except that thought, frame your face in your camera app, and take a selfie.

Now another one.

Now another one.

Now ten more, from a few different angles.

Turn your self timer on, place your phone up against something, and take a selfie of your entire body.

Hand your phone to someone else, and ask them to photograph you.

Hold nothing in your mind except that thought, and let that thought reflect in your face.

If you’re angry, let that show. Make an angry face. Or a sad one. Or a scared one. Or an overjoyed one. Or if you’re not sure what you’re feeling, try out ten emotions and reflect that in your face, and in your mind.

How did that feel?

And compared to your very first selfie, how did that look?