• 2021 Recap!

    I enjoy looking back + seeing all the progress I’ve made over the year. It helps me realize that I did in fact actually do things + work toward my goals.

    Sometimes my brain likes to tell me that I’ve done NOTHING + gotten NOTHING accomplished, that I’ve wasted the whole year.

    Does your brain do that to you too?

    Maybe looking back through your year to see all that you’ve done will benefit you too!


    This post contains affiliate links. This means I may earn a commission should you choose to make a purchase using my link (at no extra cost to you!). I only recommend things I have personally used + love!


     

    Let me know what you’d like to see from me in 2022 by responding to my survey!


     

    I was only able to accomplish these things because of the support from members of my website, thank you so much!


     

    • Became an LLC
    • Got a business bank account
    • GBTL events: Jan, Feb x2, March x2, April x2, May x3, June x2, July, August, September (total of 15 events!!!)
    • GBTL met up in person to create + facilitate backstage pass
    • Many many meetings + video chats + text messages behind the scenes

    Click here to learn more about Going Beyond the Lens


     


     

    Check out the organized list of HUNDREDS of books I want to read!


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  • Chicago in 2017 + Boundaries

    CAPTION FOR THE VIDEO ABOVE:

    Hello good morning. It’s not morning here where I am anymore, but it’s probably morning when you’re going to watch this. So good morning, or maybe, I don’t know. Good morning, good afternoon, good night, good day, good life, hello. So this week I’m sharing a really throwback lots of things. The stuff I’m sharing is photos & videos from when I was in Chicago in 2017. I kinda forgot that I had these and I hadn’t shared them yet, so you’re getting some cool throwback things! I think this was the last time I was in Chicago. I used to go every other year to do a family reunion thing with my ex, and naturally I haven’t really been in a while because, well, we’re no longer together. And because coronovirus, and you know, the world is changing forever always. The stuff from the Chicago trip that I’m sharing, it’s been a little bit since I’ve looked at them so I can’t remember if they’re photos from the 1st or the 2nd place that we stayed, because we stayed in 2 different places that last time we were in Chicago because it was my ex partner’s birthday. We stayed at one airbnb for his birthday, then another airbnb for the rest of the trip, just because we could and we wanted to. I think, I usually have all this written down of what I want to share, but I’m pretty sure the photos are from the 2nd airbnb that I’m sharing this time, but I’m not 100%.

    So that’s what I’m sharing this week, and for the first look members I have another photoset from Utah from my cross country road trip in summer 2019. I keep wanting to say last summer, but last summer is now the summer of 2020, and it wasn’t last summer, it’s now the summer before. That feels weird because time has already flown by and I feel like I was just on this trip but it’s been over a year which is wild to me.

    This month, October, the nude yoga video that I shared will be the last nude yoga video that I share monthly like I was. There’s 3 years of nude yoga videos that you can watch so I don’t think you’ll really miss out on them. Like I said in last week’s blog, I want to shift my time and attention and effort into slightly different things. Not too different, but this is just the beginning of my changes. That’s the last nude yoga video I’ll do for a little while. I mean I might do some more in the future if I feel like it, I just am not going to put pressure on myself to do it every month like I have been. I am still figuring out how I’m going to do my website after I run out of my backlog, which that’s going to be probably another 6 months or longer before I run out of my backlog, so you don’t have anything to worry about soon to be honest. I have a lot of backlog and a lot of stuff yall haven’t seen yet, because for whatever reason I tend to hoard my content, so no worries on that yet. I’ll continue to let you know about the shifts and changes that I go through when the time comes. I am probably going to… I don’t know, I really do want to have my content be less nudity-focused and “hey I’m a naked person” because to me, it’s just my preferred state of being? Like I was helping my mom in the kitchen this morning naked, just cutting veggies and stuff. No big deal. *laughs*

    My problem is not with nudity, my problem is when people sexualize me and see nudity as something that’s inherently sexual. To me, depending on what your definition of sex is and what sexual is… just being naked and enjoying being in your own skin could be sexual. For me, as someone who is demisexual, which is on the asexual spectrum, I DO NOT WANT SEXUAL ATTENTION FROM ANYBODY. No. If I do, you will know, because I will tell you. Otherwise, I don’t want sexual attention. Do whatever you want on your own time, but don’t direct it in my direction. Don’t point your sexual feelings in my directions, I don’t want it, it makes me extremely uncomfortable, I don’t want to be sexualized. Do whatever you want while you’re looking at my photos, just don’t tell me about it. What you do on your own time is for you, that’s cool. I’ve just… over the last 10+ years of doing this, I’ve received so much unwanted attention in a sexual way that has always made me extremely uncomfortable. That kind of attention is what I’m trying to get rid of, trying to curb, trying to encourage other things instead. Nudity is not the problem for me, but sometimes when people can’t separate nudity and sexualizing me, that’s when the problem is. So I’m probably lecturing you now, that’s not what I’m trying to do. I want it to be very clear to everyone. Don’t send sexual attention in my direction because I don’t want it, it makes me very uncomfortable. Just don’t. Be my friend, ask me questions, talk to me about my art, all of that. Just don’t tell me I’m beautiful and gorgeous, and don’t tell me the things you’d want to do to me, because I don’t want to hear any of that.

    Compliment my ideas, my creativity… compliment things that are not physical and not sexual. For me… other people might have totally different boundaries. My boundary is do not come at me in a sexual way at all. No, I don’t want it. I don’t, at all, I don’t. If I did, you would know, simple as that.

    On a lighter note, I am feeling a little bit better recently, just because I’m giving myself space to figure things out and do my own thing. Which… I’ve kinda been doing that for a long time but, life and healing is a spiral. You think you figure something out and then you come back around to it in a different way. I’m just trying to be gentle with myself and learn more about myself and do things in the way that feels good to me, that feels nourishing to me. That’s something I’ve been working on, it’s not always easy. Especially when you learn new things about yourself that are confusing. (I think I got a mosquito bite)

    I feel like most of this video is me just telling you don’t sexualize me, so I apologize if you’re someone who’s heard a lot about this already because I’ve talked about it before. It’s a hard boundary for me, and I want it to be clear to everyone. I love sharing nude stuff, just appreciate it for what it is, and don’t come at me with anything like expectations or anything like that. That’s it, enjoy it, that’s what it’s here for. My nude art is here to enjoy on your own time. Tell me what you like about it that’s not sexual or appearance based, and we’re cool. We can talk about composition, the landscape, the place we’re in, the props, all the stuff, pose, whatever. Just… don’t sexualize me. It’s not why I’m here. I’m much more than that. Sex is awesome, it is a part of my life in some capacity, but that’s none of your business. I don’t have that kind of relationship with any of you. Here I go lecturing again and it’s already after 10 minutes so, maybe I’ll just make another video. I don’t know… this is what I’m feeling and it’s what came up. Maybe I’ll just post it anyway, I might make another video, I might not. We’ll see *laughing*.

    I love you all so much and it means the world to me that you’re here every week supporting me, watching my stuff, looking at my photos, reading my blogs… I haven’t posted anything to youtube recently but that’s something I want to do more of. If there’s anything you want me to make a youtube video about, let me know! I’m open to requests and suggestions. I do have plans… I’m brainstorming and figuring out how I want to do this video, but my next video that I’ll be sharing on my youtube and instagram will be about energy healing. It’ll be energy healing 101, you know basics. This is what it is, this is how you do it. And then after that I think I’ll do a embodiment and self connection video. I already have a list of like 25 different ways you can connect to yourself… so yeah. Those are my plans for a couple of videos for youtube. I’m open to hearing what you’re curious about and what you’d like to learn from me. Comment below or send me an email or.. whatever. I’d love to hear from you if you have requests.

    I just appreciate you for being here, it means a lot. I know sometimes I come on here and ramble like today. *laughs* It means the world that you care at all, and that you care enough to financially support me because literally, yall, here, the members of my website are the reason that I have a roof over my head and food in my belly. That means a lot, and I love you so much, and I’m so excited to continue this journey of life with you. I love you. Thank you, and I’ll talk to you next week. Bye!

    All members:
    click here to view the 14 image self portrait photoset with plants in Chicago
    click here to view the 27 image self portrait photoset in a fancy airbnb bathroom in Chicago
    click here to view 20 Instax from Chicago
    click here to view 24 videos from my Chicago travels in 2017
    Click here for access to my archive of 12,500+ photos & 2,000+ videos
    Click here for the passwords, they change the 1st of every month

    First Look/All Access members:
    click here to view a 32 image complete self portrait photoset at Fairyland Canyon from my cross country road trip last summer
    click here to view 3 minutes of BTS video

    Not a member? Click here to sign up for instant access!

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  • Maya Tihtiyas

    CAPTION FOR VIDEO ABOVE:

    Hi friends! This week I’m sharing 2 photosets, one that I took of Maya Tihtiyas (I apologize Maya if I’m saying your last name wrong!), she visited NC and came and hung out with me at my house for a little bit and we photographed each other, so there’s a photoset that I took of her and a photoset she took of me. This was probably OVER a year ago for sure, I could look up the exact date but it isn’t super accessible to me at the moment, so it’s not that big of a deal for me to know exactly when these were taken. I have a habit of hoarding photos for a really long time and not sharing them, so yeah… I don’t really know why I do that. BUT these photos I really like. I think the set I have scheduled to share is the double exposure set I took of her and I really like them they’re really cool.

    Today is a weird day for me, I don’t know, I emotionally don’t feel like super here, and my period is LATE and I’m trying to not be too annoyed or like freaked out by it, but I think that’s maybe part of why my emotions are feeling weird right now. Also a friend of mine that’s barely more than an acquaintance, like we’ve hung out twice and we used to go to the same yoga studio before lockdown, reached out to me because she has some similar relationship experience to me in terms of polyamory. She’s going through a rough time right now and wanted support and I am not in a place emotionally or time wise to be able to give her the support that she needs. We’re taught through our culture and through movies/tv shows/songs/peoples expectations that we’re supposed to abandon ourselves in order to help out our friends or the people we love or our partners or whatever, and I did that for years and years, and I’m not doing that anymore. So it was hard to set a boundary but I did it, I said “I appreciate that you trust me to hold space for you, but today I don’t have the time or emotional capacity to do justice to the kind of support that you need. Do you have someone else you can reach out to for support?” I don’t know if I’ve really ever done this before because I’m the kind of person, or I have been in the past, that has always felt like if I’m a good friend then I need to support people or help them out in their time of need. So it’s hard to set boundaries and say “hey, I know myself well enough to know that I’m not capable of doing a good job of supporting my friend right now” so I’m going to be honest with them and say “hey I don’t have it in me to be able to do this today.” And this is something new that I’ve just started being able to do. It’s not easy and it’s like… it goes against what a lot of our culture teaches us is expected from us. It sucks because it makes it really hard. And I’m not the kind of person to beat around the bush. I like to be direct and be like “this is what’s going on and this is what I need and this is the thing” and this conversation was through text so I was worried that she would take it the wrong way or be mad at me for not being able to “be a good friend” but I can’t abandon myself for anyone anymore. I’ve done that a lot throughout a lot of my life and I’m not doing it anymore. And I hope you don’t do it to yourself either, because it sucks. A lot. It hurts.

    It’s been raining for 4 days straight and I’m glad that I just took a walk because it wasn’t raining when I was taking a walk and now it’s raining again. I took a walk in the rain yesterday. I just… feel gloomy today and the weather/rain is totally matching my mood. Or I’m matching the weather, what came first, the chicken or the egg? My mood or the weather? I don’t know if I’ve told yall before but I am capable of weather magick so I don’t always know if my mood came first or if the weather came first because I’m very connected to the weather. If you don’t believe me that’s okay. But I can tell you that there have been at least 5 times in the last couple of years that it has been about to start storming, like very obviously storming is about to happen, and I have calmly and gently and politely asked the weather to please wait until I’m inside with all of my things before it starts raining and… guess what happened? I get inside with all of my things, even if I have a delay, and then as soon as I close the door it starts POURING. This has happened at least 5 times in my life. I have a relationship to the Earth and the weather and I know that I am capable of weather magick. Whether or not the atmosphere/nature wants to listen to me is a different story, but it’s like a… what’s the word I’m looking for? Uhm, I have a relationship with the Earth and the weather.

    I don’t know, I don’t have much else to say, I don’t want to be gloom and doom and make yall feel sad, because I want to be a source of inspiration and happiness and joy and education and love for everyone that I meet online so I don’t want to talk too much about my sad feelings. I know it’s really needed sometimes but I feel like since the pandemic I’ve had more gloomy/sad things to talk about than happy things to talk about so I don’t want to tip the scale in the sad direction anymore than I already have. So… I love you! I hope you’re doing well! I hope it’s sunshiney and happy wherever you are. I love you forever. I appreciate you being here supporting me, and I’ll talk to you next week.

    Video members:
    click here to view the full photoset of me taken by Maya Tihtiyas
    click here to view the full double exposure photoset I took of Maya Tihtiyas
    click here to view the video of me getting into my body
    click here to view the video of me lounging nude in the sun

    First Look members:
    click here to view the self portrait photoset on a desert rock in Utah from my cross country road trip last summer
    click here to view the BTS video

    click here to view the self portrait photoset of formations at dusk in Utah from my cross country road trip last summer
    click here to view the BTS video

    Click here for the gallery passwords

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