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OLIVIA ASHTON PHOTOGRAPHY

Welcome
About Me
blog
Contact
Categories
- Faces
- Places
- Love

now booking family sessions for fall!

September 23, 2014 Olivia Ashton

In family Tags Portland Family Photos, Olivia Ashton Photography

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It blows me away that through the medium of photography we are able to experience our lives from the perspective of another. We are able to SEE the way we gaze upon the beings in our lives — we are able to SEE the way we bring out their smile lines. We are able to SEE the way our own simile looks upon our face in moments of joy. It’s this mirroring process that we get to reflect upon, and it’s one of the truest experiences of magic I know. I’m so thankful for this work, which holds space for this reflection to unfold 📸 #oliviaashtonphotography
Jessica + Scott // up on the blog

honoring Her innate unfolding ⛲️ @soulseedgathering #oliviaashtonphotography #hannahfaith

Got to celebrate, honor and hold all the majesty that is 🌸⛲️Essence Of The Mother ⛲️🌸 at yesterday’s product session. Thank you thank you thank you Ray for all that you are. @essenceofthemother #UplifedSoul #EssenceOfTheMother #OliviaAshtonPhotography

Photographing + celebrating women. Soul family. Bare foot in far away places beaming up at the cosmos. Home. Thank you 2018, this feels just right 👣✨ #topnine

Hello fellow Earthlings! I'd love to share a bit about how I'm currently relating to the present moment and how mediation has shifted the ways in which I see and experience reality. I’ll also explore how these shifts have opened up my life, expanded my awareness, and freed me from a lot of unnecessary suffering.

Let's start by exploring what I mean by "the present moment," "the NOW," or "here." As humans, we have this agreed upon construct of "time," which is our lived experience as it relates to seconds, minutes, hours, days, weeks, months, years, seasons, and the rotation of the Earth in relation to the sun. These measurements are the landmarks that we've collectively decided upon to break up this infinite, eternal moment that we are all experiencing simultaneously - and out of this relationship we get past, present (or now) and future.

However two of those - past and future - are really just constructs of the mind. The "past" is a memory in the mind of a moment that was, but is no longer, and the "future" is a projection in the mind of a moment that has not yet come to be. Additionally, we have fantasies in the mind about both past and future moments that have never and will never transpire. Which brings me to the NOW, or the present moment. Reality. Here. The "all that is." I've come to see and experience life as a continuum of unfolding NOWS. But the thing is... the only one that we actually get to LIVE in, and experience with our five senses, and move our bodies in, and the only one that people actually exist in; where conversations can be held and feelings felt in, is the NOW that is happening in this inhale.... and in this exhale. We just have THIS moment. It's so simple and yet it can be so hard to inhabit.

Which brings me to my current fascination -- how to be here. How do we BE HERE? How do we inhabit the Now? How do we experience reality directly and clearly as it unfolds, without getting caught in past, future and fantasies? Throughout my process of exploring this question of direct, clear experience, I've noticed three key elements. ((Continued in comments))

In awe of these creative souls! ✨🕯 A little glimpse of the Hollywood Lux Holiday Bazaar, dreamt up by Mary Kate and Simone, held at our home. So much love to everyone who came! ✨🕯@hollywoodluxvintage @simone_simone_ @iviiitsa @essenceofthemother @suckerforatheme @ajacksharrison

Home in Her 🕯

@simone_simone_ radiating at The Sacred Self Retreat

The Sacred Self Retreat 🕯🕌✨THANK YOU!!!!! Overwhelmed and completely blown away by the the vulnerability, kindness, strength, humor, creativity, compassion and wisdom that came through this weekend from each and every one of you. What a gift it was to get to journey internally, together 👁 Thank you.

Endless love to @essenceofthemother and @tasha_stew for being the most incredible pillars in this mystical co-creation of the heart✨ and big hugs to @littleportlandvictorian for providing the most beautiful space that held us so sweetly all weekend.

Coming to terms with the truth that there is NEVER going to be a combination of “getting it right” that will ever bring me lasting peace and happiness. In fact... nothing can BRING me peace and happiness at all. This realization initially left me feeling incredibly empty. Like... SHIT, I thought that if I had a fulfilling career, and if I could travel and explore the world, and if I had all of my favorite people nestled up close to my heart, and if my home was set up perfectly, and if my body was feeling good, and if, and if, and if, and if... THEN, ahhhh then I would arrive!!!! I thought that it was about getting the recipe of my life juuust right. So initially, when I realized there was never going to be a combination of “getting it all right” that would EVER be “enough” (ie: true lasting fulfillment that extended more than one minute, one hour or one day)... there was sadness and depression and what St John of the Cross so beautifully coined “The Dark Night of The Soul.” Because the thing is... this way of viewing my life always kept happiness, contentment and peace dancing oneeeeee achievement away from my heart, like a carrot out on a string. Just one purchase away, or one moment away, or one move away, or one experience away. Always one moment OUT of the NOW. And as I began to wake up to this, I began cross-checking it within my lived experience. Over and over and over again I found that every time I would arrive at the thing I thought I wanted, or the thing I thought was going to “do it” for me, I wouldn’t even know how to truly be there for it, to truly receive, or bask in it, or even enjoy it because my mind was already onto the NEXT THING. I had trained my mind so meticulously in this way of being that I was never able to quite BE HERE. There was always one toe juuuust in the future or juuuust in the past. ((((Continued in comments))))

Small Business Saturday!!
Endlessly thankful for all of your incredible love and support throughout the years. Offering 20% off ALL sessions booked through this weekend!
Including:
-Sacred Self Love Sessions
-Portrait Sessions
-Engagment/Couples
-Wedding Packages
-Small business branding sessoins
-Family Sessions
-Maternity
-Newborn
-Interiors
-Boudoir **Whatever magic you can dream up!!** Gift Cards are also available at 20% off through the weekend! They can make for a really special gift experience 🌙✨ All my love!

Magic sister @lowleaf pictured during her #SacredSelfLoveSession at @soulseedgathering Chapter 2 in Colombia 💛

I, You, Us, WE 🌎✌🏼✌🏽✌🏾✌🏿🌍
Artwork creation: @weaveroflight for @womenchangeworld
Photography: @olivia_ashtonn of magical human: @hannahfaith__ at @soulseedgathering

This app pushes against my perfectionism in the most beautiful way ✨ It also reminds me of the unique feeling associated with each passing day, and helps to mold eternal time and space into little love bites that I can look back on, remember, adore and learn from. Thank you, @1secondeveryday !!! Here is September and October in 2 minutes! Swipe for the next videoooo:) 🌸🕌💫🚀🕯🎃🍁🍄🙌🏽 #oliviaashton1se #1secondeveryday #1se #1seme

I’m so enamored by the passing of time ⏳ How change and death are built into our experience here on Earth, and how the remembrance of which keeps us on our toes in the most sacred way.

The inherently bizarre predicament of spinning through infinite time and space in a finite body, begs the question WHO AM I?? It asks of us to be fully here NOW in order to experience truth. It invites us to dive into the big questions while we have a mind to do so. It requests that we love boundlessly while we have a heart to share. It beckons us to create and play and mess up and dance and sing and cry while we have a body to experience through. And yet, the nature of our time here requires us to hold it all loosely. Life, the passing of time, change, and death ask of us a divine balance - wholehearted participation, and complete surrender, knowing that in each moment we must be ready to give it all up.

In practicing this balance I am shown that the experiences of our lives are like paths leading us home to wiser versions of ourselves. I notice that when I zoom back from the intricacies of my day to day, and view my life from a wider perspective, every moment, every interaction, every heartbreak, success, longing, joy, excitement, failure — all of it can be viewed as a vehicle for awakening.

WHO AM I? Am I this body? Am I this mind? Am I these thoughts? Am I my relationships? Am I what I have? Am I what I love? Am I where I’ve been? Am I my lineage? Am I how others perceive me? Am I how I perceive me? And through the lens of death we get to ask: Who is the “I” that I am, when “I” am no longer?

By this finite life we get to know our infinite nature. The “I” that dances through the halls of eternity, unchanging. The one behind the one who asks the question: WHO AM I?

I am so thankful for the passing of time, for the changes, the shifts, the growth, the decay and the death, on one level they reveal to us who we are not 💛✨🌏🚀 👁

Got to shoot for my favorite boiiis and their incredible growing team today! Love you guys big time! 🛠 @taylorsmithsc @thomptay @keevann @j_morgan503 @brookshaxton @snwwood

THE SACRED SELF 🕌 RETREAT
November 30th - December 2nd

Center into a three day journey of soul exploration, vibrant nourishment, mystical attunements, mind/body inquiry, play, connection and expansion as we hold space for the brilliance of our truest Sacred Self.

A weekend retreat to honor the Self fully as the wheel of life turns from of 2018 to 2019.

Our weekend soul thrive:
•Opening Cacao Ceremony
• Vibrant, soul nourishing meals consciously hand crafted by vegan chef, Natasha Stewart (@tasha_stew )
•The art of embodying meditation
•Mystical journeys + attunements
•Dream weaving soul collage
•Yoga Nidra
•Photography of our time together for continued reflection and expansion
•Individual Sacred Portraits of each beloved sister
•Community sharing, expression, and the art of listening
•Building your life ritual for 2019

A three day rejuvenation process as we build fourth a new form of daily rituals for your year of 2019.

If your soul feels called, we would be so honored to weave with you! This will be a very intimate gathering held in a bright NE Portland Victorian home. Sisters will journey to and from the home each morning and evening. The retreat will begin Friday evening at 7:00pm and we will come together for two full days on Saturday and Sunday.

Investment: $300. We request a half down deposit ($150) to reserve your space, with the remaining $150 to be honored by November 15th.

For any questions and to book your magical retreat spot contact Rachel Maroudas 🌜🌛(@essenceofthemother) or Olivia Ashton (@olivia_ashtonn) 🌜🌛 #thesacredself #sisterhood #retreat #selfcare #soulnourished #selflove #portlandoregon #essenceofthephother #oliviaashtonphotography

honoring the innate wisdom of the Self 🕌✨#sacredselflovesession @essenceofthemother

such an honor getting to shoot for the endlessly talented @wolfceramics today with the most badass crew of women + women owed businesses! @clarestager @groundbreakingbread @plants_by_her @shopnorthofwest @theportlandstudio