Lara Ingram

I channeled my heartbreak into healing through the arts and self-expression. I started writing every day, returned to my lifelong love of dance, and learned how to sing and write my own songs. I've performed on stages and joined national music tours. I read tarot for the cast and crew of Portlandia at their final season wrap party. My beloved and I travel to events, festivals, and cruises across the country and beyond.

My biggest revelation has been discovering that I not only have a self to express, but I'm worthy of self-expression. I'm worthy of love and life. I can finally see my own reflection after lifetimes of mirroring others. The end of each relationship was an initiation into a deeper sense of self—an opportunity to expand my capacity to love and an invitation to feel more alive in my relationship with life. I died to be reborn, over and over. I remember who I am: the girl in love with the world, the girl who rescued worms at recess when it rained and buried the first bee who ever stung me.

I survived, not in spite of my sensitivity, but because of it. Sensitivity is not a weakness. It is my greatest strength. The courage to feel deeply is the bravest act of all.