Welcome

I believe shared experiences heal us and help us integrate our stories in a way that creates safety and feels like coming home.

I want to exponentially amplify healing and embodiment by creating honest and beautiful ways to tell and re-tell our stories so we can inhabit these stories without fear, reunite with our minds, bodies and souls and create profoundly real connection with other humans.

Together we can create a revolution where we challenge the lies we've been told about our history, lives and bodies and settle into

 the peace that comes with accepting the honest truth of who we are, who we were created to be and the power we hold.

I want to exponentially amplify healing and embodiment by creating honest and beautiful ways to tell and re-tell our stories so we can inhabit these stories without fear, reunite with our minds, bodies and souls and create profoundly real connection with other humans.

Together we can create a revolution where we challenge the lies we've been told about our history, lives and bodies and settle into the peace that comes with accepting the honest truth of who we are, who we were created to be and the power we hold.

I am here to tell stories that offer healing, integration, and celebration through my photography work.

If you believe that looking back, existing in the present moment and embodying your unique experience as you move forward, are all powerful tools for healing, change and connection, you're in the right place.

I'm your partner as you move through life: learning, experiencing, and sharing.

Together, we can create honest, compassionate connections through storytelling. 

tell me your story

In the last decade plus, I have navigated family estrangement; deconstruction from high control religion; birth trauma; child illness; an abusive marriage to someone I loved very much; and the subsequent rebuilding after losing everything I loved and had worked for. 

The only way to survive (the only way to live) was to focus on what mattered, what was true and what brought light back in. The only way out of the overwhelming pull of disassociation were practices that brought me back into my body and my internal knowing: where I could hear the truth. 

I am HERE now. You are here. You are HERE now.

tell me your story

We do our best to show up with love and care: for ourselves; our loved ones; our communities; for all of us. 

Life is absolutely breathtaking with all it’s peaks and valleys. We can’t leave out certain parts without losing the power and beauty essential to the whole story. 

I believe the whole story can be accepted, faced and told.

If you do too, you’re in the right place.

I'm Michaela Rai. I grew up an independent, creative dreamer of big dreams.

I wanted to be a National Geographic photographer (and still do) and at another point, a political journalist.

Big locations, important documentation, rare moments: I wanted to change the way people saw the world.

I still want to do this.

I don’t want to create a story to convince anyone of. I want to go straight to the truth of what already is.

I want to clear the clutter, help you return to the real moment and settle into what is TRUE: about yourself, your world and the connection we have to what and who is around us.

I live in northern MN next to the great and beautiful, Lake Superior, with my love and our blended family of three lovely little people. I love this lake, mountain biking, almost all outdoor experiences, and am working to craft a life of presence for myself, the generations before me, and my children who are watching. Growing and cooking good, nourishing food is my how I show love and dark chocolate is how I receive love :)

what i love...

I’ve jumped in Lake Superior at least once a month for two years seven months (and counting). There is nothing like the Lake with its movement and fresh, deep, cold to require you to be completely present.

 I love to cook. My best work: Carnitas and salsa verde with homemade tortillas; gluten free chocolate cake with dark chocolate ganache and sourdough bread.

I’m the oldest of six sisters.

I had a minor in Mandarin in college and can tell you I like your shirt with a low level of proficiency.

I was born out West and every time I’m in the mountains, it feels like coming home.

I want to know what you love...

let's document it