I am a person of the people. All of my friends know that I will shower them with compliments all day long, and when they thrive, I thrive.I love seeing others put on, and I will rep you all day long… Until it came time to recognize me, and I just couldn’t do it.
It felt almost egotistical in a way to be nice to myself, and I just couldn’t seem to recognize the magic within.I am my own worst critic by far. Over the past 2 years of my life between stressful relationships, career transitions, and overall growing into my womanhood, I began to feel extremely detached from myself and whom I was perceived to be.
1.
When I first started writing for NaturallyCurly, it was because I was deeply inspired by the women whose articles I had read, whom I presumed to have amazing confidence to share their stories. Over time and many many articles later, I learned that real confidence comes from being vulnerable with your being, putting your work and your story out there in hopes that it can heal someone else while also healing yourself, and just living day by day and being your best self.
2.
Y’all, I don’t take selfies for anything. I am always the person behind the lens capturing someone else in their best light. But what if I flipped the role? Should I start saying yes to selfies? Well, I was dared by my NC team to start taking Selfies for Self-Love as a way to
1. Break me out of my selfie shell and
2. Develop a consistent practice of speaking better to Lauren.
To be honest, I was super fretful of this challenge and didn’t know how it would turn out.
3.
I will say these selfies are a collection of bad camera angles, no makeup days, in-the-moment clicks, definitely filters, and taken over a 2-week timeframe because some days you just really don’t feel like being cute for the gram. They are me in my rawest form though, and I feel beautiful in each and every one of them.
4.
During my selfie experience, I really harnessed my power as a Body-Positive warrior and embraced every bit of glitter that makes me me. Some of my selfies are with friends, and some are just my face, but here I am: aware and visible to the world, but also loving myself and embracing my melanin, hair, size, and personality. I might not be the finest or the prettiest (these things are so subjective anyways”>, but I am beautiful in the best of ways, radiating from within, and I will continue to be a champion of all that is self-love and my “Laurenisms.” I invite you to enjoy my naked moments with me and hope you are inspired to embark on your own selfie journey.
5.
I was having a real good eyebrow day here! LOL
6.
I invite all of the NaturallyCurly readers who are feeling some type of way about themselves, to try out selfies for self-love for 5 days. See how it makes you feel afterward. What did you learn? What did you gain?
7.
8. My Favorite Selfie of Them All – Some of the NaturallyCurly Team!!
How do you feel about selfies for self-love? How are you practicing body-positivity?
Over the next few weeks, some of our contributors will be sharing their experiences with the body posi movement. Check out Facebook for their stories, and share yours!
Let’s break the internet with our selfies!
