#71 Whose In Your Ear:Show Up For Your Life! Motivational Message - Andy Henriquez
This past Thursday, +AndyHenriquez hosted his usual Motivational Message on YouTube via live stream, this is something that he has been doing for years. From time to time I have joined his live stream and took in a few precious jems of knowledge along they way. In his motivational message, he stated that sometimes you have to cut folks out of your life in order for your growth to happen. Because of the attitude and or behavior towards you it does nothing for you and takes more energy to be around them than not. Even if the individuals are family cut the dead weight off if it is not doing anything for you. His statement right there, gave me reassurance in knowing this is something that I need to do in order to get to the next level. Since, the new year started I found myself questioning why I am I even dealing with you after talking to certain family members and friends of my inner circle. It feels like a burden to even pick up the phone because, I know all it will be is worry, doom and gloom. Or calling me when everything is going fucked up so you can dumb all your emotional baggage on me, and when everything is smooth sailing I hear nothing from you, and one of my top pet peeves calling me only because you want to use my brain.
Which, Andy spoke about as well, he asked "Why are you continuously interacting with someone who drains your energy ", "What purpose does it serve you to deal with all of that negativity", knowing that having that person in your ear is going to do more damage than good.
For me all I know is dysfunction. That is what was shown to me via family and close family friends growing up. So I adopted the same behavior pattern and with that I accepted it when it was done to me. It now has become a sick co-dependency on my part. The negative thoughts were being fed by the words of the people who are in my ear.
Now, I can not take it any more, I can not and will not deal with emotional dumping. I can not and will not deal with accepting the sick co-dependent of negativity that I have allowed myself to become. With, Andy's message he helped me stand firm in my movements of letting go of family and friends whose words and actions are not there to encourage my growth. Being who I am, I will feel bad for not being there in the same way I was so used to being (emotional dumping ground).
It's a new chapter of my life, better yet a new life all together. Knowing that it is ok for me not to be that person whose energy drained dealing with others "stuff". It is ok for you to walk away from what you know to be a bad for your personal growth. It is ok to want better and be more. It is ok to out grow your friends, it is ok to show up for your life .
I encourage you to watch the video, and subscribe to his YouTube channel.
Afrikah
******THIS BLOG WAS NOT SPONSORED***** The thoughts and opinions I expressed are of my own. I was not paid, sponsored, or encouraged to talk about his video. **********THIS BLOG WAS NOT SPONSORED*********
I was gifted four eye shadow palettes, I will review the All About Shadow Trio. As you can see the packaging is beautiful and it is sturdy. It comes with three eye shadows that are neutral shades along with a pinky mauve blush and a mirror which is large enough to see your whole face when applying makeup. The palette did come with brushes, I lost them somewhere in my makeup vanity.
Each of the shadows have a glitter in them but its smooth and not hard to blend or work with. What I especially like with this palette is the fact that it is flattering to my skin tone, as for the blush I will discuss that later. In the
swatches that you see starting from left to right. (06) Neutral territory is a cream to beige with gold specs of glitter. This is perfect for a brow bone highlight a little goes a long way. (1C)Foxier, the color in the middle is taupe color with corresponding glitter flecks in it as well. I used that color for my lids. (03)Morning Java, is a gorgeous dark brown shadow, with corresponding brown glitter flecks in it. This color would be so freaking pretty on top of a duo chrome blue/brown cream eye shadow.
The color pay out of these shadows are great. However, for me I have to use a concealer or cream eye shadow to have the colors really pop. These shadows blend like a dream. For this make up look I used Foxier on my lids, Neutral Territory as my brow highlight and Morning Java in my outer 'V'. My biggest pet peeve about me doing my makeup is my ability to blend my eye shadows so that I do not look like a hot mess. Thankfully, these shadows blend beautifully and they play well drugstore eye shadows as well.
Now, as for the blush....lets say its a pretty color but it doesn't show on my skin tone to well. This picture was taken in direct sunlight and as you can see the blush color is ever so faint on my skin tone. In this makeup look I had to add NYX (cinnamon) on top of the Clinque (06) Fig blush to get some warmth back into my cheeks. If I were to use the Clinique blush alone my cheeks would look ashy.
As you can see in florescent lighting the blush is barely there yet every thing else is popping.
Overall, I give this palette a A- due to the fact that the blush does not work for my skin tone, other than that this palette is a beginner friendly.
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For a quick video of me playing with some of the Clinique eye shadows click on my video below. Share, like, or follow my blog or me on my other social media platforms.
I did my makeup in the attempts to erase the pain that my heart and spirit was experiencing. However the pain and the tears could not be covered up.
It finally happened, however not the way I wanted it to. Funny how life works, I make the conscious effort to improve the quality of my life and bam, life hits me with a major life hurdle. It feels like I got hit by a mac truck after I got the news. That I was in no way ready to accept responsibility for at this time.
I just wanted to get through all
of this bullshit and I can't manage through the storm. No matter how much I try to hurry situations up. It seems as though it still does not move any faster or things come to a dead stop. The pain is to great to deal with and yet I have to go through it. However, the more I just go through it I fail to learn the lesson that was intended for me in the first place.
The lessons that I need to learn; I add value to any one's life that I come into, lack of respect is a deal breaker, I create my own happiness and if you do not add to it you are gone, and I am worthy of happiness and love.
And until I learn these lessons I will be repeating the mistakes of past for years to come.
I've been in a non-committal relationship with my goals for the past 5 years....
I wrote them [life goals] down, made outlines, flow charts and business plans all in the aim to accomplish them and move my life forward. However, there is one problem I did not commit to them what so ever. To make it worse I ran every time there was a obstacle in the way. Now the funny thing is the fact that I got mad at the fact I was not moving forward. Knowing full well I had not committed to the work to encourage growth in my life, just a viscous cycle I was in. The only benefit I was getting out of it was playing the victim and how long can that role last.
Had this been a relationship with a "good man", he would have left my ass a long time ago. Saying to himself I am glad I dodged that bullet as he accomplishes his goals. With me standing there like what happened playing the victim not accepting the role I had to play in the matter. And the same thing goes for my lack of commitment to my life goals. Lack of commitment kept me from reaching new levels in my life.
Now What?......
First I must force myself to stay the course no matter what. Since my tendency to run when obstacles I need to weather the storm of life. This is going to be a hard one, since my pattern has been to run.
Secondly, I must ask someone I trust to call me and check out my week to week progress on each goal that I set out to accomplish. In that way I am held accountable for my actions or lack there of and if I need help with something, that is the time I can reach out and ask for it. Because, I do not like being called out for lack of effort, this will aid in putting the fire under my ass.
Third, celebrate my accomplishments no matter how small they are. Small wins are wins just the same and help me reach my ultimate goal.
Fourth, do not beat myself up when something does not go according to plan. This will help me stand firm in the storm that life gives you sometimes.
Last, I must remember that this is a long term relationship with my life goals and I must put in the work consistently in order for my life goals to get accomplished.
Yes it sounds easy, now its time to put it into practice. I have set out a few goals for me to accomplish over the next 30-45 days. Hopefully, by me publicly posting it, I will stay committed to them.
Goals for the next 30-45 days
1. Workout at least 4 days a week, and post accountability pics on instagram.
2. Post a 3-5 blogs updating my progress along with my usual blog posts on makeup, natural and dread loc hair styles, etc.
3. Lay out the ground work to create a strong P.T.A. at my daughter's school. ( I am currently P.T.A. President)
4. Follow through on all things that I say I will do.
5. Stay committed to the course.
6. Make jewelry and post the finish looks.
7. Sell my handmade jewelry pieces.
If I stay committed to these goals over the next 45 days. I know major steps mile stones can be made. Its all about the execution. Lets see how it goes. Stay Blessed Afrikah
I am so loving the pipe cleaner bob I decided to see if I could take it another step further and create an up-do without any bobby pins. I know, I know, sounds crazy however, I made it work.
How did I do it, simply put all I did was tuck and roll my hair onto itself and it stayed in place. First off I pushed all my hair to the front and attempted a basket weave going from back to front. Then I took the remaining hair and tucked it into the basket weave,
ultimately creating this hairstyle that you see here. For a more polished look I could slick down the hair around my hair line. This is what I love about dreadlock
hairstyles that are versatile, this is the third hairstyle that I have done to my hair since putting the pipe cleaners in my hair. With my locs wrapped around the pipe cleaners it gives the hairstyle interesting dimension almost giving the appearance of a tapered hair cut. And most certainly have folks asking who did your hair.
I will leave links below to my favorite dread lock blogges, YouTubers, IG the source of my dreadlock hairstyle inspiration.
Stay Blessed, Afrikah
If you know any other great loc bloggers, hairstylist, or lovers of dreadlocs send me a link to their page.
Links to YouTube bloggers and Instagram accounts I follow. YouTubers/bloggers: Jasmine Rose
As usual I was browsing the internet trying to find a natural braided hairstyle for my daughters hair. I try to put her hair in protective hairstyles all of the time. Although she would prefer her hair wild, free and uncombed. I did the atypical search of kids braided hairstyles and came upon the "pineapple"on YouTube and like any other avid YouTube viewer I gave it a try.
The tutorial was quite easy to follow along. I started out on freshly washed, moisturized and stretched hair, I did not use any heat to stretch my daughter's hair. Following the tutorial from the video above I went to work.
I put a slight twist to the style and braided her hair to one side instead of two strand twist in the front and adding a braided bang. My daughter loves a bang in every single braided hairstyle she gets. This is the best style I have done to date on my daughter's hair, I really do not know how to top this one. Check out the back, a freaking "pineapple". When I braided her hair I used a pomade for natural hair to smooth the hair strands down so it will have a neater apperance. The most important thing is that she loved her hair and it keeps me from touching her hair for at
least two weeks. Stay tuned for more blogs tomorrow. Maybe I will tell you the foolishness in the next blog.
