A woman’s hair, just like her fashion, speaks volumes about her. It tells you if she’s adventurous, quirky, confident or more. Unlike fashion, hair seems a bit more personal. Deciding whether or not you should color your hair or cut it are major ‘hair decisions.’ And, if you are a woman-of-color, you may have found yourself pondering over whether you should chemically relax (perm or straighten) your hair, or let it flourish in all its natural glory. It’s a big decision that definitely hits close to home. As a natural hair girl, I know that it can be tough to weigh the pros and cons of going natural, so I decided to shed light on a few things that most of the natural hair gurus don’t always mention. The healthiest yet rarest of human emotions is gratitude. As we travel through our life, sometimes we act as though we are in a race to the finish line. From the weekly food shopping to your job, the hustle never ends. We create lists of to-do’s for the day and hastily tick them off as we complete each task. If you stop, take a breath and become more present in the moment, you’ll find beauty and discover gratefulness in the most common places. The trick of extracting happiness from life is to find it within common occurrences. If you were to summarize your day, would you recall the journey or just the errand? Can you remember a single face from the store? The smell of the crisp Fall air? Don’t miss the world’s beauty or allow outside pressures to control how you feel. When you take control of your emotions and actions, you create a life journey that fills you on the inside, which in turn will translate into experiences on the outside. Once you begin to practice gratitude every day, rather than just one day of the year, you begin to realize that what you show gratitude towards will appear more frequently. One of the ways you can practice gratitude more frequently is by starting a gratitude journal. This journal is only for the positive acts you feel, are thankful for, observe, or practice. It can act as a documentation of thoughts that propel you in the right direction. This journal is your personal way of noticing the world around you and become a more courteous, compassionate and aware being. You can write in sentences or bullet points; this is your outlet so find what works for you and begin! When you look at yourself in the mirror and I mean, REALLY look, what do you see? I’m not talking about a quick glance to make sure you look decent before going about your day. I’m talking about those times when you are home alone -- no friends, no photographers, no makeup artists, no cameras are in sight. I am talking about those times you are either undressing from a long day or hopping out of the shower and wrapping your towel around your body -- when you start over analyzing certain parts of your body from head to toe, in shame or disappointment. |