Friday night, I had the opportunity to sponsor my very first event as Pink Crown Creative, "Makeup Free - Evening of Empowerment" which was in partnership with Taylor Aller, Raw Beauty Talks and Free To Be Talks.
I choose to sponsor this event as I felt like it aligned with my companies values, goals and my mission to empower and inspire women in the workplace.
This was my first non-fitness event that I attended makeup free. Earlier that day, I had my makeup professionally done for my branded photo shoot and dreaded the thought of having to "wipe away" all the confidence and beauty I felt that day. I stood in front of the mirror and tried to envision myself makeup free in front of other women who I have seen at many other glamorous events in the city that I have attended before and tried to feel confident about taking it all off. I tried to remember that everyone else who would be attending would be makeup free as well, but I couldn't help but think about the red dark circles that were now under my eyes as opposed to beautifully covered up by layers of foundation, cover up and powder. I dreaded the feeling of looking "tired", "unkempt" or "unprofessional". After sharing my fears with my fiancé, he was quick to reassure me of my natural beauty and reaffirm my decisions of why I was a part of this event and why it would be a positive experience for me. Boy was he right!
I walked into a room of beautiful familiar faces and quickly felt extremely comfortable, relaxed and ready for a night of inspiration. The night was filled with lots of raw and emotional moments that really made me dig deep into why I may be feeling particularly vulnerable or insecure about sharing my thoughts and feelings about how I feel about my body and myself.
We each got a chance to share with the group why we felt afraid or insecure to be there that night without makeup, it slowly became clear that we all were so much more connected and alike that we initially would have thought. Most insecurities and fears that the woman had was hard for me to see as I saw just incredibly vulnerable, brave and powerful women sitting there. I guess, this is what they thought of me too. It is incredible to think about the ways in which we see ourselves in such a negative light, but others see such beauty and confidence when they look at us. Why have we become so mean, toxic and dangerous to ourselves?
As I get closer to my beach destination wedding, I am bombarded with negative thoughts and feelings about being on the beach. This has been the first summer ever that I have only worn a bikini once. I hid behind one piece bathing suits to hide what I thought was not an ideal beach body, and put a lot of negativity onto the way I feel about my body. I have been putting a lot of pressure on myself lately to tone up, and lose weight so I can feel confident on the beach and feel beautiful in my wedding dress.
As the night went on, we dove deeper into the reasons in which we feel this way about ourselves, and talked more about ways in which we could change our own perceptions of our selves and our bodies. As I sat there, I began to realize that my mind-set has been extremely negative towards my body and the pressure to have the ideal "beach body" has truly taken over my daily thoughts and it has continued to cloud my vision of a happy and loving week marrying my best friend on the beach.
Many women shared incredibly brave and vulnerable stories about their own bodies and insecurities, which brought many of us to tears. It was such a powerful evening that I am soon not to forget. I left that evening feeling more confident, and more inspired to rethink the way in which I speak and see myself.
Our words and thoughts are so powerful and can change the way we see ourselves if we change the way in which we talk to ourselves. We are so quick to rise up our friends and family members when they talk negatively about themselves, but why do we say such horrible things to ourselves and think that's okay?
Let's change the way we speak to ourselves and speak only words of love, encouragement and appreciation. Our bodies are such beautiful and powerful things, let's be kind to ourselves.
*UPDATE* I am so happy to announce that we raised $1200 which is just over a FULL classroom of kids to go through the Free To Be Talks Program which educates youth in our communities on social media literacy and body positivity. WHEW HOO!
When you get a moment, please take the time to check out the incredible videos below that we watched that was extremely powerful. Let me know what you think!
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