Journal
Fresh Ways to Celebrate Valentine’s Day
Here’s a reminder for anyone who needs it: there are many ways to celebrate love. Call the people that you love most and tell them. Do a Valentine’s Day craft project with your kids. Spend some extra time cuddling your pets. FaceTime your best friend and feel how grateful you are to have them in your life.
And of course, don’t forget to show yourself love! This form of love can be the hardest to lean into, and devoting part (or all) of the day to self-love rituals might feel kind of awkward at first. So here are a few ideas to get you started:
Body Image Resilience with Lexie Kite of Beauty Redefined
We are so excited to be launching our video interview series with women who inspire us! To kick things off, we sat down with Lexie Kite of Beauty Redefined and talked all things body image—how to be resilient in the face of unrealistic beauty norms, how to detox your social media and how to transform body shame into power.
We’re Doing a Free Online Workshop to Help You Live Big!
What’s up, Lionesse Babes! We’ve got big news for you this week: We’re doing an online workshop!
The Live Fierce series will be a 4-week workshop focused on giving you the tools you need to live big. Each week you’ll join a video call focused on a different topic designed to help you:
Uplevel your self-care game (we’re going WAY beyond pedicures and bubble baths) to help you build a solid foundation for being your best self out in the world
Deal with the negative self talk that takes up space in your head like a troop of angry baboons
Take actual steps to go after that job/partner/raise/new apartment/book deal you’ve been dreaming of
Glow with self-confidence
Fall in love with your beautiful-ass self
On Grief
My father taught me grief first. It was easy for him to do because he also taught me love. I grew up in a house full of music with a larger than life musician for my dad. He used to say he’s “too hip for the room.” He knew how to make me laugh the hardest, always made me smile the biggest. I think he was too hip. Probably so. I know he was too mean, too drunk, too angry, too much for me when I was small. I know growing up didn’t help.
Overcoming Internalized Racism & Celebrating Yourself
Hello! I hope you’re well and having a joyful Juneteenth!
I am taking the day today to celebrate simply being Black. Which is something I was never taught to celebrate. As a biracial kid growing up in a white family in a rural midwestern town in the 80s, having brown skin was a constant cause of confusion and sadness. My mom is blond with pale white skin. I was forever longing for her long, straight hair and blue eyes.
There were zero kids of color at my school. Think about that for a minute. No Asian kids. No Latinx kids. No Black kids. Just me.
With my curls that my mom didn’t know how to tame. And my “weird” Nigerian name. And my brown skin.
Self-Care as an Act of Rebellion
I’ve always thought that consistent self-care is an act of rebellion in a society that tells women they need to give and nurture until they collapse. But now more than ever, self-care feels like a meaningful act. A political act. A statement that you are worth caring for. And an essential part of staying mentally and physically healthy enough to stay active and do the work that needs doing.
Because holy shit is there a lot of work that needs doing. We’ve got a racist president to eject from the White House. Systematic racism that we must continue to dismantle. Introspection to do on our role in the current status quo and how to move forward differently.
We can’t afford to burn out. We can’t afford to let ourselves become numb and apathetic. We have to be proactive in taking extra good care of ourselves so that we have the energy to keep putting one foot in front of the other on the path to justice and equality.
In that spirit, here’s our guide to taking care of yourself--body, mind and spirit--in these stressful times.
