WEEKLY CHALLENGE #1: Anonymous Acts of Kindness :)

"You have it easily in your power to increase the sum total of this world's happiness now. How? By giving a few words of sincere appreciation to someone who is lonely or discouraged. Perhaps you will forget tomorrow the kind words you say today, but the recipient may cherish them over a lifetime.”
--Dale Carnegie

Hi lovelies!

Here is this week's challenge: ANONYMOUS ACTS OF KINDNESS!

The purpose of this challenge is to help others, but the catch is that they cannot know that you did helped them. Many times, I see people help others and then expect a thank you or some type of praise...We need to learn how to do nice things for others without getting any recognition. You should be doing the good deed because you want to help a person out, and get that good and tingly feeling inside :)

GOAL: 3 acts each day!! :)

So...DO NOT wait to be thanked or recognized, just HELP OTHERS!

Some examples may include (but are not limited to...)

• Leaving your change from a purchase at the check out and ask that the cashier credits that to the person behind you...then you leave...
• What can you do with five bucks to make someone's day? Anything that comes to mind, (legal of course) do it! :)
• Express kindness to those who are healing. Go to the hospital and visit sick children. Bring them stuffed animals (they won't know who you are) :)
• Make a SMILE card. Just take some construction paper and stickers and create some at home. Put a motivational quote on them and mention that you just wanted the person to smile. Hand it out to people that you don't know as you walk down the street. :)

These are just some ideas, stretch your imagination as far as it will go. Your goal is to make the person that you help SMILE! :D

Don't forget to update everyone on your progress in the comments box below!

Also, if you are interested in doing this after this week, visit http://www.helpothers.org/ and order some SMILE cards...they are FREE!!!

Peace and blessings,

nNb Y

Are Others Discouraging You About Your Natural Hair?

"A man of sense is never discouraged by difficulties; he redoubles his industry and his diligence, he perseveres, and infallibly prevails at last." --Lord Chesterfield

Hey y'all!

I just found a really great video for those who are receiving discouraging comments from loved ones and friends about your natural hair. As much as you want to ignore the comments and not let them bother you, there is always of part of you that is kind of saddened by them. I know I have instances like that when my mom asks me to relax my hair before I go to certain events or tells me to braid my hair so that I will cover my natural curls. Ladies and gents, pray for strength! It's always harder when people who you are really close to constantly discourage you from wearing your natural hair. They don't understand how empowering wearing your natural kinks and curls can truly be...


Do NOT let boyfriends, family or friends discourage you from being YOU! Enjoy your natural kinks and don't allow anyone to take away the happiness that being Naturally Flyyy brings you! :)

Here's the video:

Here is the website to Scandalous Beauty's website and YouTube page for makeup and naturally hair tips:

Scandalous Beauty Online: http://scandalousbeautyonline.com/

Scandalous Beauty YouTube Page: http://www.youtube.com/user/scandalousbeauty

Peace,

nNb Y

WEEKLY CHALLENGES :)

There is no Challenge more challenging than the challenge to improve yourself.

-- Michael F. Staley

Hey y'all!

I was on one of my favorite natural hair sites (curlynikki.com) and I was looking at the health and fitness forum and saw a topic that mentioned something about weekly challenges. This seems like a GREAT idea, so I've decided to do the same type of thing. However, instead of focusing on just health and fitness, I want to incorporate other things like education, music, hair challenges and sooo much more! This will force me to post more on here (hehe) and it will also give me a way to connect with other people who are in similar situations as myself. These challenges will not be easy...they will be designed to take you out of your comfort zone :)

Here's the setup:

• Each challenge will begin on Monday of the week and will end at 11:59 the following Saturday.
• I will try to alternate the topics from week to week to get some variety. If you have any suggestions for challenge ideas, shoot me a message or just comment below.
• Update everyone on your progress below in the comments section.
• If this gets really big, (I'm hoping it does!) I'll create a separate blog for it :)

The first challenge will be posted on Sunday, Jan 24th. I'm really excited!!!

Peace,

nNb Y

SPIRITUAL ANALYSIS: *What is Love?*

Love yourself first and everything else falls into line. You really have to love yourself to get anything done in this world.

-Lucille Ball

Hey everyone!

One of my favorite songs is entitled "What is Love" by Vivian Green. It has a really mellow beat and I can listen to it on repeat for hours and just relax. Today I was listening to the song and for the first time, I actually listened to the words in the song... normally I sing along with her (off-key, lol!) and jam to the music. However today, after LISTENING to the words, I started to realize that I could really relate to them. I was essentially the woman in the song... That kind of got to me and it made me start analyzing how I ended up in that position...Before I go on, take a look at the lyrics:

Vivian Green - "What is Love?"

Verse 1

Maybe I am foolishly in love with someone that is

Not exactly on the same page that I am on

Well all my friends keep telling me stop walking round so blindly

But when he calls they're not around to ever remind me

Chorus

Maybe this isn't love

But if it isn't love then really What is Love

Maybe I don't really need to know What's love

Cuz when he's around he got me feeling some kinda way

(Repeat 1x)

Verse 2

I guess I kinda noticed he don't always act so kindly

But that doesn't stop my hunger, hunger for his heart

Now should I listen to those who think that I should move on

Maybe what they see as drama I see more as art

(Chorus)

Bridge

I can't seem to get past what he makes me feel

It may not be love, but it feels so real

Can't go with what they say must follow my heart

But now is that even being true to me

May not be happy, truly content

But maybe this is as good as it gets

But it may be my confidence so now I'm just thinking all hopelessly

(Chorus)

(Instrumental)

Listen to the song below:

For a long time, I depended on other people to bring me my happiness. I always focused on what people wanted me to be instead of what I wanted to be. This brought a lot of unhappiness in my life because it seemed like the harder I tried to please others, the more I would fail. This also directly ties to my past relationships with men.

I NEVER felt pretty while I was in a relationship. Even if the guy that I was with told me that I was beautiful, I wouldn't believe it. In my mind, things like that were said because he only wanted one thing... I had been through several rocky relationships and each one had me feeling lower than the last. After a while, I convinced myself that my extreme feelings of insecurity were normal among women around my age, body shape and size. I couldn't fathom having a man in my life that would say all of those positive things and actually mean them....to me, that was just a dream...

This song encompasses a lot of what I did and what I went through in the past. I had several relationships were guys tested me both mentally, physically and spiritually...and sadly, I failed every one of those tests.

After lots of prayer, reflecting and soul-searching, I was finally able to stand in front of a mirror, hold my head up high and say "YES, I AM BEAUTIFUL!". Through reading the bible and talking to spiritual people, I had learned to appreciate who I am and then I began to love myself. Don't get me wrong, I still have days in which I feel low, unloved, unappreciated and ugly, but I just remember that God LOVES me so much that he has forgiven me of all my sins through the blood of Jesus Christ! (John 3:16)

I might have rambled or I might have gone completely off topic, but this song really brought back some painful memories...while at the same time giving me hope. I have come a long way from the extremely shy and insecure girl I once was and I've got a long way to go...

...the journey continues...

Peace,

nNb Y

Hair Goal!

"The recipe for beauty is to have less illusion and more Soul, to retreat from the belief of pain or pleasure in the body into the unchanging calm and glorious freedom of spiritual harmony."

-Mary Baker Eddy

Hey ya'll!

I was browsing the web between classes, looking for a nice professional hair style for a convention that I am leaving for on Friday. As I was looking at pictures of hairstyles, I came across a picture of a lady with really nice shoulder length hair. Her hair was soooo full of body, I couldn't help but post about it!

Here's the picture:

I want her hair!!!!!

In order to achieve results similar to this, I need start and STICK to a good regimen so that my hair can grow up to be like hers! lol!

Peace and blessings all!

nNb Y

My Natural Hair Journey

"Remove the kinks out of your mind, not your hair" - Marcus Garvey

Hey hey!

Yesterday, I started thinking... What would I say if someone asked me why I went natural? After thinking about the question for a while, I realized that I probably wouldn't answer the question concisely. I would probably go into a few anecdotes about past hair experiences. Here's what I would say...

Two years ago, I started noticing that a lot of women around me on campus began cutting their hair. Now, I'm not talking small trims, but full on buzz cuts and afros resulted from these cuts. I couldn't figure out why people where cutting off all of their hair. Part of me got mad because some of the girls had really long hair and I was struggling to keep my hair at shoulder length.

5-30-07

7-13-07

During the summer, I watched Madea's Family Reunion (movie) and saw an actress with really beautiful two-strand twists. Her name is Lia Arrindel Anderson. Her hair looked sooo beautiful and long and I wanted mine to look that way. A couple of weeks after I saw the movie, I went to get kinky twists at a local hair salon. They didn't come out anywhere like hers did:

The look I was going for...

The look I got :(

In about a month in a half (Oct 29, 2007), I took down the hairstyle only to find out that my hair had locked pretty badly... After crying for over 3 hours, I decided to go to a hair salon and have them fix my hair... That day I found out that they would have to cut out all of the locked hair. After crying a bit more, the stylist promised that she would make me look fly... Here's the haircut: This was also the very last time that I would get a relaxer, although I didn't know it yet...(Pics taken in Dec.)

I started wearing my hair in protective styles because I didn't feel like flat ironing it all the time. So I got a friend of my aunt to twist my hair for me (not sure what the style was called, lol!)

1/4/08

After a while, I started looking asking some of my friends why they cut their hair. I pretty much got the same answer from everyone... "Natural hair is beautiful and it's me!". That made me start looking about natural hair websites, and blogs to see what all the buzz was about... While looking at the pictures on the websites, all of the women looked like they were basking in confidence... They all looked gorgeous and their hairstyles were sooo cute! After some time, I realized that I was looking at natural hair photos everyday!

So...one day (July 8th, 2008) I washed my hair and allowed it to air dry...Later on when I went to the library, I checked out my hair in the ladies room... All of my new growth was nice and curly and looked beautiful while all of my relaxed ends were thin and stringy... It looked horrible to me (it's funny because I used to love wearing my hair like that!). It was then that I knew that I wanted to go natural and cut off all of my relaxed ends. That night, I went home and took some scissors and cut off all of the relaxed strands. Then my little brother helped me clip off the rest of the relaxed ends :) (Disregard the boobage in the first photo...hehe)

07/14/08 (Puff with braids in front)

11/2/08 (Wash 'N Go Pulled Up)

1-17-09 (Twist out w/braids)

4-26-09 (Blow Out)

7-14-09 (Ponytail!!!!)

9-7-09 (Wash 'N Go, Pulled Up)

9-26-09 (Wash 'N Go)

11-23-09 (Blow Out)

12-9-09 (Bantu Knot Out)

1-1-2010! (Wash 'N Go, Pulled Up)

Throughout my journey, I have had some rough patches with learning about my natural curls. I've learned what products work and don't work for me. I've learned to deal with people who may not like the path that I have chosen to take. Through this experience I have learned more about myself and have become wayyy more confident. Now, I look at my pictures and see that same level of confidence that I saw in the natural pictures I was looking about a little over a year ago... :)

So, that's pretty much what I would tell anyone who asks me about why I went natural (sans the pictures, lol!). I absolutely love my natural curls and I will NEVER relax my hair again! :)

Peace,

nNb Y

New beginnings/Resolutions/and much more! :)

"Women need real moments of solitude and self-reflection to balance out how much of ourselves we give away."

-Barbara De Angelis

Hey lovelies!

It's been a while since my last update and A LOT of things have occurred since then... First off, I want to say HAPPY NEW YEAR!!! I know I'm super late, but I hope everyone had a great kick off to the new year.

So...I have been doing some soul-searching and I am making some big transitions/changes in my life. First, I've decided to try to find a job right now (hopefully through Americorps in the nonprofit sector to prepare myself for a career in nonprofit work! I'm super excited and nervous all at the same time...it's going to be a really big change for me, but I my heart is being pulled in that direction. I still haven't decided whether or not I want to devote my life to working with children or whether or not I want to work to help save the environment. Hopefully I will be able to come to the decision soon. If I could find a position that combined both of those things, that would truly be my dream job :D

Ok, I did say that I am making a lot of changes, well, I came up with some resolutions for the new year... Now, I know that most times people make resolutions and then forget about them down the road (I'm guilty of that!)...but I am really determined to change my life and lifestyle...

Here goes...

1. Attend church more often and stop finding reasons to not go...



2. Lose 57 lbs, to get to my healthy weight of 141 lbs.



3. Begin a daily regimen to take better care of myself (morning, nighttime, workout schedule)



4. No more flat ironing my hair...find better ways to naturally stretch and straighten my hair...



5. Do not settle for anything less than I deserve from ANYONE!



6. Try different hairstyles and don't allow myself to be stuck in a rut.



7. Donate clothing that I don't wear to charity



8. Become more organized and more tidy

Another thing that I have decided to do and stick to is to remain celibate until marriage... I have had a hard time doing this because I didn't want guys to lose interest in me..but now I need to focus on myself and build up my self-esteem and sex only complicates things. Besides, I want to wait for the guy that loves me enough to profess before God that he loves me. Please pray for me...

That's about it for this update, I will be back with another one really soon...I just did this really cute hairstyle and I want to upload the video onto the blog so y'all can see :)

Peace,

nNb Y