Catching Confidence

Yesterday I took my 20 year old son and we went bay fishing down on a boat in Galveston.  It was a hot, humid July Texas day but the water was beautiful.  We didn’t catch much, no one did but I did catch something.  I caught a little more confidence. 

Here I was in a bathing suit and a pair of shorts, hair blowing all over, sweating, no makeup and I walked through the day with confidence; head high and feeling fantastic.  Normally, this would have been a head down, try not to draw attention to yourself kind of day but  I struck up a conversation with a family on one side of me and a father/son on the other.  I was friendly with the deck hands and even a guy from Arkansas who asked for my number.  This is a situation which usually would have intimidated me, especially talking to the men because they were all pretty attractive, but once we started talking they were just as nice back to me as I was to them.

I’m starting to feel a little more comfortable with this new way of doing things.  No more looking where I’m going, instead I’m going to start looking at the people around me. 

Rock your Confidence!

I will be the first to admit it; I like clothes and anyone who has even seen my closet knows this to be true.  I love to dress nice, my idea of nice, put on my makeup, and fix my hair. I don't think everyone has to do that.  Some women feel perfectly comfortable in a t-shirt and jeans; I'm just not one of them. But when I leave the house feeling like a million bucks then I can definitely 

Rock my Confidence!

A New Definition

BBW - Beautiful, Bold Woman

I just love a thesaurus and I had such a good time looking up all the synonyms for beautiful and bold that I thought I would share.

Remember those word match assignments in school where you drew a line from one column to the other to pick the best answer.  Well, here is your word match assignment for the day….. only there are no wrong answers. 

Today I will be Exquisitely Fearless!!  How about you?

Beautiful                                                          Bold

Lovely                                                             Brave   

Gorgeously                                                      Daring

Stunningly                                                       Courageous

Strikingly                                                         Fearless

Pleasingly                                                       Audacious

Delightfully                                                      Valiant

Charmingly                                                      Confident

Wonderfully                                                     Self-assured

Exquisitely                                                      Cheeky

Magnificently                                                   Nervy

Fake It 'til You Make It!

I was thinking about confidence; about how we present ourselves and times when we feel more and less confident.  

Are we born with confidence?  I think we are, at least to an extent.  That’s why we will touch a hot stove until we are told no, no, no or we just get burnt.  We have confidence that we can walk until we fall, we can be silly and laugh and run around like crazy until we are told to sit down, shut up and quit acting like a fool.   

So as we grow we start to lose that innate confidence we have and eventually life gets in the way, we are hurt or made fun of or abused and as the damage sets in, our confidence wavers and wanes and sometimes is just snuffed out. 

So how do we develop that confidence again?  How do we go from walking with our eyes on the ground to looking at the world head on?  How do we learn to love ourselves and feel beautiful and worthy?

Ever heard the term  “fake it till you make it”?

I know, sounds great on paper right?  But how does that play out in real life.  This is what I have been pondering. Start by practicing the following:

Faking it                                                                  Making it

Walk up to strangers and introduce yourself : People like to be approached instead of doing the approaching.

Everyone is afraid of rejection and you will help make them comfortable.

Look people in the eye when talking to them: You will start to realize that you are an engaging person and you will make others feel like you are interested in them and what they have to contribute.

Be willing to discuss a topic you are not really familiar with:   You will become a well-rounded conversationalist.  Don’t be afraid to ask questions when you don’t know.  People usually love sharing their knowledge with others.

Smile at people on the street or in stores:  We have a tendency to walk around with our heads down or eyes focused on our goal instead of other people.  When we look up and smile at strangers we will start to become more open.

These are just starters and I don't know if they will work but I think that if we start to incorporate these practices in to our daily lives we will begin to see a change in the way we perceive ourselves and others perceive us.

Have a Be-YOU-tiful Day!

Essential Truths

Some days I just feel more beautiful than others.  Today is a good day.  Today I feel on top of the world, like a gorgeous siren beckoning my sailor to come hither.  I know, I know.. a little bit goofy but I feel sexy and alive and confident. 

Other days… uggh!  Other days I feel like I just crawled out from under a rock, but it couldn’t have been a rock because my fat *** won’t fit under a rock will it?  Maybe a boulder or I know, a cave in a mountain… I might fit there.  And my hair… my hair just lays there.  I spent 30 minutes on it this morning and by 10 am it looks like it wasn’t even brushed.  But who cares anyway.  I mean, no one bothers to pay me a bit of attention………

Sound familiar?  Sorry for the rant but don’t we all have our days where we knock ourselves so bad that we just feel horrible in no time. 

I think our quest for confidence starts with self talk.  If you have ever seen the movie “The Help” there is the line in it where Aibileen tells  Mae Mobley over and over “You is Kind, You is Smart, You is Important”.  Why does she do this?  To instill in this small child these truths, because she knows that no one else will. 

Most of us don’t have an Aibileen in our lives and even if we did it needs to start with us.  It’s time to start telling ourselves the essential truths about me and you.

Essential Truths

You are Fearfully and Wonderfully made and God loves you just the way you are!

(I agree with Aibileen)

You are Kind

You are Smart

You are Important

You are Beautiful

You are Loveable

You are Enough

You deserve a wonderful, full, amazing life!

The list can go on.  Please feel free to add your own comments.  We need to wake up each day, tell ourselves these essential truths and try to view the world with a beautiful, confident outlook.

She is Woman

I saw this on pinterest and wanted to share it.  It's about the very essence of what 'being beautifully you' is all about.  (I love signs, quotes, and poems ao you will see a lot of this from me).  

Lessons from Fat Amy

I love "Pitch Perfect".  I think it's hilarious and the character development is flawless.  It takes a look at all of the stereotypical characters and just blows them up.  Everything from the mean girls to the 'High Notes' are over the top.  But, my favorite character of all has to be Fat Amy.  She has the kind of confidence I'd like to find.  The kind that doesn't even get it when the jokes on her.  I don't know if Rebel Wilson is anything like her character but I love her for bringing it to the table.

Here are just a few of my favorite quotes:

I think there is a life lesson in this one:

 And My favorite!

Thank you Fat Amy for being Your Own Kind of Beautiful!

Lesson Learned

Someone taught me a lesson recently.  I have a tendency to see the inherent goodness in people and this person reminded me that there are plenty of people in this world who aren't very nice.  There are people who prey on others.  There are people who seek out weakness and vulnerability in others, use them for their purposes and nonchalantly toss them aside like an dirty rag.  

As I've spent time thinking about this, I've realized that there has to be some real damage to a persons soul for them to treat another person so callously and I think that's the lesson here.  It's not about me.  It's not about who I am and my value.  I could have been anyone because a person who has disregard for others doesn't play favorites.  They are generally equal opportunity destroyers.    

And guess what?  Me?  I am worth so much more than that!  I am a beautiful, kind, giving, loving, passionate, crazy, spontaneous person who is worth respect and kindness. But above all else I am good to other people.  My life has its problems and I have my weaknesses and battle my demons but I always try to treat others with love and compassion and because of that I am blessed.  

Be Your Own Kind of Beautiful

I am one of those girlfriend kind of gals.  I love other women.  I love to hang out with them, laugh with them, cry with them, pray with them.  We women are the backbone and beauty in this world.  We are mothers, sisters, best friends, and daughters.  We are every race, every religion, and every size and shape.   We are the mothers of every generation of living souls in this world.  Creation runs through our blood and is borne of our bodies.  We are amazing and our capacity to love is boundless when it's not bridled.  We are fearfully and wonderfully made and without us, the world would lose it's glow.


So, girlfriends.... it's time for us to love who we are, who God made us to be and to see ourselves as beautiful... not in spite of our flaws and imperfections... but because of them.  It's time for us to take a look at what we bring to the table and own it.  It's time to quit basing our worth on someone else's idea or opinion and start being beautifully, authentically YOU!
There are plenty of movements all about women loving themselves and empowering themselves and whether or not this will be much different remains to be seen but I am on a mission.  
We all have our body and beauty issues.  Too tall, too fat, too skinny, big nose, no boobs, too much boobs etc...  For me it's my body.  Call me fat, obese, curvy, a BBW (big beautiful woman) or just overweight ...I am so done with fat shaming.  I refuse to accept any longer the concept that I am somehow less then or unacceptable because I am a big woman.  This doesn't mean that our thinner counterparts aren't any different then we are.  My slender sister says "It doesn't matter what size you are, when you outgrow your underwear it's depressing."  And she's right. It doesn't matter.  Why do we even have a label? Why can't we just be women? Gloriously Beautiful Women. 

So this is for all women, 8 to 108.... size 0 to size 30.... that has ever felt 'less then'.  We need to support and lift each other up; never tear each other down. You are lovable and worth loving my dear.