Have The Hair You Want: Step 1 - What Do You Want?

The first step in getting the hair you want is first identifying what you want. It might help to briefly make a list of what you don't want. By the way, you can use this as a Step 1 to change any area of your life including your career, money, relationships and fitness goals.

Here are some examples of the negative statements some women tell themselves (and others) about what they don't want.

EXAMPLE:

THINGS I DON'T WANT
  • I don't want to wear weaves to have fuller longer hair.
  • I don't want to get relaxers.
  • I don't want heat damage.
  • I don't want to go to scissor happy stylist.
  • I don't want people to judge me based on how I wear my hair.
  • I don't want to spend a lot of money on products.
  • I don't want to blend in with the crowd.
  • I don't want to go through an awkward phase.
  • I don't want to spend a lot of time doing my hair.
  • I don't want split ends.
  • I don't want excessive shedding or breakage.
Next, you change those negative statements into positive ones to create a list of things you do want. The idea is to spend very little energy on things that you don't want and to focus more on what you do want. This is a pivotal step in goal-setting. 

EXAMPLE:

THINGS I WANT
  • I want fuller longer hair.
  • I want to rock my natural hair.
  • I want to use little to no heat in my regimen.
  • I want to retain maximum length.
  • I want to use affordable products.
  • I want people to admire my hair.
  • I want my hair to help me stand out from the crowd.
  • I want to have an easy transition.
  • I want to spend very little time doing my hair.
  • I want healthy ends.
  • I want strong, resilient healthy hair.
Review this new list to remind you of your desires. You can even cross out some of the things as you achieve them or even add new things.



Texturephile: Tiga for PMA Models

Tiga is a model represented by PMA in Hamburg, Germany.

source: PMA Models

curly hair pictures, curly hair celeb
source: PMA Models

Don't Waste Your Time

There are 168 hours in a week. Have you ever sat and wrote out what you do with your life? Could you be devoting more time to a goal? We sleep about 56 hours per night, that's roughly 33% of our time. If you have a typical 40 hour 9 to 5, that will take up 24% of your time. After that, you have about 111 hours per week left. How do you spend them? How can you better maximize your time? If you have any goals, could you afford to devote more time to them? Instead of listening to the radio or watching tv while you work, couldn't you listen to an audiobook on a subject you're interested in? Instead of crashing in the bed as soon as you get home, could you clear out that junk drawer you've been meaning to get to for months? Couldn't you listen to positive affirmations while you sleep with your SleepPhones? If you like to socialize with friends, could you also be networking when you're bar hopping?

I make a conscious effort to not waste my time. I am super organized and visual so of course I had to make a spreadsheet of how I spent my time on an average week. Once I saw on paper what I was doing with time, I made changes. I am so much more productive and so many of my dreams have been fulfilled. If you feel like your life is going around in circles, try this and make a commitment to devote more time to your dreams and goals.

How to Attract Money Using Mind Power

How to Attract Money Using Mind Power by James Goi Jr. is one of the books in my rotation. I started reading it last month and actually finished reading it in one sitting. It only took an hour or two. It is the kind of book that you use with a journal and read every day. It's an amazing book. I strongly believe that the only thing keeping us from our goals is our negative belief system. This book helps you really dig deep into why your money situation isn't the way you want it to be. What I love about this book is that you can apply it to all areas of your life and really get a grasp on how you think about those areas of your life. Once you discover your core negative beliefs, you can really begin the work of evolving. I was surprised to know how much the money we have (or don't have) now is connected to self-image, our upbringing, fear, thinking of how others will perceive us and more. It's only 101 short pages and I have a feeling that if we really practice the lessons and apply them to every area of our lives, we will come to many life changing realizations. I love books that are like workbooks that you have to use in conjunction with a journal, I have about 3 different journals for 2011 and they are all about half full. This book is well worth the $7 that you'll have to shell out for it, but that's a bargain to have a money/life coach right at your fingertips.

Need Inspiration In Your Life?

Is there a specific area of your life that you're focusing on now? Where do you need the most help or inspiration? Please participate in the poll.


Texturephile: Simone Awor for In*Tandem

This is a Spring 2010 spread from In*Tandem Magazine featuring Simone Awor. Still relevant.


source: In*Tandem Magazine

source: In*Tandem Magazine
source: In*Tandem Magazine

Curls to Know: Paula Cardoso

Paula Cardoso is represented by Ice Model Management in Cape Town, South Africa.

source: Ice Model Management
curly hair pictures, curly hair celeb
source: Ice Model Management

Mind Over Hair and Everything

What if I told you that deciding to grow out my relaxer and growing my hair to bra strap length was more mental than anything I've ever done? It was. After reading the book,  Think and Grow Rich by Napoleon Hill back in 2007, I was inspired to utilize what I'd gleaned from the book and applied it to various other areas of my life including transitioning and growing out my hair. 

It is my belief that if you have any goal in life, you must imagine achieving it in your mind first. I began to look for women that had hair I admired with a similar hair type as me, I began to flood my mind with images of what my hair would look like. If they were people I knew or had access to, I would interview them and extract as much information as I could about their hair care philosophies, regimens and favorite products. I had this long wig that I used to put on around the house to actually see and feel what my hair would be like once it grew out to my goal.

You ever hear those stories about women who cut their hair and it grew back  in only a couple of months? Or the women who tried a very alternative hair product and was able to grow her hair at a rate of 1-2" per month? Oh or how about the women that start taking a vitamin or a nutritional supplement and have seen their hair length and volume change drastically? I wonder how much this has to do with our minds. What negative beliefs do we have about hair that are holding us back?

I used to think that my hair wouldn't get longer until I went natural and wouldn't you know, my hair is now longer than it's ever been. Now, was that because of my belief about relaxers hindering my growth or because of the actual physical change? I'd say it was a bit of both. How many women do you know who have experienced this, perhaps yourself? Not to discredit the whole going natural movement at all, but the idea that just believing your hair could grow longer, thicker or fuller than you ever thought before is actually a viable notion.

What if we all started believing we could have the hair we wanted? What if we believed we could have whatever we wanted and shut off our negative belief system? I think that if many women would dismiss their negative belief system and actually start to believe that it is possible to have their dream hair, then they would treat their hair differently and the results would be astonishing. Of course, hair could be a metaphor for much bigger issues. It's easy to say you want waist length hair and just believe in the possibility of that happening. Once you get to waist length and your hair is longer than it's ever been before, you think... oh, now I want something else that I didn't think was possible.

What do you think? Please participate in the poll.






The Mastery of Love

The Mastery of Love: A Practical Guide to the Art of Relationship (Toltec Wisdom Book)This week I read The Mastery of Love: A Practical Guide to the Art of Relationship by Don Miguel Ruiz. If you are a highly evolved person seeking other highly evolved people in your life, this is a great book for you.

It is my opinion (and perhaps a fact) that not very many people know what love is. This book explains love and dispels many of the myths and fallacies about love and not just about romantic love, but love of all types.

You will learn how your parents' relationship (or lack thereof), during your formative years, shaped the way you behave in relationships (whether you know it or not). You will learn that people operate either out of love or out of fear, love does not hurt, love has no fear, love is not attachment, love does not worry, love is not judgmental and so much more.

 My favorite quotes from The Mastery of Love: A Practical Guide to the Art of Relationship:

You cannot change other people. You love them or you don't. You accept them the way they are or you don't. To try to change them to fit what you want them to be is like trying to change a dog for a cat, or a cat for a horse.
The one who loves you, loves you just the way you are. Because if someone wants to change you, it means you are not what that person wants.
If you cannot love your partner the way she is, someone else can love her just as she is. Don't waste your time, and don't waste your partner's time. This is respect.
The book also talks about self love which is by far the most important love relationship you will ever have, so whether you're in a relationship or not, this book will change your idea of love forever.
Reminder: I'm open to your suggestions. Have you read a book that changed your life? Please share in the comments.



First Day of Spring 2011! Spring Cleaning Challenge

Feather Duster for Spring Cleaning
Today, March, 20, 2011 is officially the first day of spring. Have you planned your goals for Spring Cleaning? Made a list of things you want to do or goals you want to achieve this spring? You should! So many people get wrapped up in New Year's Resolutions, but by now many people have given up and are no longer in sync with their goals. So, what about setting seasonal goals? I'm most definitely doing it.

One of the things I am doing is organizing a chest that contains everything sentimental to me up until this point in my life. All of my pictures are shoved in a box. I'd like to make a scrapbook and eliminate some photos that don't really mean anything to me anymore. My prom dress and school uniform are in there too. I'm not sure why I'm keeping those things. I'm also working on a collage book of my dreams and goals. It's something I want to look at when I meditate.

I've already started purging more stuff too. You'll remember I got rid of a lot of stuff after reading, Throw Out Fifty Things: Clear the Clutter, Find Your Life and I challenged you to do the same thing. Many of you sent me e-mails telling me how your life feels so much more energized after doing that challenge. Now, let's see if we can rid of 50 more things this spring: negative beliefs, toxic people, clutter, clothes that you don't love or that don't fit, broken things that you don't plan on fixing, just everything that's holding you back.

SPRING CLEANING CHALLENGE 2011 

  • Get rid of stuff that's holding you back and keep a list. Aim for 50 things, but shoot for more. Groups of things only count as 1 items, so 100 magazines will only count as 1 thing on your list. 
  • If the clutter is in your mind, you can write each individual issue down on a piece of paper and destroy it. Replace it with a more positive belief in a journal, or a decorated notecard, get it framed or come up with a creative away to be reminded of your new positive belief.
  • You will have 91 days to complete the challenge since June 20 is the last day of spring 2011. If 50 is too large a number for you to think about, think of it as getting rid of 1 thing every 2 days or 4 things per week or 16 things per month. Break everything down: do that junk drawer one week, your closet the next week, your hair products the week after and so on.
  • Keep track of the positive things happening in your life now that you're releasing all the clutter and be sure to share: shoot me an e-mail once you've completed your mission.

Think, Believe, Manifest

This week I am listening to the archives of the Think, Believe, Manifest radio show on Blog Talk Radio. You should too!  I'm already learning and growing so much. The show is hosted by Constance Arnold, a life (dream) coach and counselor. Ms. Arnold is very accomplished at what she does. The radio show interviews some heavy hitters in the filed of Law of Attraction. I am discovering new authors, new thinkers. It's kind of insane how much I'm getting out of it by just listening. It's literally like taking a very intense master level lecture class on self-evolution. I listen to it on iTunes as a podcast and tonight I will download it to my iPod so that I can listen to it while I'm driving. It will probably take me a couple of weeks to get through all of the archives, but I will do it. Anyway, I'm getting so much out it and for those of you open to evolution and becoming more than you are now, I felt obliged to share.


Peace and Love,



Colour Lovers: Rihanna Covers US Vogue April 2011

Check out the bold new shades of red Rih rih is rocking in the latest issue of American Vogue shot by Annie Leibovitz. Do you love it? The cover reminds me of Ariel from The Little Mermaid. The interior shot with the short cut reminds me of Halle Berry circa 1992 Boomerang or Kelis circa 2008 at The Grammys.

source: US Vogue
source: US Vogue

Texturephile: L'Air Dutemps Editorial in UK Vogue April 2011

Take a look at this haute hair in the "L'Air Dutemps" editorial for UK Vogue's April 2011 issue. Take notes: the asymmetry, the off center part, the volume, the color, the seamless use of pins along the hairline and diameter of the curls.

source: UK Vogue April 2011
source: UK Vogue April 2011
source: UK Vogue April 2011

Getting In Your Own Way?

Did you read the article I just posted on releasing negative beliefs? You should! Most of the time, the only thing standing between us and our dreams are our negative beliefs. Maybe we think we don't deserve certain things, we aren't ready, we don't have enough money, our bodies aren't the way we want them to be, etc.

How are you getting in your own way? What limiting beliefs do you have that you can begin to release today? What are your negative beliefs about your hair, your clothes, your weight, your career, your relationships, your finances and your love life?

Make a list of goals you'd like to achieve this year. Write the beliefs that are hindering you, use the suggestions mentioned in the "Releasing Negative Beliefs" article to help you overcome them. Work on a new list with new positive beliefs to help you reach your goals. Hang them in a place you can see them and review them as much as you can, add new positive beliefs to this list and watch your negative thoughts disappear.

Releasing Negative Beliefs

Author: Melody Fletcher

When engaging in self-improvement, energy work or studying the Law of Attraction, we're often told that we have to let go of our negative and limiting beliefs. I've written extensively about it myself. But what exactly do we mean by "releasing negative beliefs"?

At our core, we are pure, positive energy, vibrating at a very high frequency. Everything outside of us is also energy, including our thoughts. A belief is just a thought that we've activated, that we've given a lot of attention and focus to over time; so its vibration is quite strong. Limiting beliefs are thoughts which carry a much lower frequency than the one that our inner being is vibrating at. This creates a vibrational discord, and it doesn't feel good.

Now, when you carry these lower frequencies with you, they can cause you to react to situations in ways that don't serve you. You react from a place of fear, you limit yourself, you lash out at people without meaning to; you generally don't allow yourself to be who you really are. And you don't feel all that great about it. "Why do I always do that? Why did I say that?" You wish you could behave differently in the moment, but something - a negative belief - is causing you stay stuck in a pattern. So, obviously, it's incredibly beneficial to release that limiting belief. But how?

There are many ways to release limiting beliefs, from psychotherapy, which works on a purely mind-based level, to Shamanic healing, which can be done on a purely energetic level. In my experience, most of our limiting beliefs are anchored in our mind, so for the purposes of this article, I'm going to focus on using mind-based methods to achieve energetic shifts.

Beliefs can be formed in two ways: We can pick up the vibration from our environment, or our mind can form a belief based on an event.

Every time someone thinks a thought, it is activated. There is a vibration. This vibration doesn't go away simply because that person stops thinking it. It can be picked up by someone else who taps into that thought's frequency. Now, let's say that a particular thought has been activated my many, many people - a whole community, culture, country or even the whole world. That vibration would be quite strong. A new born baby, having just come into the physical word and eager to begin translating energy through its physical senses could then easily begin to pick up on these strong vibrations. This is why you can carry cultural beliefs or global beliefs within you, even if your particular family didn't teach them to you.

You can also form a belief based on an event. A lot of these beliefs are also formed in our childhood and are, more often than not, the result of a complete misunderstanding. A child will interpret events through a very limited filter. They try to put things into context, but lack any kind of perspective to do so effectively. So, for example, if a little boy sees his parents arguing, he may well come to the conclusion that the parents are fighting because of something he did wrong. This singular moment can cause the boy to form the belief that he is bad in some way. Later in life, this can cause the man that boy has become to feel unworthy or like a failure, no matter what he does.

The main point here is that often our beliefs are formed in seemingly minor and quite innocent ways, especially from our adult perspective. That fight was quite traumatic for the little boy, but as a man, he would look back on his parents' argument and think nothing of it. Everyone argues, right? It's no big deal. And he may never connect his feelings of unworthiness to that seemingly harmless moment.
In order to release a negative belief, it can be quite helpful to figure out at what moment it was formed. It is not absolutely necessary, but if you can figure out where it came from, the release is so much easier. Be aware, though, that you're probably not looking for some huge, traumatic event. It could've been a simple argument, a moment of disappointment, some harsh word that caused the child you used to be to draw a conclusion about themselves or others.

But what if you can't figure out where the belief came from, or you're trying to release a belief you picked up vibrationally? In either case, the following still holds true:
Releasing a Belief = Changing your Perspective
Identify what it is that you believe now. Don't expect that belief to be logical, it will often not be. Then, find a way to shift your perspective on that belief. In other words, you have to find a way to actually justify the new belief to yourself. That new, more positive belief has to make sense to you. This is why you can't simply look in the mirror and chant "I am worthy. I am worthy." You could, over a great deal of time, shift your energy a bit with this method, but unless you're willing to spend hours and hours every day chanting to yourself, there are much easier ways.

If you can identify where the belief came from, an incident from your childhood, for example, one method which works is to allow the child which experienced that incident to process that event by going up the emotional scale on it. Don't try to just analyze the event as an adult. The child who experienced it won't care that everyone fights, and to him, it IS a big deal. It's scary when adults fight.
You can get some help. Find a good therapist, coach, EFT practitioner or shaman to assist you with identifying and releasing the limiting beliefs you have. Often, figuring out what limiting beliefs you hold is the hard part. A good practitioner can help you find those beliefs and release them much faster than you could on your own.

In any case, when you do finally "release" the negative frequency, when you shift your perspective and accept the new belief, you will feel a rush of energy. This is the point when people often start to cry or breathe more heavily. What you are feeling is your vibration on that subject rising. By releasing that lower frequency, you're allowing your vibration to return to its natural, high state. The bigger the sensation, the greater that energetic shift was. It feels amazing.

If you've released a particularly strong vibration, something that was affecting a large part of your life, be prepared for some "aftershocks." You might well experience little mini-releases of related vibrations. What's happening is that the belief you shifted was connected to a lot of other vibrations, and releasing it has caused a kind of domino effect. When you take down the big one, all the rest will fall one by one. You will also notice that your thoughts and behaviors will change over the coming days, weeks and months. You will behave differently - your reactions are now based on your new belief. Pay attention to this and react as deliberately as you can. Try to cement that new belief in place. Hold your new vibration intentionally. This is particularly important if the people around you have always reinforced the old belief. You can be affected by their vibration if you don't stabilize yours.

As you experience the identification and release of negative beliefs and the after effects of doing so more and more, it'll become easier and easier to do so. Don't be surprised if the energetic shifts you experience each time become less and less spectacular. As you have less lower frequencies to release, and the ones you have left aren't really that low, the shifts you experience may seem a bit anti-climatic. You might even miss the amazing feeling of releasing some really huge, ugly belief structure. But don't worry. When you get to this point, you will generally feel so good and be in such a great mood, that this disappointment will be short lived.

Article Source: http://www.articlesbase.com/coaching-articles/releasing-negative-beliefs-4119137.html
About the Author


Did you like this article? Learn more about how your beliefs affect your reality by reading Articles about Beliefs.


Melody Fletcher writes about the Law of Attraction, Universal Energy and spirituality. Her main goal is to help those that resonate with her information to find the empowerment, freedom and happiness that every one of us truly deserves. She invites you to visit her website, at www.Deliberate Receiving.com.

Little Curls for Joe Fresh

Check out the cute little curly girl in the center of the picture, right where she's supposed to be.

source: Joe Fresh

Stop Being a Victim

Author: Denise Ryan

The foundation for living a great life rests on one vital principle: You are responsible. Yep, that's right - you are responsible. Unhappy in your job? You took the job, you choose to remain in the job, and you are choosing to be miserable about it. Overweight? No one force fed you all that food. In debt? Guess who spent more money then they could afford? In a bad relationship? You keep showing up.

The first step in improving any of these situations (or countless others we could name) is taking responsibility for them. Victims are quick to blame the situation on other factors: I have to stay in this job, I've got kids to support! Well, who chose to have the kids? And why have you decided this is the only job in the world you can get? Unless you're dead you can always acquire new skills. You are responsible.

Even if something truly terrible has happened and it is beyond your control (although you have more control in most situations than you'd like to admit), how you react to it is your responsibility.

The best example I have ever seen of this is a women I love and admire greatly - Cathy Wheeler, the Director of the Small Business Center at Rockingham Community College. Cathy is one of the sunniest, most upbeat people you will ever meet. In the past several months, she has been struggling with a terribly dehabilitating illness which has weakened her bones. They are incredibly fragile - last winter she slipped on the ice and a major bone in her leg broke. (She was helping someone who had slipped, and she got up and kept going for a few days!) A few months later, her jaw shattered while she was walking across her bedroom. And she's currently dealing with spinal problems which have her worried about paralysis.

Cathy could easily become a victim, complaining about this happening to her in the prime of her life, using the situation as an excuse to be miserable. Not Cathy. She always asks about others and has the biggest heart I've ever seen. She'll think about all of us and how we're doing long before it would ever occur to her to complain about her own condition. She said to me that she wasn't going to let her situation stop her from doing the things she loved. She said "I'd rather die living, than live dying." That's advice we should all take to heart. Cathy is a tiny little thing, but she's the strongest and the most joyful person I know. No one would ever say that Cathy is a victim.

Most of us don't have to deal with our bodies falling apart on us. Some of us become victims with hardly any provocation, eager to blame someone or something else for any failure or problem we encounter. These victims are miserable and encourage everyone who comes in contact with them to be miserable too. Chances are you know at least one victim, but what about you? Is there some area in your life where you are behaving as a victim? An area in which you have surrendered all your power and are blaming someone or something else for the quality of your life? Stop it right now and take responsibility!

It scares people too much to admit they got themselves into their current situations. Or that, at the very least, they are choosing to remain in those situations. But until you admit (yes, I ate all that food; yes, I spent all that money; yes, I've been too lazy to exercise; yes, I've been too lazy to look for another job or get more training; yes, I've been too afraid of being lonely to leave this relationship; yes, I've been too scared to ask for the sale; and on and on and on), until you admit you are responsible for the quality of your life, nothing will get any better for you.

Once you admit that it is indeed YOU who are in charge of your life, you can decide what to do. You can change your behavior in the direction of what you truly want. If you really, truly want a slimmer body, you can cut back on what you eat and start exercising. If you really want a different job, you can start actively looking for another one or go and get the education you might need to qualify for something else. Maybe you really don't want to do the work necessary to lose the weight or get another job. Then take responsibility for that decision and fix your attitude. Focus on what you like about your situation - for example you may really like your co-workers - and quit complaining about something you have no intention of changing. Your attitude is always under your control - and choosing to be miserable is just plain stupid.

To increase your quality of life: Step One: Take responsibility for it. Step Two: Take action to improve or accept anything that is making you unhappy. (In other words, fix it or get over it.)

Victims never get past the first step. Don't be one of them.


Article Source: http://www.articlesbase.com/self-improvement-articles/stop-being-a-victim-648632.html


About the Author
Denise Ryan, MBA, is a Certified Speaking Professional, a designation of excellence held by less than 10% of all professional speakers. She is a blogger http://motivationbychocolate.blogspot.com

Her website is
http://www.firestarspeaking.com

Make The Runway Your Way: Marc Jacobs Spring 2011

One way that I relax and keep up with the trends is to scour a number of fashion sites including Style.com. I thought it would be more productive for me and hopefully helpful and beneficial (for those of you that are too busy), if I shared with you my favorite trends from the runway shows.

So here are Mane and Chic's top picks and trends to notice from the Marc Jacobs show:

1. Dark emerald olive  eyes and burgundy lips
I'm into neutral eye shadows, I typically stick to browns and golds, but one of my favorite shadows is a deep emerald olive like this. It really gives some POW to your eye.


source: Style.com

2. Smoked out cat eye
Do this for a steamy spring night out.


source: Style.com
3. Off center part, high texture hair and twisted sides
So easy, anybody can do it. All you need is a couple of bobby pins. Perfect style for naturally curly and naturally highly textured hair. This would be good for a casual day look.


source: Style.com

4. Faux hair cut, pin up, creative use of bobby pins and loose curls
It will be warming up, you might want to keep that hair up and off your shoulders. This also is perfect for a night look.
source: Style.com
5. Mixing prints
6. Pairing orange with red
7. Red pedicures, red bags, red shoes


source: Style.com

8. Vintage Gold
9. Octagonal Sunglasses


source: Style.com
10. Shoulder adornment


source: Style.com
11. Mixing textures in the same color

source: Style.com
12. Peek a boo leg

source: Style.com
13. Stripes
14. Flowy, easy, feminine silhouettes


source: Style.com

Rock It or Knock It: Polka Dot Spring 2011 Trend

Polka dots are a classic fashion pattern, but they are back in a major way this season in everything from headbands, silk shorts, clutches to pumps. Are you into it?

Miu Miu, Boutique, Moschino, Love Moschino

Jason Wu, Topshop, Betsey Johnson, Betsey Johnson



Rock It or Knock It: Orange Spring 2011 Trend

I have to admit, I don't typically go for orange, but the Spring/Summer 2011 runway shows have really inspired me and now I just can't get enough of it. What do you think?

All Saints, Rebecca Minkoff, Guerlain, Nina




Chronoblog