Tag: curly hair

I Am a Model

Jennifred Jones

Today I am modeling…

Many people want to be noticed, remembered, looked up to, thought important…maybe even become a model!

They don’t know it, but they already are! We’re all modeling something every moment of every day to somebody, to nobody, to ourselves…what do they (we) see? Is it something we’d be happy to see, something we want to see, something we’re proud of? Is it even something we really want to model or are we only modeling what others (or we think others) want us to?

These are deep questions to ponder. All my growing up years on into college, I was in constant inner turmoil. Do I look good? What will others think? Do my clothes look right, am I stylish, is my hair okay, my glasses on straight, am I too skinny? I was a self-conscious wreck!! Finally at 21 I learned it was okay to be who I was. I looked okay in my homemade clothes (I was too tall for most dresses and pants), I was born with curly hair, that’s just the way I was made and my glasses helped me see better and being skinny I could be more active. So there!

But before that revelation, I was modeling shyness, insecurity, inferiority, self-consciousness, not really any fun to be around. I wasn’t happy to see me, I wasn’t proud of myself and was all wrapped up in myself so I couldn’t think about anybody else! Crazy how that works! (It was all me, myself and I)

A new mindset had to be formed where thoughts of others and their needs became important to me. What a relief to not be so self-consumed! There was freedom to think new thoughts, find new interests, make new friends, try new things and go different places. There would always be someone fun to meet and talk to.

How about you? Are you modeling who you are or want to be, or are you modeling what you think others will want to see?

Only flip the switch inside of you and you’ll become the something new.

‘You be You’ or ‘Me be Me’?

Jennifred Jones

They sound about the same, but are they?

This morning, trying to ‘arrange’ my very curly hair (to utilize its naturalness more fully and wondering how it would turn out, because it’s a ‘never the same twice’ hairdo), I thought, ‘I’m just going to be me. Let the locks fall where they may’!

That’s really what we all want…acceptance of who we are, where we are, as we are!

LET ME BE ME! 

But why do we need permission from somebody else to be who we are?

That’s where the ‘you be you‘ phrase got involved.

Many times, I think, when people tell us, ‘you be you’, there is another motive involved. They want you to be who they want you to be. And if you look around, all the ‘you be you-ers‘ look alike in many ways.

Not saying we have to become an oddball and do something crazy or hurtful to us or others to be ‘unique’. That’s not ‘me being me’. That’s trying to force your place when you already have a place.

Why is it so hard to get past what other people think? Because we all seek approval. But the good approval we need isn’t going to pull us down to a lesser version of ourselves. True approval will help/encourage us to be better, stronger, wiser, more reliant on our own judgement – not seeking wrong approvals.

This is where you will find your self-confidence. As you begin to launch out into the new and improved ‘let me be me‘ person, you will develop and grow into the better, stronger, wiser individual you always wanted to be!

Truly, let’s move forward together as ‘let me be me-ers‘ and become, each of us, who we really are.

There is so much good we can do once we allow ourselves to be and do what we are made to be and do.

Let You Out!

Jennifred Jones

Once upon a time most of us were carefree little kids. Mom and Dad, or Grandma and Grandpa would let us out to play. We’d make cups and bowls out of river-bottom clay, build bridges with sticks and stones, clothes-pin baseball cards to our bike spokes and listen to the clatter. We’d mix our food together different ways and eat it. We’d sew dresses for our troll dolls…

We started to grow up and somebody told us our striped shirt didn’t look good with our plaid shorts. The frosting on our homemade cake was an ugly color. Our glasses looked dumb. Our feet were too long, our hair was too curly…self-conscious, self-conscious, self-consciousness began to set in.

It’s too painful fighting off the thoughtless comments from others… I’m not going to do anything different, not going to be made fun of again…gonna blend in so no one sees me AT ALL!

Years pass, nothing changes, it’s day in-day, day-out…same ole, same ole. “Oh how I wish I could be more than a cog-in-the-wheel.”

That is the voice of our true calling…asking us:

Who are you? Where are you going? What do you really want to do? Are you tired of the rat -race?

Get back to the childhood freedom of mind. Begin to think, play, design, dream, plan, imagine, tinker.

It’s time to let ourselves out!

We do not need to ask permission…