This past week, I polled you on Instagram to get a sense of what was floating around the internet (or really inside your heads) when it comes to what you love to see here. I was floored at how so many of you responded with the SAME REQUEST (53 of you to be exact). Many of you commented that you love my honesty and bluntness around trends, life, and blogging. More specifically, being real as fuck when it comes to living life. I couldn’t think of a better time to do another round of my “minute” series. This time, it’s about your request to talk again about embracing the things that suck sometimes, because let’s face it, it’s inevitable. I’ll start with a little storytime as an opener:
Mandy 1.0: Things That Suck – Swallowing Bullshit
A while ago in a not so distant past 7 years ago, I had just penned my first blog post here. Back in the day, it went by the name of “Running In Pink.” It was my public creative journal, one that housed all of my workout outfits I willed to be regular street clothes, right before the yoga pants as clothes epidemic hit full swing circa 2013. Why the fuck is this important? It was where it led me professionally after that. Caught up in a world of constant surface level judgment (mental, not physical) within the fitness industry, I found myself being forced to live by a culture of false positivity and recycled unoriginal thought processes. This is in no way a blanket statement of the industry, rather the immediate surroundings of my personal professional life. It was fucking exhausting.
Mandy 2.0: Being Comfortable With Being Different
When faced with any kind of suffering (personal or professional), you have two choices: to become anti-fragile, or die (metaphorically). Most of us, when faced with fear or aversion, move away from it. I don’t. Instead, I cultivate it; rack and stack it into something I can use to move forward. One of my favorite quotes from the book The Subtle Art of Not Giving a Fuck puts it into perspective:
“…allow me to put on my Disappointment Panda mask and drop another unpleasant truth on you: We suffer for the simple reason that suffering is biologically useful. It’s nature’s preferred agent for inspiring change. We have evolved to always live with a certain degree of dissatisfaction and insecurity because it’s the mildly dissatisfied and insecure creature that’s going to do the most to innovate and survive.”
The Answer: Give Less Fucks
This is not to be confused with indifference. That’s lame and is actually a mask for people that care too much about too many things. It inhibits them from focusing on their own battles. It wasn’t until I was willing to step back and take a look at the big picture that it clicked. The less you sweat the small things, the easier it is to tackle the stuff that really scares you, like big goals and change. This year, I’ve jumped leaps and bounds toward what I want out of life, and it gets easier to navigate every day.
I leave you with this: use your fears and lessons from shit that sucks to take inventory of your life, and cultivate what makes you grow with it instead. I challenge you to leave a thought in the comments on how you’re tackling things that suck. It’s therapeutic!
We’re in this world together,
P.S. I picked these photos again because it’s literally my fave shoot so far, and it should live its best life, TBH.
OUTFIT DETAILS
Dress: Blue Metallic Dress, Badgley Mischka
Tee: Rage Against The Machine Tee, Ted’s Formal Wear LES (similar here)
Sunglasses: Cat Eye Translucent Sunglasses, eBay
Shoes: Lunarsandiator, Nike
MAKEUP DETAILS
Primer: Ambient Light Correcting Primer, Hourglass in Luminous Light
Foundation: The Influencer Clean Longwear Foundation, Sunday Riley in 140
Highlighter: Killawatt Freestyle Highlighter, Fenty Beauty in Lightning Dust/Fire Crystal
Blush: Air Blush Soft Glow Duo, Marc Jacobs Beauty in Lines & Last Night
Contour: Match Stix Matte Skin Stick, Fenty Beauty in Mocha and Rum
Eyes: Naked Petite Heat Palette, c/o Urban Decay
Lashes: Ardell Wispies, Target
Lips: Mattemoiselle Plush Matte Lipstick, Fenty Beauty in Spanked
Photos by Lydia Hudgens, makeup by me
