Fight Song

Take Back Your Life 

Hello Lovelies. I'm Jordan Nicole :) Over the past few months I have been so intrigued with the idea of things we do and do not have control over in our lives.

We each have things in our lives that are out of our control. I can sit here and name so many things that I have no power to change. Some of these things cause me to feel anxious. Knowing that I have no control over those situations is daunting. How can I be happy when there are so many things that make me unhappy which I just have no influence over? Getting past the things that make me feel sad without changing them can seem impossible.

The thing that I have been so fascinated with as of late is the idea that, while situations can be beyond our ability to control, happiness is never out of reach. Even if it feels like you are drowning in your life and it takes all of your energy just to stay afloat, you are still the only thing that stands between yourself and happiness.

Have you ever met someone who, despite their situation, was just the happiest person you had ever had come into your life? We have all had this experience. The child who has lost a parent, the parent who has lost a child, the mother of two who has just been diagnosed with breast cancer, the veteran who lost their leg to war. The list is endless, but they all have one thing in common. They have realized that being happy is something you can choose... And they have chosen it.

You see, as much as we would like to blame all of the things in our life that we have no control over for our unhappiness, this is simply not true. HAPPINESS IS A CHOICE. No one and nothing can take happiness away from you. Happiness and joy are something that is held in your heart and you can choose to wake up and be happy or wake up and not be happy.

You may be sitting there yelling that I don't understand at your computer screen, but I promise that I do. I have been the person who let the world bring me down. I have sat alone in my room feeling like there was just nothing to be happy about anymore. The thing I didn't realize back then is that I had the potential to be happy, even when things looked so grim. You hold the key.

When it seems like there is nothing to be happy about, it is because you are overlooking all of the blessings in your life. We are surrounded by magical things that should make each of us overwhelmed with happiness every day. The littlest of things add up to the biggest blessings in your life.

Can you see? Can you hear? Can you speak? Can you walk? Are you healthy? Does your body function the way it was meant to? These things may seem like obvious traits that you were just born with, but not everyone was. These things are blessings. We are so used to having the ability to do simple things that we don't think of them as being extraordinary, but they are. When you know someone who doesn't have these abilities then you start to understand just how much they affect your daily life.

Blessings do not have to be major events that have a big flashing "This is a blessing" sign hanging above them. Miracles happen every day. There are so many reasons to be happy. Find them!

I am not trying to sit here and tell you how to live your life, but if you have been struggling to find reasons to be happy then maybe you should take a step back from your daily struggles and write down one thing that you are grateful for each night. Just one thing. I promise you that you will find something new each day, and over time that list will start to grow. Watch it grow and realize that you are truly blessed. As time goes on, take back your ability to be happy. In turn, take back your life.

There are so many things that we have no control over in this world but happiness is not one of them.

Happiness is a choice.

What did you choose today? 

Oh, Tonight

Setting Aside Your Pride 

Pride

(n.) a feeling of deep pleasure or satisfaction derived from one's own achievements.

Hello Lovelies. I'm Jordan Nicole :) I have learned the hard way, more than once, that pride can take something that is great and completely destroy it. Not only have I experienced this first hand, but I have watched people that I love, tear apart relationships because of their pesky pride. While I can admit that pride can be helpful in the sense of achieving your goals, I think that it ultimately hurts us more than it helps. How many times have you liked someone but refused to tell them because you wanted them to tell you first? What about disagreeing with the way someone is treating you, but not telling them because you think they should just know you are upset? These are examples of your pride getting in the way of what you want. 

This can sound a little bit crazy if you think about it. I mean, why would your own pride make you end up without things that you want? Shouldn't your brain be helping you get everything you've ever wanted, not be sabotaging you? Well, that just isn't the case. We self sabotage all of the time. At least I know I do, and I see if happening around me quite frequently. 

You see pride is the voice in the back of your head that makes you hold back your feelings in order to protect you from rejection or being wrong. You want to be right and make choices that lead to that result. What would happen if you tell that person that you like, that you like them so much that you can't think of anything else? Ultimately the worst thing that can happen is that they say they don't feel the same. Not so bad, right? Wrong. Everyone fears rejection. The annoying voice in your head is telling you to after all. It only wants you to do things that have a guaranteed positive outcome. 

I have personally missed out on so many wonderful opportunities out of the fear of being wrong or rejected. My pride gets in the way all the time. I just have this need to satisfy it. I am too proud to say how I am really feeling. 

I don't know about you, but I am tired of it. I am ready to go out into the world and say "This is me. Deal with it." to anyone or any situation that my pride is telling me to hold back from. What do I have to lose? Nothing. What do I have to gain? Everything. 

Lets all make a deal with ourselves to not hold back from what we want. 

Tell that guy that you are friends with that you want more. The worst that can come of it is the word NO. And I think that we should all be a little less afraid of that word. It isn't innately bad. It can lead to the most wonderful things in your life if you are willing to let it. 

So set aside your pride with me, and let's go try and get what we really want in life. You'd be amazed what a little less pride and a little more risk taking will do for your happiness. 

I Feel Pretty

Embracing Your Bare Face

Hello Lovlies. I'm Jordan Nicole :) So for the past few years I have continually had a love/hate relationship with my own face. This sounds bizarre... Not liking my own face? As awful as it is to not love the way you look I have spent years trying to make my face look different by applying various forms of makeup. Most of us do it. We are all guilty of having thought negative things about our looks. Even when you take out the pressure society puts on us to look perfect it is normal to have doubts about what we see in the mirror. As I have gotten older I have come to appriciate my face for what it is. God made me this way and I am perfect in his eyes, that is the thing that matters.  As true as what I just said is, I have continued to use makeup through the years. Why you may ask? As much as I think I am pretty it is so much a part of the world I was brought up in to wear makeup that I can't stop. It is a part of my life. The routine of applying it in the morning, reapplying mid day and using makeup removing wipes to take it off before bed is a part of me. Even so I go through phases where I look in the mirror after taking off my makeup and think about how, even though I take off my makeup and wash my face, it feels like I never have a face with no makeup. There is always some residual mascara and eyeliner. So I decided to wear no makeup every once and a while, in order to cleanse my face fully. I will go more than a month with not one ounce of makeup on my face. It is the most amazing feeling.

Am I the only one who has ever felt the need to cleanse themselves of makeup? If you've never done it then I highly recommend you try it out. It is hard at first to fight the instinct to put makeup on but it just brings a new calm to your life. If your worry is that your skin isn't perfect, mine never looks clearer than when I stop wearing makeup. Honestly this fear shouldn't hold you back regardless because we all get spots. It happens. It is part of life and everyone covering them up and lying about having them makes it a shameful thing. Be brave and honest about your skin. Try it out. I truly feel cleansed from the whole experience. I don't wear makeup for a while and then when I feel that it is time again I start back up. I don't let society pressure me into it, I simply wear it again when I want to. When I do start wearing makeup again I do it for reasons that I think should always be why we wear makeup. I wear it because I enjoy the process of doing it and because it makes me feel like my best self. I wear it for me alone and not other people.

Recently on How To Get Away With Murder, Viola Davis did an extremely honest and moving scene where she removed her wig and her makeup. Completely exposing herself on camera. This should not have been as shocking as it was but in all reality this is a rare occurrence on television. If you haven't seen it here is the clip from the show (contains spoilers about the storyline in last few seconds) and an interview she did about the scene on Ellen.

HTGAWM Scene: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2AmDLsbK2Zs

Ellen Interview: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tbZHkM1KMBo

I am not against makeup itself. I am just saddened by the culture that leads to it feeling like a necessity rather than something fun and optional. No one should be able to pressure someone else into changing themselves. That goes for makeup, altering your hair (style and color), exercising, surgical procedures, and who you are. The pressure to do these things is real and something that should be a topic, not buried by the media. Just think of the number of tabloid covers you've seen shaming stars wearing no makeup. It is actually tragic.

I hope that anyone who reads this can get to a place where they know makeup is for ourselves, not others. Ultimate happiness and confidence comes from within. You don't need to wear makeup to earn validation from anyone. Love yourself and others will see that, makeup or not.