Wellness Wednesday: SHINE

Over the last month, I’ve been aggressively de-cluttering. This has led to me uncovering old journals, letters, notes to myself, scribbles here and there, and tiny snippets of who I was years ago. There were a couple things that took me by surprise while reading through all these things. First, as a twenty-one-year-old I was unbelievably self-confident. Second, I was bursting at the seams with passion, drive, and purpose. Reading through those journals, I don’t recognize my thoughts, my voice, my absolute certainty in all that I wrote. I have no recollection of ever feeling so sure of myself.

There were some parts (most parts) that made me either cringe or laugh or both. Here’s a particularly humiliating yet hilarious excerpt:

I’m sad b/c I’m not watching Vampire Diaries tonight. It’s such a guilty pleasure. I know it’s only here because of the latest vampire fetish going on in popular media, instigated by Twilight and True Blood, but I liked vampires way before any of this. It bums me out b/c by the time I’ve made a name for myself, they will probably be on the decline in popularity which means I’d have to wait a few more years before revisiting my vampire musical.

Yes, you read that correctly. At one time, I dreamed of writing a vampire musical. And not a campy one. A serious one. Oh, Courtney, Courtney, Courtney. You strange and wonderful girl. (In all seriousness, I need to watch The Originals. I heard that show is awesome!) And let’s not ignore the “by the time I’ve made a name for myself” comment. I was obsessed with being famous, and that obsession is all over my journal. Despite the ridiculousness, as I read on, it hit me how much my internal monologue has changed over the last ten years, not necessarily for the better. I’m not as in touch with my gut as I was back then. My point of view on people, the world, myself wasn’t nearly as clouded by self-doubt or anxiety. There was a lot of naiveté but also a lot of optimism and joy. My pure belief in self was astounding.

Like in that excerpt, for example. There was zero doubt that the vampire musical was happening. Not one speckle. I want to feel that sure of myself again!

So for our last week to reflect on shine, I’ve gathered some wisdom from my own journals. It feels a bit like fate that I found these journals around the same time that Joanna supplied us with this amazing quote by Anaïs Nin, a woman famous for her deeply introspective and insightful journals. I’m no Anaïs Nin (not by a long shot), but after reading my own journals, here are the top five lessons I’ll keep in the forefront of my mind as I go forward in life.
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August 25, 2016August 7, 2016

4 Ideas for a Unique Bachelorette Party

I consider myself very lucky indeed that I’ve gotten to help plan and coordinate not one but two bachelorette parties this past year. But what’s even greater about this is that both brides were very insistent that they didn’t want the “traditional” bachelorette party of lingerie, risqué games where the bride has to reveal all the scintillating details about her past love life, and penis-shaped everything. (Sidenote: I’m not judging traditional bachelorette parties at all. I’ve been to a couple of them and they were fun as hell.)

The first bachelorette party I got to plan was for Savanah, the drummer of The Villettes. All she told me was that she wanted it to be a slumber party and to be fun. She was having a themed wedding—outer space—so I decided to stick with the theme and make it an outer space bachelorette slumber party.

The second one I helped plan was for my cousin Emily. She also didn’t give many pointers except that she wanted to go out to the Denton town square and have a baby-free girls’ night out. Our challenge with this one was that her younger sister, Caroline, is only fifteen so we had to come up with activities that everyone could participate in.

So if you find yourself as a bridesmaid in need of some unique ideas for a bride who eschews convention, here are some ideas for ways to make her bachelorette party ROCK.

August 19, 2016November 13, 2016

VIDEO: Courtney Shares How MB Helps Her Shine

Coming up in October, Courtney will have been with Model Behaviors for two years. I’ve seen so much change…in her, in myself, and in Model Behaviors. When you work so closely with someone on a project as big as Model Behaviors, you form routines, you learn each other’s habits, and you evolve with each other.

Upon first meeting her, some of her strengths came right to the surface. She’s responsible, organized, strategic, and always on the quest to learn more. But over the past two years, I’ve seen other strengths, subtler strengths show themselves, too. She has a calm, warm demeanor which makes others feel comfortable and welcomed. Her love for family and friends is steadfast and true. I’ve seen her go through some pretty big life changes and come out stronger and more confident than ever before.

She says in her video that MB has given her a ton of self-confidence, and I feel so incredibly lucky to be part of that journey for her. I can’t wait to see what great things Courtney has in her future!

Recently she introduced our Word of the Month, shine. Definitely take a moment to check out that post here and then watch her video above, where she shares how MB has helped her truly shine!

Thank you to Drew Nicolello of Kharis Media for the videography, Laurie Graham King for Courtney’s wardrobe and styling, and Joanna Hathcock for hair and makeup.

August 3, 2016September 7, 2016

Wellness Wednesday: SHINE

There’s a lyric by one of my favorite artists, Laura Marling. I first heard it when I was about twenty-one or twenty-two, and I didn’t really know how to interpret it. The lyric goes…

I need shine, I need shine, I need shine. Step away from my light. I need shine.

Ever since Joanna told me she’d like to choose “shine” as our Word of the Month for August, this song has been stuck in my head, this line in particular. It definitely has meaning for me after a year of unprecedented mass shootings and terrible acts of violence all over the world.

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July 20, 2016July 20, 2016

Wellness Wednesday: HEART

Y’all. I have a confession to make. It’s deep. It’s dark. It’s something I never thought I would admit to the public. But here goes.

A couple weeks ago, I watched an episode of The Bachelorette. If that wasn’t shocking enough, I took it one step further and I liked it. I’ve watched every episode so far this season, so I guess you could say I’m officially hooked.

You may be thinking, “Gasp! Courtney, no!” Believe me. I still kind of think that about myself. The whole idea behind The Bachelor and The Bachelorette used to make me queasy (okay, it still does). One dude with two dozen ladies all vying for his attention? It puts my feminist bristles up just thinking about it. But then they had to go and reverse it so that there was one lady with two dozen guys vying for her attention. Equality, right? Wrong! Basically, the dudes have to prove their “manliness” by doing macho things like saving the Bachelorette (this season the bachelorette is a woman named JoJo) from a burning building or playing a game of flag football (which included tackling) to determine who gets to go on a date with her.

I can’t count the number of times the guys have threatened to pummel each other or called each other “little bitch” or engaged in some other chauvinistic thing when they feel like their territory with JoJo has been crossed. Let’s also keep in mind that there were literally four men of color out of twenty-six contestants. I looked through photos of them to verify this number, and it turns out that one of the black men was practically cut out of the first episode and never seen of or heard from again.

I’ve been watching the show with my friend, Kolbe (whom you may remember from this post where she shared five tips for beginning runners), and when a message came on the screen about casting calls in Dallas, I jokingly said, “You want to audition?” She said, “I won’t make it.” And when I asked why, she said, “Because they only pick white people.” Yikes.

So how did this happen?

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