Today I'm letting my friend Kim from The Simplicity take over and teach us all how to channel our inner Beyonce. In the land of dating disasters and #notdentist, who couldn't learn a thing or two from this iconic woman?! Kim was my first ever follower when I started, and her support and encouragement gave me my first taste into the wonderful world of blogging. Kim has a great voice and a really unique view on the world. Some of my favorite posts of hers are her absolutely beautiful post "Ode to the Dresses for Donation" and "Filipino-Irish Hair." Which Beyonce-tip will you employ today? Tweet @thejanklife or @kimberlyersk1ne with #beyonceforaday and let us know! (Please. By the time this post is published I will have been cooped up in the same hotel for 48 hours. Please. Interact with me.)
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| Source: I AM- Beyonce Knowles-Carter's Tumblr page |
Channeling Your Inner-Beyonce
I'm Kim and I blog over at The Simplicity and huge shout-out to Autumn for allowing the wonderful opportunity of sharing her blogging space with me. Ya just gotta love Autumn for her witty comebacks and hilarious posts plus her love of adventure and roadtrips make her an All-American kinda gal.
So while brainstorming what to write for The Unreal Life, I took a cue from posts about independent ladies and dating woes. When life smacks you in the lady balls, those are the moments you wish you were Beyonce. When Beyonce released the song Who Run the World?, she actually should have created a how-to book for lady domination because the lady just knows. Knows what? How to handle herself in a way that makes her not only fierce but brave, sexy, and awesome all in one. |
| Source: I AM- Beyonce Knowles-Carter's Tumblr page |
I've been a fan of Beyonce's for a long time. I remember sitting in a friend's basement when Destiny's Child released their first music video and I also remember reading those unofficial biographies about her and the group. Being an adolescent at the time, very few elements of pop culture bands really stood out. There was TLC and 3LW and of course numerous others with one-hit wonders. There were also the numerous boybands and pop singers that were establishing the musical interests of our childhoods. Destiny's Child was incredibly successful but for me, the key moment was when Beyonce became a solo artist. That's when she became iconic.
So what can we learn from her and how to do we bottle some of that bootyliciousness for days that we feel less than fabulous, let alone functioning? I feel like Beyonce's lifestyle and attitude can be broken down into three life concepts that I feel are applicable to many women out there.
1. Nothing is sexier than confidence. Anybody else notice that Beyonce is like crazy gorgeous and always confident? Regardless if she's wearing a designer dress on the red carpet with her husband Jay-Z or hanging out with Blue Ivy, she always looks radiant. You could be hanging out at the house or heading out to the restaurant, but every interaction that you have, present your best self. Presenting your best self is completely up to your interpretation. It's old advice, I know. It can be anything from rocking a killer outfit, or a smile after a killer workout.
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| Source: I AM- Beyonce Knowles-Carter's Tumblr page |
2. Understand your needs -especially when you feel vulnerable/angry/ecstatic/lost and need to express that. If you watched Beyonce's documentary on HBO, she shared her video diary and I fell in love with the idea. She's a high list celebrity and sometimes she can share her troubles with her staff or her family, but sometimes she just needs "me time." Her method of decompressing at the end of the day was carrying around her laptop and filming a video diary of her day. Many of these video clips made the documentary and we were invited into brief glimpses of what she went through in her life. Diaries, much like blogs, can be a really vulnerable place. She didn't necessarily have to share many of the things that she did, including a miscarriage, but she did. When it comes to your blog, journal, or video diary, it's your space. It may not make sense to everyone but in your space, you are inviting people to see you vulnerable. You may not share everything with everyone, like in a blog format, but I know for me, blogging and keeping written journals has been therapeutic and a great way to have a tangible reference to a time in my life. It becomes this safe space, where regardless of opinions or perspectives, you can be emotional, angry, happy, or fricken ecstatic.
3. Let your actions speak louder than words. Celebrities receive a lot of criticism- ahem Kim Kardashian's entire life and now poor baby girl's. However, how situations are handled can make or break them. Beyonce is still the powerhouse goddess that she is because she knows how to handle complicated situations- she lets her actions speak for herself. Despite critics on her performances, whether dancing or vocal or tabloids, she still kicks ass as a performer. Their were even skeptics on whether or not she carried her baby and she honestly never had to address that, but instead, shared personal moments with everyone. She didn't blow up at the media, or hit a fan in the head with a microphone (ahem, Rihanna) but instead she kept up her game as a quality performer and entertainer. She continued to do performances, concerts, guest appearances, and interviews. Not only that but despite some celebrities letting their status get to their heads, she still believes in remaining firm in her commitments. Another performer who I admire with this quality is Pink. You can take a page from these ladies and understand the importance of backing up your game. Whether it's at school or your career, be exactly who you say you are and more. Be early if not already on time, be professional, stay committed to what you say, and be someone people can rely on. When people criticize you or your work, take a step back. Let the integrity of who you are as a person that people can rely on speak for you and keep on that grind.
Now of course there are things that Beyonce has taught the world that may not apply to everyone but hey we learned them anyways:
- Tactfully sharing information- like when she got married to Jay-Z and virtually no one knew about it.
- Lifting up your friends and keeping an open mind- like with Kelly Rowland's newly released single that shared a lot of difficult issues, one of them being having to step back to Beyonce's limelight.
- The art of celebrating wonderful news- like announcing you're pregnant via an awards show performance
- How to make an exit- like shutting down the lights after her halftime performance at the latest Super Bowl (which wasn't actually her fault)
- Be 100% committed- basically anytime Beyonce performs, she owns it. Half-assing anything is just not in her vocabulary.
Oprah's thoughts on seeing the Life is But a Dream Documentary:
“I always had a lot of admiration and respect for you, you know. I like dancing to the music, I like playing it when I’m working out, but after watching Life is But A Dream, I have to tell you that I came away being reminded of that line in a Maya Angelou poem that says, ‘You make me proud to spell my name W-O-M-A-N.'"
Yes Oprah, I think we can toast to that.
Thank you again Autumn and I hope your hotel is fab-ulous ;)
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