Musings of the Socially Aware

soashulmedia:

Like the title of this amazing book, right now I Feel Relatively Neutral About New York. It’s a recent development brought on by excessively cold weather, limited sunlight, perpetual illness, and the feeling of never going fast enough. I know that the honeymoon phase is over, but that doesn’t mean I can’t enjoy my time here. I’m a firm believer that we can shape our reality by simply being positive. There’s a lot of ways to get out of a rut, and here are just a few ways I’ve employed that have worked:

1. Go Out. Go to a bookstore. Go to a coffee shop. Go to Union Square. Go to a grocery store. Go to a park. Go to the alley between buildings. Go to work. Go sing karaoke. Go drink too much. Go to Times Square. Go live. Getting out of your head and onto the streets helps you forget that perpetual exhaustion and reminds you why you moved to a big city.

2. Take a Chance. I did improv for an audience on a Saturday night at UCBeast. I am decent at improv—that is to say that I am eagerly awaiting my next level courses so that I can one day say that I’m great at improv. But I didn’t mess anything up, and I was scared and bold and courageous and it woke up my tired bones and made me feel like trying was worth it. Maybe you should try to meet someone new or take a cooking class. Ya never know what might happen.

3. Take a Break. Sometimes you don’t want to go outside. You don’t want to participate and that’s fine—for a while. You can’t shut yourself out forever, but maybe you need a couple of days to organize your thoughts and to just relax. Buy a bottle of rose` and actually use your Netflix account. Don’t worry about the time you’re losing, you’re only going to attack the world at 100% if you feel at 100%, so maybe R&R is the way to go.

4. Call an old friend. I have a short-list of friends that just get me and who will entertain my moods. It’s always good to catch up, and they will probably make you laugh and smile, and forget why things are lame right now. 

5. Eat yummy foods. Don’t just find foods that are bad for you, find delicious food that you can feel good about eating and enjoy it. If you buy it from a restaurant, resolve to learn how to cook it yourself. Eat. Pray. Love. that shit.

6. Make a List. List everything you’ve ever accomplished. Don’t feel big-headed for doing this, because it’s easy to forget that you’re awesome when you’re feeling displaced and uncomfortable. Start with the most recent things you can think of and just keep listing. Look at this list when you feel like comparing your life to someone else’s and realize that you’ve lived just as much as anyone.

I hope that helps. If you’re in a funk right now, I can’t wait til you get out of it, too!

xoxo,

soashulmedia:

If you liked my post last time about all of the great Lush hair products I’ve been trying, you’re in for a treat! I teamed up with Lush to try out a bunch of new products, and I think you’ll like them as much as I did.

Roots Hair Treatment, $19.95 I love a minty tingle on my scalp, and even if my hair is serpentine and thick, this stuff was still a great deep conditioner. I personally fail to deep condition most hair-wash days because I don’t plan for the extra half hour I have to sit around, but this product makes me want to remember.

Blousey Shampoo, $25.95 Imagine if Froot Loops cereal was actually made out of fruits and not starchy artificial flavors. In my warm, steamy shower, that’s totally what this shampoo smelled like!  It’s more of a hair smoothie than a shampoo (but I’m not that big on suds anyway) and it really felt like my hair was getting cleaned without all the dryness and disappointment like I get with most shampoos. Big bonus for the natural ladies: Obviously sulfate-free. Definitely a keeper.

Happy Happy Joy Joy Conditioner, $12.95-$39.95 I’m usually iffy about floral scented products, mostly because they seem to be a poor- imitation of the real thing. This conditioner, however, was all natural, Vegan, and made of the real deal. I can’t tell you exactly which flowers they were, but they reminded me of my childhood, so possibly rose or daffodil. Anyway, my hair felt super soft and super moisturized afterwards, and smelled really fresh! My only minor complaint is that if you have a big, thick fro like me, you need to use quite a bit more than is suggested (but that’s with every conditioner. No one uses just a dime sized amount).

Stay tuned for a few more reviews of Lush products very soon!

soashulmedia:

If you saw my video yesterday, you know that I went to Lush Cosmetics in Manhattan for some all natural goodies for my body and hair. Lush is a pretty big chain, so you just might have one in your area. Anywho, this post is all about the natural hair booty* I came away with. *I know I could have used a plethora of words other than booty, but I try to use it where I can…

The Big Tease is this seriously amazing gel that works wonders on my wet, natural hair. All of the ingredients are from the earth and not some terrifying lab, so I didn’t have any problems with flaky crusties. Plus the hold lasted like 2 days, which, again, not something you see very often with natural hair products. 

Once the gel and my hair dried, I put on this hair moisturizer, R&B. I do this every day. It’s my new favorite moisturizer because it smells good, but it’s not overpowering like Miss Jessie’s products, and it stays moisturized longer than anything else I’ve used. Score!

So this is how my hair looked at the end of doing it. You can’t really tell much of a difference, but the curls are definitely more defined, and definition = cute hair. I’ll do a tutorial on these products soon—so you should probably subscribe to my channel on YouTube.

Until next time,