A photoshoot of self-love

Many people enter relationships trying to escape themselves. The ironic part is that relationships teach you about a part of yourself you never knew. And if you can’t love yourself, you’ll never love someone else.

Beauty for me, personally, is everything that goes against what we are taught to see beauty as. You see everyone confining to a single box. I say, work with, and embrace, what you have.

Makeup is so interesting. I think men can look very good in makeup. For myself, I like wearing an amount of makeup that still makes me look recognizable when I take it off at night. But wearing tons of makeup on occasion is so much fun.

All humans are ugly and strange-looking, if you think about it. You can find flaws on anyone. But when you love someone, you find them extremely attractive. You see an inner beauty that no one else can.

I do not strive to be the most beautiful person in the room, I think that would be a very uncomfortable feeling. I just want the person who loves me to see me as the most beautiful person in the room, I think that would be an enormously splendid feeling.

If love is a battlefield then I will get bloody. I wasn’t born to sit back and look pretty. I am proud of my scars.

I know I’m a very unique person, and that makes me designed for a very unique relationship.

Seeing a man who is attracted to a woman based on her looks is the greatest turn-off for me. It’s the easiest way to spot a man with no brains. And that would be an extremely boring and tiring relationship for me, being with a total idiot.

Self love is a journey. Relationships can help because they force you to see yourself from an outsider’s perspective. But if all you focus on is your partner, then you’re not practicing self love.

I do not think it’s unrealistic to crave a passionate relationship. Maybe it’s natural to lose steam overtime, but it should at least be there in the beginning. I do like to imagine it’s possible to never lose the passion.

There’s a difference between being with someone who sympathizes with you verses someone who empathizes with you — one who understands from a distance verses one who feels all of your feelings — one who does their best to support you verses one who’s natural instinct is to support you.

True love goes completely against everything our current society stands for. So if everyone around you supports your relationship, then maybe it’s a sign you are doing something wrong!

I go through phases of loving myself and hating myself. It certainly gets easier with age to love myself more, but it’s not an upward slope, it’s up and down.

“False confidence” or “self lust” is all about the ego, obsessing over your appearance, thinking you’re better than everyone — all of that stems from deep insecurity. If I catch myself feeling overly infatuated about my looks, that’s how I know I’m suffering from low self-esteem.

I enjoy all the choices we are given with our bodies and faces — haircuts, hair color, hairstyle, clothing, jewelry, piercings, tattoos, or none of the above! People should do whatever makes them feel good!

Scars, veins, blood vessels, freckles, wrinkles, lines, and other marks are so cool! It’s like your body is alive and speaking! I don’t understand why people turn to cosmetic surgery to cover them…

The reason why so many people doubt their beauty is because the only way they can see themselves is through a mirror, photo, or screen — the flattened version. If you could see yourself in whole — your 3-D self with your spirit shining through — you would find yourself to be much more beautiful. If you could watch yourself in the midst of a laughing fit, a crying fit, or focusing really hard on a task — you would see a whole other version.

When I see someone who pays excess attention, time, energy, and money on their appearance — it just makes me think, how horrible must your personality be, that you have to make yourself look so perfect?

Doing a photoshoot is like painting a picture or singing a song — it’s a way of creative expression. Everyone should be free to make art without the fear of judgment.

Love fails because society is shallow, and we make it all about the physical. They say you have to be with someone from the same background, the same race, the same country, the same age, the opposite gender, all of these things that don’t matter. It should be solely based on their energy, everything that surpasses the ego and death.

Treat yourself the way you are — a visitor in this mind and body. Then you will know self-love.

Watch your thoughts — the things you tell yourself, would you say to someone else? “You’re tired, you look awful, you need to do better…” Stop bullying yourself!

I’m not single, I’m dating myself…

I found an old mother’s day project from my child years that said “I like when Mommy goes out with her friends and wears red lipstick.” My mom never wore makeup, but occasionally she put on bold lipstick and black mascara for special events, and I found that very exciting. I remember seeing her do her makeup in the mirror, and I felt good knowing she was feeling good about herself.

I realized I hadn’t gone on a makeup haul in about three or four years. I was struck with a random impulse, and went ahead!

I wish it was encouraged, or even socially acceptable, for us to say what we like about ourselves. Instead, we’re all making self-depricating jokes and shaming ourselves because we don’t want to come off as arrogant. But you can easily love yourself without thinking you’re better than everyone — society can’t accept that!

I absolutely despise judgmental gossip. Some people feel so insecure that they have to point out the flaws in other people, or poke their noses in things that don’t concern them. That stuff really, really, really irritates me.

Whenever I feel rejected, or disappointed in general, I put more effort into looking and feeling good. In that way, rejection is a blessing — it transforms me into my highest potential. We all need to take the time to remind ourselves that we are worthy.

I went my whole life with natural and untouched eyebrows. Now I’m obsessed with plucking them. I started right after my Gram passed away, and now I feel like I am channeling her. She had the thinnest brows, and every morning she had to use her eyebrow pencil to fill them in, even during the last years of her long life.

I am a person of extremes. If I’m plucking my eyebrows now, I’m making them pencil thin. I think it looks artsy and unique. And I know it’s not the current beauty standard, which is also why I like it.

Self-care is NOT easy! It takes effort, time, dedication, and self-discipline. But it feels so good!

I need a relationship that challenges me and makes me a better person. I don’t want someone sucking up to me all the time because they’re scared of losing me, but someone who trusts that I will be there even when things get rocky.

Relationships shouldn’t be about compromising to the point of resentment, but a healthy push and pull. You fight the most with someone you care about, as long as you can learn from those fights.

I like when a person is very sensitive. That comes with a lot of strength. They usually have a hard shell, but you have to see beyond that.

Sadly, people act mean as a defense mechanism. Sometimes the only way you can approach someone, when you’re deathly terrified of being rejected by them, is by being mean.

Society and true love do not mix. Relationships and marraige are favored, but true love is not socially acceptable. That’s why you have to search for it between the cracks. Some call it overthinking, some call it playing games, but what else can you do, in a society that associates true love with mental insanity?

True love someone goes against everything we have been taught — seeing beyond what appears, having trust and faith, and letting go of your ego. When you’re the only sane one in a society full of crazies, of course you’re going to think that you’re the crazy one.

It can take years of knowing someone before you can be together, all those walls you both need to break down. And that’s okay. But once those walls are down, you can really rush forward.