“A good selfie is when you successfully capture the feeling of that very moment!”
~ Anamika Mishra
Yesterday I ventured out into the world for the first time in weeks. This flu has really laid me low, and I’m still far from well but yesterday Ben, Cafe Dog and I went out to check the mail at our post box, to food shop for his mum and to grab a quick coffee.
Harry Dog was thrilled to finally leave the house too. Me? I was not quite with it, but grateful to be dressed and upright.
Makeup and hair styling? All too hard. I was clean, I smelled okay, and I’d swapped pyjamas for going-out clothes. As far as I’m concerned that’s a win!
We were out for less than an hour, by which time I was completely exhausted, but it was worth it to feel like part of the human race again.
I know. I can hear you saying it. I’m damaging my personal brand with these awful selfies. First it was thigh gap, and now real and unadulterated images of me feeling crappy and fluey and still quite horrid (and still with bad hair, wrinkles and oldness).
Oh well.
I’m really a bit over all of these images and stories in my social media feed about how to lose weight, look younger, have bigger boobs, fewer wrinkles, smaller thighs (or thigh gap!) or whiter teeth, and all of those images of perfectly happy people having perfectly wonderful lives.
Does your life look like that?
Mine doesn’t. And sweethearts it is absolutely fine if yours doesn’t either.
Today I want you to embrace yourself just as you are. Give yourself a hug or a virtual high-five from me if you’ve turned up for life today – no matter how hard things are right now. Give yourself an elephant stamp if you managed some personal hygiene. Have a gold star if you accomplished something on your list. Kind to yourself or others? Seriously – you deserve a medal! That’s the world I want to live in. I want a world filled with people who are honest and vulnerable and real – who show up courageously when life is hard, who reach out to others when they have the strength to do so, and who ask for help when they are struggling to manage on their own.
Let’s be kind to all those people with perfectly curated social media lives too. Because I can guarantee you that behind those images will be the same kinds of health dramas, money problems, relationship issues, depression, anxiety and ‘stuff’ that all the rest of us experience. They were just careful to edit those bits out before they put their life on display.
That’s one gift that chronic illness has given me – I’ve realised what matters, and it certainly isn’t about living my life to impress other people.
Lovelies, let’s agree to just keep being ourselves and to support others to be themselves too. Doesn’t that take off an enormous amount of pressure? Without that pressure we’ve freed up untold energy to put to much more constructive uses. Hooray for that. Hooray for real.
Biggest hugs to you from my personal-brand trashing self, Nicole ❤xx
You are a bloody legend Nicole. If we could all sprinkle you with magic and make you all better, that would be good. Bless your soul and the human you too. Holding you in my prayers.
Love your “real-ness” and your Inner Light Shines Beautifully!! <3
Namaste Si-STAR!!
You are awesome! Keep on being the true you!!!
Love this post so real and yes much of life is exactly that. We were not made perfect and have no need to be. Digital space and media portray only what is imagined and we connect by being real not the other way around.Always an inspiration Nicole 🌸🌺💐💖 Thank you 🙏
Oh you are quite quite wonderful !!!! Refreshing and wise and so so so inspiring to me and i know many others. Please keep on being so authentic and sharing with the world , you are teaching me that its so ok to be real – wrinkles dimply thighs , whatever…
a thousand thank yous. and a huge enormous hug to your oh so special self.
Harry is wearing enough makeup for both of you. Excellent eyebrows and lip liner 🙂
I love you Nicole. I’m so happy you are better enough to be up, and I’m so grateful that you keep it so graciously real. xx
Totally agree Nicole. I have been chronically ill for decades too and often count my blessings if I can get things done on a good day. It does teach you gratitude and appreciation for what really matters! Btw I can not see any wrinkles 😘 So good you were able to get out of the house. I have been there many times too. Well done!
Thank you ! Thank you ! Reminding me to appreciate myself for showing in the world courageously despite what I’m going through…sometimes we need to show ourselves love & appreciation too !
Love you Nicole! Anyone with eyes that can actually SEE will tell you that you are absolutely gorgeous – inside and out! I’m sorry for anyone who cannot see real true beauty. The world must be an ugly place for them. xoxo
SPUNK!!!!!
I laughed out loud when I read your blog. How refreshing in this selfie obsessed world.
Last time I wrote “how well you were looking” when it turned out you were just about going down with the lurgy, so this time “I hope you are feeling better than you look.” (That is not to say you are looking crap! I think you are looking remarkable.)
Get well and back to the healthy levels you have achieved in recent times, and then continue to improve. It must suck big time to have these set back especially after you have started to feel better.
I look forward to your next “innapropriate” pictures, be it thigh gaps, no make up or even flabby upper arms. These I can do so well if you need some 😱😱😱
Love and hugs
Mary.xxx
Your brand IS real dearest Nicole. So love you for that. Much love Nikki XX
Much love and thank you for keeping it real. Xxx
<3 Glad you're starting to recover! <3
I backed Jo-anne you could never take a bad selfie cause you are so full of love and service – just superb and i’m sure the coffee helped you feel a little better. Hope you get to enjoy more of this perfect yummy weather. Loads of love Annie xxxx
Your personal brand is authenticity and your photos reinforce that. If all you presented was a carefully curated blend of what society tells us is acceptable, I wouldn’t keep checking in. Thank you for keeping it real and also for your generosity which is tangible, even through this virtual online world.
You are awesome and beautiful no matter what. Thank you for always being real and making sure the rest of us are awesome with that as well. Lots of love to you Nicole. Px
Thank u xo lots of love
Hey, Nicole, you look great. I’ve been sick, too, for 2.5 weeks with this latest bout of whatever it is, coughing, fatigue and fevers. Getting dressed and going to the store is a tremendous victory. And everyone counts. Forget the perfect fake lightworkers… they’re as fake as their nails. Be yourself, real and vulnerable. The rest of us thank you!
Hooray indeed! Thank you for always keeping it honest, vulnerable and real xx
You couldn’t take a bad selfie 🙂 You’re always beautiful… because you’re authentic and real. Excited that you could get into the world for a bit… I do hope you are feeling better very, very soon. Brand Nicole is awesome exactly the way you do it. Life is messy. It must be so stressful trying to portray to the world a perfect air-brushed life… too much pressure. Being a VIrgo, too.. that “perfect” word is something I used to struggle with. Then I realised that “perfect” is in the eye of the beholder. I think you’re “perfect” just the way you are. Thank goodness for you. Thank you for your writing, kindness, wisdom and wonderfulness. Sending lots of love. xoxoxoxo
Glad you are up and about! After being sick, even the ‘small things’, like getting upright and out of bed, putting on clothes, going to the bathroom, etc, etc….that we so often take for granted when we are blessed with good health….become major challenges…and offer us a chance to be grateful for winning all those ‘small battles’ in our return to health. Thank you for the post…and ‘keeping it real’. I don’t think anyone who follows your blog or your posts would consider your ‘real selfies’ to be ‘damaging to your brand’….Sweet Sister-Woman…. ‘Realness’ ( with a capital ‘R’)… is your brand….and it is so refreshing in an increasingly, ‘fake’ and ‘plastic’ world. Keep on making your own brand of magic, keep shining your light and we will keep cheering on your small victories on the journey we all share together in Spirit. Good on you! Sending you love and healing thoughts!
Those chicks who brag about earning 6 or more figures, appear to have the perfect body and the perfect life on their blogs are only fooling themselves. That is not real life. Perhaps it takes the wisdom of many years and/or many lives to be able to say to the world “I am very comfortable being the true me!”
I am so glad you are feeling a wee bit better to venture out. A big hug to you!
Love that you keep it real and remind us all to enjoy it.
Hugs to you
Julie🙏
Well at least you managed to get up and dressed and out to the shops, not always easy when one feels like death warmed up
We only have this body to travel in and I think it can be a struggle just to realise no trade in’s love the way of self inquiry you inspire and express your story and journey helps others with self acceptance Dear One.
Hooray hooray! Hooray for you Nic. On your worst days you still manage to be and look beautiful. Love you! Xx
Thanks for being real. I think, I know you are amazing. Well done to you for finding time to connect and heal us with your posts.
you look much better than you did a week ago! I had flu for nearly a month this winter and I know just how horrible it is. I barely had enough strength to pull myself off the sofa so you’re doing well 😉
Thanks Nicole! Love ya!