You do You

Yesterday I attended What's New, What's Next at the New York Design Center.  I heard a lot of inspirational speakers and saw a lot of beautiful product.  What stuck with me the most was a talk my friends Corey Damon Jenkins and Robin Baron gave.  They spoke honestly and from the heart about climbing the entrepreneurial ladder, trials and tribulations, branding and authenticity.  This seemed to strike a cord with the standing room only audience.  The Q and A could have gone on far longer than it did and everyone seemed truly engaged in this topic of authenticity, which really struck me in the  "smoke and mirrors" world we live in.

In that vein, as a nod to the conversation and because I am now straddling two passions; that of coaching and design, "taking a life coach approach to interior design" or "designing a new story," I am here to say honestly and authentically, "I am frazzled, fried, uninspired and overwhelmed!"  I sat down to write a blog post and...  Crickets.  Nothing.  Nada.  Zilch.  My mind is elsewhere.  I am preoccupied.

And guess what?  THAT'S OK!

The message of the importance of authenticity is a tale as old as time, but it is resonating more than ever.  In business, relationships, time management, the violence we are bombarded with, life feels hard sometimes.  Rather than being open, we sometimes hide a part of ourselves away or push through the pain of it all.  We are hard on ourselves, we create more stress.  We've been told,"fake it till you make it."  I'm not gonna lie, there is a place for that, but not in lieu of losing our essential self.  The stuff that makes us uniquely us.

Sometimes just feeling your feelings, acknowledging it's a bad day, a bad mood, a full moon, exhaustion, whatever, doesn't make it go away, but it makes it acceptable, tolerable.  You feel lighter just by recognizing it.  Be patient with yourself, accept the "what is" in the moment.  Everything will fall into place.  It always does!


I decided to make this blog post about my not feeling like writing a teaching moment.  I am so excited to delve into this and so much more along with the design posts you are accustomed to.  Hopefully I can wrap it all in a beautiful bow, because even yucky feelings are a gift sometimes.

fashion ph: Mira Mikata, painting:Mel Bochner