Welcome to Salt, with Soul 2024. This year, our newsletter will be steered by monthly themes. At the top of the month, a word, person, place, or thing will be revealed, and for that month, all essays and recipes will be inspired by our theme. It’s my way of celebrating all the things I love about life: learning, researching, writing, exploring, being present. With each theme, we’ll explore cuisine, culture, and history as we learn something new, together. Each week, there will be a public post related to the theme- an essay, observation, or recipe. On Fridays, paid subscribers will receive the weekly “Martini Monologues” where we gab about life behind the comfort of a paywall.
The Mood for February is La Vie en Rose! Let’s see life through Rose Colored Glasses, baby.
With January being inspired by a woman who marched to the beat of her own drum, our goal in February is to be inspired enough to do the same.
Before we continue, we need some backstory: A little over a year ago, I started hosting a photography portrait session called “Love Yourself Sessions.” I would encourage clients to write 5-10 things they love about themselves on a giant mirror, and throughout the session, we would use the mirror as a focal point to focus on. I wanted clients to absorb and feel what they love about themselves, and to leave our session feeling empowered to conquer all that they dreamed of. The sessions are magic, except… I couldn’t do one for myself. I couldn’t find 5-10 things I liked about myself, and I couldn’t stare in the mirror for too long.
While I was healing those visible wounds: divorce, financials, trust, etc., I wasn’t healing the wounds only visible to me. It felt inauthentic to be telling people to love themselves when I didn’t. So, I paused the sessions and have been re-learning what confidence feels like since. And, now I want that for you, too.
We’ve been convinced in this toxic positivity culture that we’re not allowed to have bad days, or that all we have to do is make a vision board, say a few affirmations and viola, our life is better.
That type of content is just not feasible. It’s only surface-level and it’s not teaching consistent behavior. I’ve spoken about my feelings on vision boards here, so I won’t dive back into that rant, but in all truthfulness, the science says that to achieve something, you need to develop consistent habits.
And, that’s what La Vie En Rose will explore! We are going to break the cycle of toxic positivity, learn to be softer with ourselves, and step into our power.
Simply put: Let’s raise our vibrations, bebe.
Let's re-train our brains to:
Stand out,
Take risks,
be authentic,
and, live so far into your manifestations and dreams that you are convinced you've already achieved them.
This month will be about stepping outside our comfort zone and learning to trust the process. I want us to eat, sleep, dream, and breathe our dreams. I want us to believe in our magnetism, and to know that we deserve more than we could ever imagine. I want us to love ourselves again, find our confidence, and call in the biggest life.
And, look- I say “our” because I’m doing this work, too. I am not some guru sitting on a rock, meditating, and bestowing my advice on you. I am someone who has been profoundly affected by this work, and who wants everyone to find this Je ne sais quoi.
La Vie En Rose will be exploring all things delulu, including:
Neural Manifestation and unlearning the patterns that hold us back.
Finding time to Journal with Journal Prompts.
The power of affirmations.
How to cleanse your consumption so you’re always absorbing what you’re working toward.
finding ways to love yourself again, and being authentically you.
Maintaining consistency.
This will be paired with the launch of my new book, “Seasons: A Collection of Poetry and Journal to Healing”. I self-published “Seasons: A Collection of Poetry” in 2021, and since August of 2023, I’ve been re-writing poems, adding new ones, and decided it would better serve as a journal. This is my delulu, and I’m so excited for the relaunch (which will hopefully be 2/14- just have to re-work the cover.)
We’ll also have some affirmation/love yourself-inspired merch dropping this month so that you can wear your love on your sleeve. And, heck, maybe this is the month I do my love yourself portrait… only time will tell.
FEBRUARY CONTENT TO ABSORB:
To be Magnetic: Full transparency- I love the website, I love being a member, and this type of education should be taught in schools… however, the podcast is a little granola for me.
Glennon Doyle Untamed: Look, this book quite literally saved my life in 2020. I would sit under the string lights in my backyard with this book for hours, absorbing every word as if it were a source of energy for my awakening. If you’ve read it, it’s worth a re-read.
Imprint: this is an app for iPhones and iPads that helps you learn with only 5 minutes a day. It’s incredible.
I can’t wait to learn with you.
I know it’s February 7th, but that’s still the top of the month, ha. It’s a little hectic here and each week is a shuffleboard game of priorities. However, writing here is my self-love, and I neglected that love cup re-fill last week, so I apologize. I’m going to keep this theme until March 7th, which is perfect because it’s the eve of my birthday.
We’ll see you Friday for another sip of Martini Monologues!