Milk and Honey from the Hive
Beyoncé has once again left me in awe. Just one week ago, I went to On the Run ll and was completely speechless. I literally had to put myself back together. The performance was absolutely breathtaking. And nowwww after reading Beyoncé’s VOGUE September interview I am completely blown away. Now we all know the September VOGUE issue is the most important issue so her landing the cover was major in itself. But not only did she make the cover but she made sure that she worked with a 23 year old African-American photographer, Tyler Mitchell. VOGUE’s first ever African American photographer to shoot the cover. (Mind you VOGUE is only 126 years old.) Talk about putting talent on!
I love and appreciate how little makeup she had on, how raw her hair was and how refreshing it was to see her in a more natural balanced state. She opens us about her pregnancy, her trials, her tribulations, her growing pains, her growing beauty all through the act of self-love, patience, and gratitude. I am such a huge stan for her and after reading the article I felt a lot more closer to her. She feels authentic, relatable, and inspiring.
In this article lies so many concepts, ideas, and emotions that we can learn from. She talks about her personal journey from her 20 year old self to where she stands now in life at 36, a phenomenal musician, performer, and a wife, and a mother of three children. A true icon.
Here are some of my favorite quotes from Beyoncé in this September’s VOGUE issue and what I took from them.
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I needed time to heal, to recover. During my recovery, I gave myself self-love and self-care, and I embraced being curvier. I accepted what my body wanted to be. After six months, I started preparing for Coachella. I became vegan temporarily, gave up coffee, alcohol, and all fruit drinks. But I was patient with myself and enjoyed my fuller curves. My kids and husband did, too.
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First off, this taught to give more time to myself but most importantly my healing. You cannot rush the process. If you do you’re half-assing your growth and being a disservice to yourself. I really appreciated this level of honesty. And it takes bravery to practice self-love. She did the inside work necessary for her to grow, to heal, to love. This got me feeling like I need to be more accepting of where I am currently at in my journey and show myself a bit more love and attention. And what does that look like? Spending more time alone, reading more, waking up earlier, meditating more, journaling more, listening to my favorite podcasts more, writing more, reading my positive affirmations out loud more, soaking my body more, yoga more, and doing ME more and in the meantime just loving me more.
“Whenever I’m ready to get a six-pack, I will go into beast zone and work my ass off until I have it. But right now, my little FUPA and I feel like we are meant to be. ”
The perfect balance between accepting and loving the current status of things but knowing to go all IN for what you want in life. When the time is right TO GO THE FUCK OFF! Commit to it and wild out but until then be grateful for where you are, who you are and how you are. I truly believe that we are the co-creators of our very own lives and where you are right now is exactly where you are supposed to be. It is a part of your journey.
“The beauty of social media is it’s completely democratic. Everyone has a say. Everyone’s voice counts, and everyone has a chance to paint the world from their own perspective.”
This goes right back to being the co-creators of our very own lives. We all have access to social media. We have a channel to display our work, our art, and who we are. But some days I get so overwhelmed with the excessive opinions, the intense pressure to be doing or promoting something on there and I begin to doubt myself. But then it's so important to always remember that your journey is your fuckin journey. It is your trials, your tribulations, your growing pains, your lessons, your experience. Nobody else's. And you have to be grateful for that because you were designed to create, to live, and to love your life.
“I look at the woman I was in my 20s and I see a young lady growing into confidence but intent on pleasing everyone around her. I now feel so much more beautiful, so much sexier, so much more interesting. And so much more powerful.”
I remember the days when Beyoncé would nnnnnever ever curse on a track and now she’s singing fuckkkk youuuuu, fuck youuu. She has outgrown the desire to please everyone else. You level up when you start pleasing yourself. And I truly believe that once you give yourself the love, the attention, and the care that you deserve your tolerance from accepting any other bullshit is at an all-time low. You begin to feel unstoppable. You begin to to attract the love you deserve. You being to feel more deserving, fulfilled, more powerful.
“I’m not happy if I’m not improving, evolving, moving forward, inspiring, teaching, and learning. ”
I felt this shit. To my core. I really feel like if I’m not growing, I’m not glowing. It’s really important to take the time out to learn new things. To learn new things about yourself, your passion, your craft. Learning how to be more creative, or maybe adventurous or maybe even more disciplined. Just learning new skills and traits to be a better you goes a long way.
Whenever I’m not learning anything new or growing I start to feel very stuck and complacent. I start being disappointed in myself and that’s when self-doubt creeps right in through the kitchen window. It’s important for me to take time out to invest in my passion or my craft because if I’m not growing I won’t have any one else to blame but myself.
“I had a clear vision for Coachella. I was so specific because I’d seen it, I’d heard it, and it was already written inside of me. ”
Manifestation. BOOM!
Thoughts are physical af. The moment you think it, you can envision it, and you can create it. That’s what being an co-creator is. It’s about imagining the future, feeling it, and knowing it is for you. I believe that’s how you attract more greatness and more opportunities your way.
“My mother taught me the importance not just of being seen but of seeing myself. As the mother of two girls, it’s important to me that they see themselves too—in books, films, and on runways.”
It is so important for us to see people who look like us in media. It’s welcoming, reassuring and it’s powerful. I love that Bey wants us all to feel like there is no limitations. At any moment, you can break the barriers and start creating your own. You can do anything you want to do, be anywhere you want to be, and be whoever you want to be. It doesn’t matter the industry, it doesn’t matter how many people question it, and it doesn’t matter how many people say you can’t do it. This also showed me to never ever ever shrink myself to make someone else feel comfortable.
I really needed to hear this myself. I leave for my South America trip in about 3 weeks and I need to remind myself that the sky's the limit and I can do anything I want to do and be anywhere I want to be because I see and believe in myself.
“I want the same things for my son. I want him to know that he can be strong and brave but that he can also be sensitive and kind. I want my son to have a high emotional IQ where he is free to be caring, truthful, and honest.”
Sensitive, kind, and emotional are usually a female trait. Many men are not taught to be emotional. Toxic masculinity is a real thing and it teaches men how to protect themselves in all the wrong ways. It creates damaged men and hurt people hurt people. I absolutely love how she address emotionally traumatized men and how she looks forward to teaching her son other ways to be strong, courageous and sensitive. This is activism at it’s finest. Godddamnit, Bey. I love you!
“I’m in a place of gratitude right now.
I am accepting of who I am. I will continue to explore every inch of my soul and every part of my artistry.
I want to learn more, teach more, and live in full.”
Gratitude is everything to me. I used to be an easily aggravated, complaining-nothing was ever good enough, slightly negative person. Once I started making it a habit to write down 10 things I’m grateful for every day, my world started to shift. You really do begin to see every obstacle, every situation, every glass half full. There are so many more positives in this world and if we focus on that we encourage and attract more of that energy. What you water grows. This quote inspired me to water myself, water the things that I have in my life, water the things that I want in my life, water my thoughts, my energy, all of my emotions.
“I’ve worked long and hard to be able to get to a place where I can choose to surround myself with what fulfills and inspires me.”
I cannot wait to get to the point where I work so hard (and smart, of course) where I can focus on doing the things that feel good. The things that light me up. I’m so tired of having to do things that make me feel empty, or complacent, or worthless like maintaining a dead-end job. I’m really excited to be leaving this life behind and embarking on a new journey that will allow me to travel, to coach, and heal my very own body.
In this September's VOGUE issue Beyoncé gave us the tea, the milk and the honey. Reading about her journey inspired me to reflect on mine. So all in all, I’m learning more than ever to be patient with myself, be more grateful about where I am in life, and creating the life I want to live. By committing to the inside work I can focus on forgiveness, patience, understanding, self-love, self-care, and how to be in a relationship with myself before anyone else. This is my milk and honey. What is yours? Comment below!
“If you want to hold the beautiful one, hold yourself to yourself.”