Overconsumption.

It’s damaging. It fills our minds and our lives, but it is rarely filling. We over consume nearly EVERYthing in our lives. We over consume media, apps on our phone, makeup tutorials (especially for boudoir!!!), relationship tips, Pinterest boards of perfect houses, cheese dip, wine, shoe sales, and mommy blogs.

I had a conversation with a girlfriend in Atlanta today about how she had recently spent 30 minutes reading through non-toxic non-baby killing sunscreen reviews in the beauty aisle of Target (because that is the type of thing we should be reading) She nearly gave herself a public panic attack in front of other stressed-out Target moms as she read through horror story after horror story of moms and babies having allergic reactions/growing additional appendages because of sunscreen. *Please note that I understand some sunscreen is literal poison. Please do not comment with your links to scientific research, this is a boudoir blog. :)

She’d taken overconsumption to the point of having a mid-morning-mini-episode and questioning her abilities to be a mom to her two twin girls.

Overconsumption leads us into criticizing ourselves for not having the ‘perfect’ outfit that we just saw 80,000 Instagram bloggers post. Replace the word ‘outfit’ with body, hair, skin, makeup, boyfriend, marriage, smiling french bulldog, etc. and you begin to see the problem.

Every day brings me into contact with women that have over consumed an ‘ideal’ at some point in their lives. I hear it in the form of statements like:

“I hope you airbrush!!!! I’m going to need it!!”

or

“I don’t look like those other boudoir women, so you’re really going to have to work your magic.”

or

“I’m just not a ’sexy’ person.”

or

“I’m probably older than anyone you’ve ever photographed for a boudoir session.”

None of these statements are particularly terrible, and I can honestly relate to each and every one of them. My cellulite is starting to form on my thighs like a little baby mountain range on the moon, my nose has some weird-ass bump on the bridge that NO ONE on either side of my family has, my sexiness isn’t a trait that comes naturally, and I’ve already started to photograph women 10+ younger than myself.

I understand these feelings and these statements, but I also know that they come from the fact that I spend hours a day on Instagram, BravoTV, and random internet sites. I read magazines and listen to music. It is so exhausting to avoid overconsumption. We really cannot participate in our lives and the lives of others without some form of it. However, I think that we can be more selective as to what we believe about that we consume.

Be kind to yourself. 

Know that everything is out there to sell to you and to make you feel as if your life and your beauty and YOU are not enough. You are enough. You are your OWN person. Consume those posts, articles, Pinterest boards, and conversations that lift you up and allow you to thrive.

Love you, mean it.