My New Morning Routine: Channeling The Girl From The Boudoir Photo

I grew up not being comfortable in front of the camera, not even a little bit. I was an introvert (kind of hard to believe if you know me now, describing myself as an extra extravert!) and I never liked the way I looked, so photos just weren’t my jam. I was embarrassed and I’d try to hide behind other people in group photos so it was harder to see me. You’d also never catch me without my sunglasses on, a constant joke between most of my friends to this day. I didn’t realize it then, but it was never actually about the photos. It was absolutely about how I felt about myself. But my first boudoir shoot 11 years ago changed my life. It rewired the way I saw myself and it all started to go uphill from there.

Last summer I did another boudoir shoot for myself to celebrate the last year in my 30’s. And let’s just say, the girl in those photos looks like she could take over the whole damn world before even having her morning coffee, which is how I start every day.

Seeing your own boudoir photos for the first time during the reveal session is exhilarating, and surreal. That girl in the photos wasn’t second-guessing herself. She wasn’t reluctant or worrying about whether she was “doing everything right.” She just was. She just showed up and was instantly a badass, just the way she was.

That’s when I decided she’s not staying in a folder on my desktop. She’s coming with me into real life, every day. She’s coming with me as a reminder of the feral, badass, unstoppable woman that I am.

Here’s how I channel her every day.

Step One: Look at Her Every Morning

I printed one of my favorite photos and blew it up to hang in my bathroom. Not because I’m vain, but because she reminds me who I already am before all of the outside noise of the day seeps in. Every morning, I look at her and ask, “how would that badass chick walk into today?” Because that’s what I’m going to do.

Step Two: Borrow Her Attitude

It’s wild how different you feel when you carry yourself like the confident version of yourself. That kind of attitude changes the way people interact with you and it changes the way you interact with the world. I look at her on my bathroom wall and I try to carry that energy with me when I need a reminder (which let’s be honest, we all do).

Step Three: Make Decisions Like She Would

When I’m tempted to overthink, go down Alices’ lovely rabbit hole, or play small (you know what I’m talking about) I take a second and remind myself of the girl in the photos. I think to myself, “wouldn’t that girl say yes to hard and uncomfortable things?” I follow her lead, because that day of my photoshoot I didn’t play small at all. I was a feral lioness that couldn’t be stopped.

The Truth? She Was Always Me

Listen, here’s the best part. The girl in the photos I keep referencing isn’t some fictional character. The photos didn’t create some brand new person all of a sudden out of nowhere. They just revealed someone that sometimes hides. I don’t want to ever hide, but sometimes life gets in the way and we tend to shrink, or not meet ourselves at the fullest potential. It’s easy to just go through the motions, but that queen hanging on my wall reminds me that my life is meant to be extraordinary, and I’m here to live it while I’m lucky enough to.

So now, my morning routine isn’t just coffee with dairy free vanilla creamer (which is absolutely the very first thing I do when I wake up). It’s an intentional decision to show up as the boldest and most alive version of myself as I can be. Because that girl is too good to only exist in the photo hanging on my bathroom wall. I deserve that kind of energy every damn day.

Your Turn:

If you’ve had a boudoir session, I dare you to pick one photo and put it somewhere you’ll see every day. Put it somewhere so that you can remind yourself that she’s not just in the photos. She’s YOU!

Pro Tip: Turn that Badass Pic into a Confidence Boost Before Sticky Things

Use those photos as fuel before big moments like a job interview, a date, a hard conversation, (insert anything hard here!) to help channel the energy you felt that day that made you feel on top of the world.

Never done a boudoir shoot? Well damn girl. What are you waiting for? Let me help you create photos you can go back and look on every day to remind yourself how amazing you are.