Street Style in NYC ♡ April 2016 Edition

Street Style is BACK with a focus on self-care and self-love.

As many wise people have said, if you can’t take care of yourself, you are of no use to anyone.

Building the self-awareness to know what is best for you is a process, and it looks different for every person. This past month I stopped and talked to a few different ladies who made me stop in my tracks.

CHRISTINE & JENNY

I ran into these two ladies in Soho. Christine is from Cyprus and Jenny is from Bulgaria. They caught my eye with a few stand-out pieces, badged-out jeans, funky shoes, a chic yet comfortable long jacket. They also had an adorable and healthy-seeming female friendship ting going on, which I witnessed while spying on them at a store. JUST AN OBSERVATION. I started by asking about what they do to take care of themselves.

JENNY: Eat ice cream, talk to friends, pick an awesome outfit to wear, put on jewelry. Stuff like that.

CHRISTINE: I’m the kind of person who likes to travel and I like to enjoy myself. I get so inspired from my trips and it’s so important for my work. The vibe, the city, the people, the facades of buildings, all of those inspire me.

JENNY:  The last time I laughed really hard was when we were in San Francisco and we made ridiculous videos on the Golden Gate Bridge. We were pretending to be reporters and we were loud and people were watching us and it was a bit embarrassing.

♥

DANISE

 I am a very emotional lady and that is something that a lot of people are afraid of confessing. Instead of being afraid of it or trying to cover it up I work on managing it by being aware of what I need for what I am feeling. If I’m feeling like crap mentally I try to write what I feel needs to be done, what is worrying me or do what I call, “taking a mental dump,” where I free write whatever comes to mind just to get it out of my system. I also like to dress up, maybe deck myself out in all gold or throw on a fly jumpsuit. I put on some good jams on my headphones and then hit the street on my nickel board or you’ll even catch me dancing down the street! My remedy for feeling better physically is making myself do yoga and then eating a piece of chocolate cake after… It’s a no fail win/win!

I feel my best after a really great night of dancing. There is a high that I experience that doesn’t compare to anything else and I only find it on the dance floor. I shed the weight of my built up anxieties there and I’m too sweaty to take it with me afterwards.

The thing I love most about my body are my teeth and the bottom half of me. I have a gap between my two front teeth and I think it played a big role in developing my personality. Kids would make fun of me growing up and I was ashamed but at some point I embraced it and now people tell me how much they love my gap! I also love my legs and butt since they are my strongest assets. I’m pretty proud of the fact that I’m a 33 years old dancer and a bike messenger in the city.

♥

YEVGENIYA

When life gets too overwhelming I have to go outside. I take walks. Sometimes it’s through the busy streets of NY, but more often it’s the off-the-beaten-path trails of Central Park—I throw on whatever album or artist I feel like is going to give me catharsis at that moment in time and just stroll. I look at the trees and I remember that they are so peaceful and strong and I try to remind myself to be more like trees. I actually found a tree pretty close to my apartment that looks like it has an eye on it’s trunk. I think of it as my Grandma Willow (Pocahontas). I sit in front of it and stare, and try to listen to what it’s telling me. Usually the message is take it slow n easy and everything will be alright.

Having the balance of a hard days work followed by a home cooked meal made with love, surrounded by really good company that I can be 100% myself around..that’s my idea of heaven.

My height used to be a real source of insecurity for me—especially when I was younger and towered over all the boys. I wouldn’t wear heels out to clubs because I was afraid of intimidating guys, but the older I got, the more I realized that anyone who is intimidated by my height isn’t someone I want to be talking to anyway. I love being tall and having long limbs. Sure they get in the way sometimes and long car rides are somewhat of a living hell, but I also love not having to get up to reach things that are far away and always being able to see the stage at concerts. It’s dope.

The last thing that made me laugh: a conversation with the 4 year old I babysit. She was telling me how much she loves diarrhea because you just poop everything out and then you’re done and you’re so relaxed you could just fall asleep on the toilet. She’s really got it figured out.

♥♥♥