WRITTEN BY SHARRA GREENE | PHOTOGRAPHY BY DAMON RICE
Shop My Look: I am wearing a volume sleeve OTS top from Boohoo, the love affair cargo pants from Akira, Public Desire nostalgia newspaper print thigh high boots, PLT brown oversized shades and doorknocker earrings, Aldo ring set, and the runway bag (my fave) from House of Rehab.
With society in disarray due to the unfortunate circumstances surrounding the C Word, it’s been eye opening if nothing else, watching the different ways we as people have had to adapt our day to day lifestyles and activities. I’m watching so many people judge each other, particularly, people who are in a constant state of panic judging others for seeming too “unbothered”. I’ve been hopping on the IG live sessions of some of the entrepreneurs and public figures who I look up to and I’ve been inspired by their ability to adapt their business models as best they can and to maintain a positive attitude as much as possible, only to see others in the comments criticizing them for not being “worried enough” and being “selfish” during this time. Regardless of what you’re choosing to do during this time, the fact remains that worrying solves nothing. We can pray, we can learn more about the situation and its progress, we can stay informed, we can try to point each other in the right direction of resources. But that’s all that most of us can do.
The game of life is certainly unpredictable. I’m sure most of us didn’t expect a lot of things that have been happening lately to happen and all this time alone has caused me to reflect on the intentions I set in the very beginning of the year. I remember bringing in the new year in my room meditating and hearing two specific words over and over in my head: expectation and gratitude. They’ve been two concepts that I’ve been diligently trying to be mindful of since that night and it’s crazy how personally useful those two words have been during this chapter of my life. I had a whole bunch of plans that got halted over the past few weeks. Several of my styling projects were postponed and I had to pass on certain opportunities that require me to travel. This was definitely not in my expectations for me or my brand and I’ve been forced to adapt quickly. However, when I think about the losses that so many others are enduring during this time, mine don’t even begin to compare to theirs and I can’t help but to be grateful for the people and resources that I do have to get me through this time, things that so many people unfortunately do not have.
Gratitude has been the main force keeping me grounded during this time. Waking up every morning and being thankful for all the things that are still going right in life, despite the things that aren’t. It’s been allowing me to do more with the time on my hands instead of staying stagnant in negativity and catastrophic thoughts. On the bright side, I’ve been so inspired to see some of the people in my circle using this time to tend to their craft and/or start the beginning steps for projects that they’ve wanted to pursue for a really long time.
Doing more in this season doesn’t necessarily mean the same thing for everybody. As for me, I know I still got shit to do regardless of what’s going on. However, I also said that I wanted to take the time to tend to my mental health more this year and to grow spiritually. So, my days lately have been a mix between working from home and then making time to read, meditate, pray, etc. However, if you’re someone who is already a workaholic as is and maybe you were feeling personally unfulfilled before all the chaos began, this could be the time for you to actually do more relaxing, more binge watching, more phone calls catching up with friends and family, more time being spent on hobbies, etc.
Whatever you’re doing, please prioritize whatever is truly important to YOU. As long as you’re staying as safe as possible and tending to your health both physically and mentally, don’t let others dictate how you should be spending this time.
I’m continuing to pray that as we pick up the pieces, we’ll collectively come back stronger on the other side of all of this.
Love,