So this post has taken me over a week to publish, the reason being I wanted it to melt into your minds and for you to probably try it out. With the world still wondering when this uncertainty will end one must do what they can to stay calm, healthy, and bright. I am highly spiritual and I love to surround myself with beautiful vibes and energy, I cleanse regularly and I ward off any sort of negative energy that comes my way. There is a popular saying I love -" Trust the vibes you get because energy doesn't lie". I am very good at sensing energies and vibes. I listen to my body when it speaks to me and this time it said to me "Linda, You need more Calm and Inner Peace", I am always on the lookout for anything connected to peaceful vibes and connection to the positive realm, so when I discovered this product I liked the Outlook first because I am attracted to all things beautiful, Green and Shiny, but on trying it out I was like "Damn" I need to get me some more, Please know that this is not an AD or Promo Post, therefore, I will not be inserting any Website links so you know I am just trying to share my personal love for this product and what it stands for, (Well to me).

Unique Shower Foam from the Ritual of Jing: Once you use this, you will begin to feel relaxed as the calming scent of Sacred Lotus and Jujube are sure to restore peace and relaxation to your daily routine. It turns from a gel to a silky soft foam on contact with water. I tell you , when you use this, you will enjoy the feeling of relaxation during your daily wash, and for hours afterward.

Continue your Calming Ritual with a Body Scrub from the Ritual of Jing. I absolutely adore this scrub because it is gentle on the skin but does an amazing job at removing dead skin cells, dirt and other impurities from the skin. The luxurious combination of ultra-fine bamboo particles and wonderfully soothing oils are specially developed to nourish and energize dry skin. Exfoliation soothes and purifies for a relaxing feel, while the calming floral fragrance of Sacred Lotus and Jujube helps to restore peace and relaxation to your daily ritual.

Complete your cleansing Calming Ritual with Dry Body Oil from the Ritual of Jing. Based on essential oils of Lavender and Sacred Wood, this Oil helps to nourish hair and body for a smooth, silky finish.

The Mist from the Ritual of Jing combines the relaxing fragrance of Sacred Lotus and the calming properties of Jujube to lightly perfume textiles, hair, and body. Finish off your calming ritual by spraying it onto your hair and body, or onto textiles for a soothing fragrance. Enveloping yourself in the calming floral scent of Sacred Lotus and Jujube can impart a sense of relaxation and reduce stress. The water-based, alcohol-free formula is safe for textiles and doesn’t leave stains.

Every once in a while I will be sharing a glimpse of my virtual interviews with some amazing and talented individuals I have been blessed to meet via the virtual website "IMVU".  I was happy to read emails from you guys telling me how you enjoyed the last interview with a previous guest on my OTS IMVU show last year "YALLA".

Today you will be reading an interview with another beautiful soul, as you all know "Women Empowerment" is a very personal topic to me, I am deeply passionate about issues and topics surrounding how important it is for women to support each other rather than tear each other down, which seems to be happening a lot in the world lately, women would rather compete instead of trying to work together to achieve success and this is so sad as we are supposed to be a powerful network, a strong link to "Mother Earth" (yep my spiritual side comes through lol), however, it does bring tears to my eyes seeing how it's the opposite happening. That is why I do my best with what I have to support and uplift other Queens out there and I feel more women need to do this daily because it costs nothing to be "Kind". I hope you all will enjoy this interview, do not hesitate to leave a comment below or email me your thoughts and opinions. Enjoy.

MINNOW: Hi Linda, thank you for having me! And hello to all you beautiful people here in the audience. I’m so happy to see you all!!

So for those who don’t know me, I’m Becs, I’m actually Australian by birth and grew up there, but I currently live and work in New York City. For my day job, I work in events and graphic design, and in my free time, I collect records, make a lot of vegan food, drink a lot of tea and am always looking for the perfect slice of pizza.

LB: Your passion and flair for fashion is obvious to tell me what inspired you to become a developer via IMVU and are you also into Fashion in RL?

MINNOW: Yes! I’ve always loved and been interested in fashion – when I was young my grandparents were very involved in theatre productions and so I always had a fabulous ‘dress-up box full of bits of costumes. When I was in high school, my best friend’s mum owned a hair salon and we would sit in there for hours, going through all her fashion magazines and cutting out the things we liked for our scrapbooks (her mum wasn’t too happy about that part of it, lol!). I’ve always had fun with fashion and a strong sense of my own personal style. Often I wanted to create certain looks on imvu but I just couldn’t find what I was looking for in the shop, so I started looking into the creator program. Then when NYC went into lockdown last March because of Covid, I finally found myself with a lot more free time on my hands to try creating.

LB: You are known as an admirer of unique clothing styles, fabric and patterns. How vital is it for a fashion brand to exude "bespokeness" (if that's even a word) and originality to stand out in a fiercely competitive market such as IMVU? 

MINNOW: For me personally, it’s important – like hello, says the girl in the bright green floral jumpsuit hahaha.. but yes, I do think it really strengthens the quality of the shop and enriches everyone’s experience when we have a wide range of available styles and items to play around with. Not everyone likes the same thing, and if everyone just made the same things, what a boring world that would be. I still get really excited when I come across a creator making unusual and unique items, and if people get that feeling when they happen across any of my items, that’s a huge win in my book. 

LB: Minnow How would you describe your brand aesthetics?

MINNOW: I would say my aesthetic is stylish yet whimsical. Fun but still sophisticated. At least I like to think so! I like to mix casual pieces in with more fancy things in my everyday life, so I try to bring that sort of dressing over into my imvu store as well. Free the sequins!

LB: What other qualities are needed to succeed as an IMVU Creator?

MINNOW: Number one thing I would say is PATIENCE, lol. Creating isn’t hard as long as you know how to use a graphics program, but it does take time and practice to get better at it, and it takes time to put together each item. I think a lot of people would be surprised how long it can take to make one thing, I know I really had no idea when I first started out! There’s a lot of trial and error involved (hello opacity maps, lmao!), but it’s really worth putting in the time if you want to produce a quality product, and I think people appreciate the extra attention to detail.

LB: What does women empowerment mean to you? 

MINNOW: For me, it means women truly supporting and lifting up each other – not just the women we know like our family and friends, but the ones we don’t know, the ones across the other side of the world, the ones we might not agree with. It’s about celebrating our individual uniqueness as well as the things we have in common. Shifting the focus from the things we’re told by society we should care about to the things we truly care about. Knowing we’re more than just our gender, and knowing that we are all the source of our own strength and abundance and realizing that we can do and be anything we want to.

LB: What ways do you think we women could help support each other more via the IMVU community because I have to say since my return to the VU last year – this date, I have seen so much drama and animosity between women, instead of spending time crowning each other and lifting each other up I have witnessed them tearing each other down and being Vile, this is one of the issues that really baffles me, so please in your own words and thought, what more do you think can be done to improve the communication and peaceful relationships between women in this little community (IMVU)?

MINNOW: Regarding the second part of the question - I don’t think this is something that’s exclusive to women but I think there are just more women on imvu than men, so we see it more often. People lose sight of what’s really important -  we aren’t just avatars, we’re all real people behind the screen. People behave very badly when they think there aren’t consequences to their actions, but there are always consequences, both for other people and for themselves. You don’t know what someone else is dealing with, so just be nice, and act as though you’re talking to someone right there in front of your face. It doesn’t cost you a thing and it’ll make your day better as well as theirs. I really believe that there’s more that unites us than separates us. I’m not saying you have to be friends with everyone – that’s not normal either, but it’s really not that hard to not be an asshole and just let others exist on their own terms. And if someone is really draining you or constantly being a toxic presence for you, I’m a big believer in the block button, lol. Always protect your own energy.

LB: One of my favourite Words to throw out there is – Collaboration Over Competition, What are your thoughts on this?

MINNOW: Yesss! One million% agree. I’m not in competition with anyone. Life isn’t a race. If someone else does well – I will always be the one to say congratulations and cheer them on.  I think my friends would probably agree that I’m better about celebrating their achievements than I am at celebrating my own, lol. I’ve found that being helpful and collaborative almost always leads to better connections, more creative ideas being generated and generally reduces everyone’s stress levels. For me, that’s just a nicer way to exist in the world. In the words of my fav philosopher (Moira Rose) “when one of us shines, all of us shine”. 

LB: I believe we need a new era of connectivity in the workplace that empowers people of all ages, sexes, and dispositions to work better, together, If you could create a feature/platform/app to achieve this – What and How would you go about it?

MINNOW: This is the hardest question, and I feel like I don’t really have a good answer!  I feel like a lot of apps and social media are created to bring people together but for whatever reason negativity still ends up creeping through. It’s a little sad to me that we need to remind people how to get along and act nicely. Maybe I’d like to create an emergency button app you can press whenever you’re really in your negative feeling that just has little reminders/messages like ‘count to ten’, ‘keep an open mind’ ‘go for a walk’ ‘she/he’s not worth it’ ‘what would your best self do’ ‘turn your phone off, lol.  I think it’s up to smarter people than me to figure this out. But ultimately I think you get the idea.

LB: Where do you look when seeking creative inspiration?

MINNOW: I think probably the same as anyone else – I like to keep up on current fashion trends, but I’ve always loved vintage and historical fashions, will literally watch any kind of fashion/style/music-related documentary or movie, I love street style blogs, and also music videos. I haven’t been able to do it as much lately but I love going to art museums and just soaking up all that creativity and colour. I love just walking around and really looking at things – architecture, plants, patterns in nature. Living in a city like New York there are always inspiring people and things happening all around – sometimes just taking a walk or sitting at a café and people watching is the best kind of inspiration.

LB: What do you think are the biggest challenges for new creators starting out today?

MINNOW: I think as you’ve said previously – it’s a really saturated market, but the other main thing I found when I was starting out, and have heard from a lot of other creators, is that there aren’t a lot of resources to help people learn how to create. Most of the tutorials on the imvu site are outdated or not very comprehensive. So I want to give a shoutout to Prey and her Creator Help Discord channel, which is an amazing resource and community full of smart, helpful people! (/me waves to Xinfo) I definitely recommend joining, whether you’re a new creator or not.

LB: Which designers have been the biggest influence on you via IMVU and RL (Real Life)?

MINNOW: [IMVU] Special shout out to my fellow Insite Designers – Naitve, Medu, Samology, Clarra, Cyto, ZGIVisual, Blvk, as well as creators like MissC and Deathcamp – they all have really cool ideas, quality products, strong brand identity and an energy that’s really inspiring to be around. 

[Real Life] I love a lot of designers, especially those that do colour and pattern really well – lately particularly Zimmerman, Brandon Maxwell, Dries van Noten, Missoni, Andrew Gn, Dolce & Gabanna, Jean-Paul Gaultier, Gucci, etc

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 Many people have the best phones and gadgets but still do not know how to take a proper photo but it's through no fault of theirs, to achieve a beautiful picture it's not entirely up to the kind of phone you use or the price of the product- It's about Angle, Perspective. Taking an image, freezing a moment, reveals how rich reality truly is.

Take advantage of the sources of natural light you can find, even after dark. This gives you a chance to play with shadows, Sometimes, using your camera's flash can improve a photo — but rarely does it do so at night. 

In already well-lit spaces, however, a flash can help to soften some dark shadows behind or beneath your main subject.

Don't be afraid to edit your photos ( Even a soft edit goes a long way).

Photography is the story I fail to put into words, In photography, there is a reality so subtle that it becomes more real than reality. To me, Photography is a way of feeling, of touching, of loving. What you have caught on film is captured forever, It remembers the little things, long after you have forgotten everything that is why when taking a photo appreciate and enjoy that moment.

Many people think it's just a simple act when one brings out a camera to take pictures. Photography for me is not looking, it’s feeling. If you can’t feel what you’re looking at, then you’re never going to get others to feel anything when they look at your pictures.

Like this lovely quote I love from- The Late Karl Lagerfeld - What I like about photographs is that they capture a moment that’s gone forever, impossible to reproduce.”

When I take photos, I go for the most awkward angles because I believe it's the awkward things that are most beautiful, I hope this post has been able to inspire you in one way or the other especially when it comes to taken photos. Share this post with others that may find it helpful in some way.

Feel free to comment below, letting me know your thoughts and also Email me if you prefer to stay anonymous. 

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Have a beautiful day.

 Lately, it is becoming a daily struggle for many to get out of bed and start the day, the energy in the world is enough to leave you feeling drained and lethargic. The way we start our day can strongly influence how the rest of the day goes. In this short post, I will be sharing a few ways to kickstart your day. When you feel groggy in the morning, don’t rush to get out of bed. Open the windows, take a second to sit in silence, be grateful to the universe and God for the grace to see a brand new day, and observe your surroundings. Don’t reach for your phone to check emails or social media. Keep electronics in another room or on flight mode and get an alarm clock to wake you up instead. Take care of your own well-being first. The world can wait trust me.

Wake Up Early : 

Many of us wake up feeling groggy and grumpy lol, Avoiding the temptation of going back to sleep only to end up- waking up even groggier than before-is something we all should make more effort in doing. The best way is to wake up early and give yourself enough time to help you feel more in control of your time and day rather than rushing around feeling pressed for time. I personally love my sleep but giving yourself a little extra time and start your day in a relaxed and positive way really sets the tone for the day. Lastly, When you get up - Make Your Bed!! It does something to the mind and body seeing a well made/clean bed.

Meditate:

Meditation activates your parasympathetic nervous system, which leaves you with a deep sense of relaxation. That means that even if you only got six hours of sleep last night, the energy-inducing endorphins brought on by meditation can give you the boost you need to take on the day. Meditation is a really simple and effective way to start your day well. If you haven’t meditated before, just carve out five to ten minutes from your day and sit quietly. Some people leave their eyes open. I prefer closing mine to shut out distractions and enjoy the present. There are a lot of amazing guided meditation videos on YouTube, find the one that best suits you.

Have a Good Breakfast

A good breakfast is always a great way to start your day. Breakfast is called the most important meal of the day and for good reason; it provides the energy we need to start the day and also provides us with essential vitamins and minerals. The more fruits and vegetables an individual eats in a day, the happier, more creative, and more engaged they tend to be. Know that if you eat little to no breakfast, you’ll be hungry all morning and it’s difficult to concentrate when you’re not feeling at your best.

Exercise

We all know that exercise is good for you, whether you work out at work or during personal hours. Exercise increases the production of serotonin and dopamine, neurotransmitters that decrease the risk of depression and improve your mood and long-term memory, respectively. Exercising in the morning forces you to wake up earlier, gives you a totally natural mood-booster, and increases your energy. Find time to work out even if it's only for 30Mins, you will not regret it.

Stay Happy

Do something that makes you happy, We do better at work when we’re happy in our personal lives. Remind yourself of your goals Let's face it: No matter how much you love your job, there are days where it's going to feel like you're just slogging through. That's okay, as long as you don't let the bad days slow you down, Fill your mind with positive thoughts, think of that thing you could do when you are home that brings smiles to your face, even if it's watching your favourite movie 100times as long as you are happy, people around you will be.

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