LBS Chic: My Fearless 29

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On New Year’s Eve this year I declared 2016 my “FEARLESS” year. I went into this year with the intention of mastering my fears and truly living life without regrets.

 

I decided to look up the full definition of fear and here’s what I found:

Fear is…an unpleasant emotion caused by the belief that someone or something is dangerous, likely to cause pain, or a threat.

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A few key words in this definition stood out to me. It’s an unpleasant emotion. Obviously not something you’d want to feel for a prolonged period of time, yet we often allow ourselves to live in fear of people, places and things.

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The other piece of the definition that stands out? It’s the belief that someone or something is dangerous. It hasn’t been proven to be dangerous or cause pain. It hasn’t been confirmed to be a threat. You haven’t seen that it can be a direct threat. But it’s a belief.

After evaluating this definition, I decided that I don’t want to live unpleasantly, nor do I want to live my life believing that something can hurt me if that hasn’t been proven. Now, don’t get me wrong. I don’t plan on walking into a lion’s den with raw meat strapped to my forehead anytime soon. But as I’m getting older I’m realizing that life is way too short to live it in constant fear of things that could very well be completely harmless and could also quite possibly change your life.

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So I started my year off with a drastic change. I cut my hair off. And colored it. On the same day. Let me preface the conversation, guys. I’ve never cut my hair. I’ve done trims. I did a “big chop” after transitioning my hair from relaxed to natural, but my new growth was already pretty long so it wasn’t a super short cut. But I’ve never gone from long to short on my own accord because I’ve always been scared about how I’d look. Would my face shape look nice with a short cut? Would people still think I was pretty? I conquered that fear. And it feels awesome.

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Next up, I produced BrownGirlsLove Power Day. Listen. I’ve never produced my own conference. I was scared out of my mind. I considered canceling it a few times. I didn’t think there was enough time to make it great. I didn’t think I’d have the resources. I didn’t think people would show up. Fear. fear. FEAR. I prayed, took a deep breath, assembled a kick-ass team and did it. Seeing it come to fruition was indescribable.

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Then, I flew. Not much is higher on my list of fears than skydiving. I have never skydived. Literally, dropping from the sky, freefalling, with no guarantee of safe landing, is one of my greatest fears. So when IT Cosmetics invited me to iFLY Westchester in NY to experience simulated indoor skydiving, I intended on watching from the sidelines and clapping for those who sucessfully partook in the festivities. But instead I ended up suiting up, stepping into the wind chamber and literally – flying. It was out of this world.

And so, after having started my year off conquering so many of these fears, I have no choice but to continue to conquer them and to encourage you all to do the same.

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Don’t live your live worrying about what could go wrong, who will have an opinion or how you’ll be perceived. Don’t keep yourself from living life to its fullest because of crippling fear. Do what makes you happy and continue to challenge yourself. As I’m celebrating this day – my 29th birthday – I’m convinced that things are alot more fun on the FEARLESS side of life.

Photography by Augusta Sagnelli

What fears are you going to conquer in 2016? Leave me a comment. 

Christina Brown

Lifestyle influencer and digital mompreneur Christina S. Brown is a New York native, LA resident, and the founder of LoveBrownSugar.com and BrownGirlsLove. She's an award-winning storyteller, a motivational speaker and an advocate for confident millennial black women.

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