It has been a time in my life that marks a shift with new awareness. Change. You may be part of my tribe of middle age women, but if you haven’t made it to this point of middle age, I want to tell you that it is a wonderful time of adaptation.
Adaptation inside.
Career women do so much for the world, and so do people who stay home to cultivate communities. For me, shifting my work to include an income has required adaptation.
I have had the privilege to explore my passions. Immersing in my deepest interests has been an adventure and also a bit of an obsession. I do think I will continue learning forever because it is the way that I consume. Some get consumed with watching TV shows, exercising, entertaining, or socializing, but I get consumed with learning. I hold a deep love for learning.
What I know for sure is I felt the need to fully explore my passions and put them out in the world. My passions for food, Ayurveda, leadership, beauty, and yoga have all been so fun to share with the world. It has been interesting to see what resonates with people. In this exploration, I split my time, curating my offerings in different ways to see what interested folks.
Adaptation outside.
The people I have attracted through my work are often women who are interested in face yoga and leadership. I have also found that many people are interested in food and Ayurveda.
What I’ve learned is that our presentation and how we communicate with body language and facial gestures can help define who we become and how we are received. It has been a distinct pleasure to set my interests loose and see what resonates with others.
Family support.
I feel incredibly privileged to have a partner who supports my endeavors. The years of my staying home with our kids and now being ready to contribute to the family financially is daunting. In a world that isn’t always kind to a woman in her 50s getting back into the workforce, it feels safer to experiment and put myself out there to see if some of my knowledge resonates with the public. Since I manage our household, I also need the flexibility that would be difficult to find with a full-time job.
I know some of you are also finding ways to support your families both financially and domestically. I would love to connect with you to learn about how you make things work for you. Making and supporting a family is one in many forms of creativity. Coming up with an idea and seeing how the world takes to it is also a magical, creative experience! When others understand your message and come forward to be a part of your mission, it is a sign that you are on to something.
Self-awareness.
Self-awareness is a primary element of leadership. As I have learned over the years as a leader of my children’s school PTA, activating self-awareness is required in development. This volunteer work helped me cultivate my self awareness on a new level, and I gained a lot of new knowledge about how to be a leader.
I continue to engage and improve my self-awareness, and I find that being light-hearted about it helps tremendously. Taking the time to be self-aware can help founders let go of what is not working and cut the losses early.
Listen to the heart’s desires.
As soon as I learned about face yoga, I knew that it would take off. However, even though I love this practice, I wasn’t sure if narrowing down my business to focus solely on face yoga would work for me. My uncertainty dissipated when I created an online course. By doing my first live course launch, I received feedback from participants that helped me develop my course and make it even better.
The response on my @beautifyfaceyoga Instagram has been overwhelming. I received messages from women who felt that they were making progress with my simple 1 minute videos and 8 second reels. Some of these women shared that they were like natural beauty and products and would love to learn ways to beautify with holistic products, too. Some women shared that the felt too old to change their appearance but after doing face yoga felt pretty.
When I was growing up, I remember women remarking that they were too old to change their appearance. Rather, these women quietly moved into their age-appropriate hair, makeup, and dress. They were identifying with their age and doing it with gusto. What if they knew about face yoga back then?
Beautify is born!
What lights me up still and has always since I was young, is how women stay beautiful throughout the ages.
Since I can remember, I have always liked skin care and makeup. I loved putting together outfits and poring through fashion magazines. But the women in my life made the biggest impression on me at the time. They didn’t dress the way the girls and women in magazines dressed. I grew up in the rural South, where my family went to Baptist churches (my grandfather was a minister, too). For most of my childhood, going to church was a bi-weekly activity, so we dressed like the church ladies, wearing fancy yet simple dresses. Not like the ladies in the magazines, who wore extravagant outfits from big cities like New York.
As a child, I watched how teenaged girls grew their hair long and wore frosty blue eyeshadows and black eyeliner in the 70’s. I remember thinking they looked like angels. The moms kept their hair in shorter hairstyles or lower-scale bouffants (the 60s were still alive for some women).
In the 80s, when I became a teenager, I began to experiment with hair and makeup trends myself. I loved the softer look of waves, and wing-type bangs. The softer nudes and browns in make up were being mixed in as those around me hung onto the 70’s frosty blue makeup looks.
Photo Credit: Defense Military Archive
Even though they weren’t the most fashionable, I always admired the church ladies and how they put themselves together, keeping their skin looking beautiful. Most everyone where around me came from humble beginnings and didn’t have a lot of money for facial products. Instead of buying makeup and fancy skincare, the ladies improvised. I admired the ingenuity they used to make things work. I loved listening to my mom share advice about applying fresh cut aloe vera to the face to cure a pimple. I knew many church ladies who added lemon juice to hair to naturally bleach it in the sun. My great aunt used Pond’s cold cream her entire life and had the smoothest skin when she was in her late 80s.
Reflecting on these memories reminds me about how much these church ladies influenced me. Because of their influence, I have always beautified my appearance no matter the financial situation.
The church ladies, along with many other factors, inspired me to pivot towards focusing on face yoga. Beautify Face Yoga has resonated with so many. I am elated to create programming that women will take the time to invest in for their face, skin, and the bonus outcome: self-love.
Transitioning to a new chapter.
I am transitioning sites and will be letting go of the Yogini Prana brand. Being a part of a yoga movement is powerful, but there are many other yoginis out there, I see how my work can be simply more of the same. Yoga will always be part of my work and I will continue to teach classes.
I want my subscribers and followers to be aware.
I plan to bring you over to Beautify Face Yoga with me. I hope you will join me as I transition sites. There will be an overlap in content, but more focus on the details of face, skin, and body care from the inside-out. This will include a section devoted to foods, recipes, and holistic self-care to brighten your skin and offer radiant health, too! I am really excited and lit up. I will have everything rolled over by July 1!
I am so glad you are here with me. Thank you so much for your support. Please feel free to drop me a note about your passion projects below or in my @beautifyfaceyoga Insta feed. I would love to hear about your passion projects, too!
With Love,
