EFP STUDIOS - Boudoir and Beauty - Shirley R. - Penhold Boudoir Photography
PLAY MY VIDEO!
My life has been crazy. Crazy good - there is nothing I would change about my life as it has brought me to the happiness I have now. There have been moments throughout it that have stumped me or taken a while to transition into. One of those moments, you know those moments where someone else does something and you really don't understand why... then instead of you letting it go like you should, it stays and festers, you let it affect you way too much and it consumes your thoughts. There are several times in my life where my confidence has slipped, sometimes due to other people’s treatment of me and sometimes when I stopped trying to better myself and became what I like to refer to as my stagnant state or confidence drought. How did I get through this?
I took MASSIVE ACTION. I'm not talking about in a job or exercise like I used to - those were a bandage for me. I’m talking about using affirmations and self-development to improve my confidence, pushing myself a little further every day.
I booked my session with the aim of a birthday gift for the main man in my life. He was working away all the time at that point and I wanted to give him a gift that he could take with him.
I was nervous before my shoot about my body. I wanted to become confident in the body I had, not the body I used to dream of. My week before the shoot had not been a good one and I wasn’t sure I would even get through the make-up let alone pose confidently.
I have always believed beauty meant to glow from within. Kindness is the beginning of beauty. Appreciating others. Understanding others. It literally shines outwards and whichever of these traits, or all, Erika enhances them.
On the day I arrived I felt like a failure, I had let some negative comments win the battle and they were telling me I didn’t deserve this and then Erika and Amanda showed me I was wrong.
It didn’t matter how I sat, how I held my head, how I looked. Feeling empowered, feeling like you rule the world is phenomenal and I honestly could have moved mountains when I left. My head was clear, I knew how to move forward AND I knew my husband and I were going to FREAK out when we saw the pics!!
Fast forward to reveal day. I wanted every pic. Literally I would have put every single one of those photographs in a frame and put them round my house for the world to see!!
I go and look at that book when I feel low or when I want to remember how the session made me feel. A woman that can achieve anything, simply by changing her mindset. A force to be reckoned with. A beacon of light leading people to shore as a guide rather than saving them. I am all of these things and more and Erika helped me get here.
If you are thinking of doing a session, call her now, don’t hesitate, these sessions are priceless. I started to spring out of bed again, knowing that whatever that day threw at me, that whoever did or did not stand by my side, that whatever obstacles tried to get in my way I would find a positive from. I started thanking people for their patience rather than being sorry for being late, I started to think of how grateful I am to get to do things rather than thinking of them as things I have to do and most importantly I started saying yes to helping others no matter how it affected my day. Did it make me feel better? Yes, so it was a win win.
I have two favourite quotes I would like to share with you.
How wonderful is it that nobody need wait a single moment before starting to improve the world? -Anne Frank
Always Believe that something wonderful is about to happen.
Whatever happens after you read this, please know that you are wonderful human and that if your spark was dampened in any way, at any point in your life, that you are worth working on. That you, my fabulous friend, are a firework waiting to light up the world
x
Shirley
