Define the word QUEEN using 3 words. Bold. Fearless. Powerful.

What do you love most about yourself? I love my GROWTH and relationship with God. I believe I have come a long way in life; facing many obstacles, hardships, and insecurities, ultimately shaping the Queen I am today. We all have a story and I revel in the importance of owning that story and sharing it, especially if it can inspire and encourage others to be their best selves, too.

 

What motivates you to do your very best? GOD, my family and to be frank—ME! I have been blessed my whole life because of the Lord. He provided me with a family that loves and supports me every step of the way and because of this, I have always strived to set the bar high for myself. In return, I want to help and motivate other young women to be their very best as well.

What do you believe is your purpose in life? That’s a good question and to be frank, a difficult one to answer fully because I believe my purpose is forever molding and changing as I become God created me to be.  I learn something new about myself daily, but in regards to LifewithBri—I would simply say that my ultimate purpose is to help guide women in a journey of purpose, testimony, and inspiration to live intentionally. My true desire and vision for the blog is for young women grasp their personal beauty and to live out their self-confidence in God (whatever that is for them).

Tell us about a time you failed, how did you overcome it? Prayer is real. Faith is realer. I’ve failed so many times, but not in a way that you would think.  I have even begun to look at failure differently. Because “not succeeding” at something or “not getting what you want” can be seen as a failure by many– you often have to change your perspective, transform your way of thinking and choose to learn a lesson from the situation.  Who is trying to teach you the lesson? God.  He wants us to have THE BEST; so at the end of the day, if I fail, I chalk it up to “simply not being for me;” knowing that my Lord has something bigger and better than I could ever imagine.

For instance, I went through a very unhappy and draining phase at my last job. Take in mind, I worked at a non-profit and often felt rewarded for working in the community, but the job as a whole was not fulfilling to me. In addition, I was underpaid and there was no real growth opportunity for me at the time. It was simply paying the bills. I spent a lot of my spare time applying for other jobs, getting interviews, but then receiving that unfortunately dreaded email stating how I was a great candidate, but “just not the right one for the job.”  This started to defeat my spirit. I felt like I was “stuck” at job that I no longer loved and one that became even more difficult to go to each day. I even considered just flat out QUITTING with hopes that an opportunity would pop up.  Instead, I went to Jesus. I prayed and prayed…putting my faith in him and knowing that I was in that place for a reason and for but a season. Do you know that once I stopped worrying about my situation and STOPPED applying to jobs, I received an email about a job that I never even applied to?  Look at how God works!  My current employer seeked me out, I received a substantial increase in pay as well as I have a much more flexible schedule. Above all, I love what I do! You see– through prayer and faith, I was able to break through doubt, fear, and worry. Instead, I was able to trust that the Lord was going to continue to provide all of my needs and give me more than I had even asked in the beginning. He’s just that type of God! *Praise dance*

How do you practice self-care? Oh, do I love some good lovin’ self-care! Another thing I have learned is that it is important to take care of yourself. How can you expect to be your best if you are not taking care of yourself? I believe that it is important to practice self-care physically, mentally, emotionally, socially and most importantly, spiritually.  Above all, I make sure to spend time with the Lord and reading/meditating on the word. I find that when I don’t – those moment of doubt and fear I spoke about earlier begin to creep in and get me off track. Reading the word is often a daily encouragement to me of who I am and what God has promised me is already mine.  In addition, being that I was obese as a young girl, I make it a point to exercise regularly and watch what I eat.  Now, don’t get me wrong, I love food, but learning to practice self-control can often catch you before you fall.  Other than that, self-care to me is enjoying what and who you love – so if it’s spending some quite time with myself writing and getting a mani/pedi OR hanging out with my family and friends, I do it because it makes me happy.

What does success look like for you? I would first start by saying that success looks a lot different to me than it did years ago. I think when we are all growing up, we have an “idea” of what we want to be and then we go off to college and everything changes.  Even after college and graduate school, the meaning of success continues to change for me. Now that I have acquired many of the material things I strived for like a house, car, etc. it’s still hard for myself to say that “I am successful” simply based off that and I would never want to. To be honest, I think success means something different for everyone. I would say that for me, success is continuing to strive to live out my purpose in life and embracing the beauty of it all.

If you could give your younger self a word of advice, what would it be? Because I could probably write a book of what to say, I’d probably keep it unusually short and simple. Something like this…

Dear Younger Self,

You are a gift and you are loved. Don’t compare yourself to others. Don’t listen to what others say you are or are not; or can and cannot do. Embrace your beauty and live out your full confidence in God. Live fearlessly and love with your whole heart. Above all, be yourself. Oh, and start saving money for college now. Those scholarships won’t be quite enough. 😉

Love, Your Future Self.

Meet Bri. She considers herself a passionate advocate for living a healthy and whole life. She is a God-fearing woman, far from perfect and like many of us, is still trying to “figure it out.” As far as she can remember, she has always had a passion for writing.

She launched the LifewithBri blog in 2013 to be a special outlet for her writing and to create change. Her desire was to share her testimony of being obese as a young girl, personal insecurities, and other life experiences, as she hoped to inspire others to know God and make better choices as well.

Her current mission is to provide materials to guide you in a journey of purpose, testimony and inspiration to live intentionally. Bri’s vision is for young women to grasp their personal beauty and to live out their self-confidence in God.

In addition, Bri is currently writing her first book centered around her personal health journey, which she hopes (God-willing) to publish this year. Stay tuned!

Want a deeper look into her journey? Click here to see her very first blog post: Hello, Can You See Me Now?

❤ Bri.

Location: Richmond, VA

Social Media Contact Info:

Blog: www.lifewithbri.com | Facebook: Lifewithbri | Twitter: Lifewithbri | Instagram: Thelifewithbri | YouTube: Thelifewithbri | Email: Talkwithbri@gmail.com