Dare to Live.

Today I decided to cut my hair short. A bit drastic, but sometimes drastic can be fun and spontaneous and an act of self love! Sometimes we get so caught up in our norms that we forget what it’s like to go outside the box and experience something new and being in a rut is never any good for any reason. Ruts are boring. Ruts are ordinary. And we don’t want to live ordinary or boring lives. We want to live lives filled with excitement and adventures and fun!

Life isn’t meant to be filled with the mundane. We are meant to go on adventures and experience new things. That’s how we grow, otherwise what’s the point? So that’s why I cut my hair today. Because I wanted something different and brand new and unexpected. And also because I felt like it. Because I didn’t want to be afraid of moving outside my comfort zone. And if I ended up not liking it, then hey, at least I tried it and gained the experience. BUT good news is, I absolutely love it! And I feel like my personality has changed into something more funky to go along with it. And that’s a good thing folks! It’s a good thing to go outside yourself sometimes.

The Self Love Daily Challenge #017: Try something new and unexpected. 

You wouldn’t believe how refreshing it feels to try something new. To experience something unknown. Sometimes it totally sucks, but sometimes it can be an amazing experience that you start to wonder why didn’t you do it earlier? I know, it’s hard to try something new. You are filled with all these “what if” questions in your head, like “what if you don’t like it?” But what if you do? What if it becomes a life changing experience? What if you discover something completely new about yourself that you didn’t even know you had inside you?

Go and try something new today. Try an exotic dish you’ve always wanted to but were too scared to try. Try out a new hair color or cut. Go buy a funky color lipstick. Go visit a town that’s unknown to you. Try surfing! Try hiking. Go buy a bike and it for a spin around the block. Do something completely weird. It’s fun, I promise.

I know for the longest time I was terrified of trying new things. I always stuck to what I knew. Stuck to the same routine. Whatever that was safe, that is exactly what I headed for. But slowly, I’ve started to move outside my comfort zone and I’ve realized there is a whole new world out there. There is so much to learn about and discover and experience. And that’s what makes you feel alive, folks! You don’t want to be merely existing, you want to be LIVING! You want to be feeling every breath. You want to be taking in new sights and sounds. You want to be tasting new things. You want to be grasping everything within reach of your senses. It’s thrilling. Yes, a little scary, a little intimidating. but thrilling!

When I went to the salon today, I had absolutely no idea that I was going to chop it all off. Earlier in the week I had been looking at photos of all these celebrities and models and their “lobs” (long bob). I kept thinking thoughts like, “oh no, i could never pull that off. I can’t style it like them. I would just look weird. And then i’ll probably miss my long hair and cry because it’ll take a year to grow out super long again.” negative. negative. negative.

Well after she dyed my hair and washed it out, she asked if I was going to get my usual trim. At first I was going to say yes without thinking twice, because that’s what I would normally do. But then some other part of me jumped out and said, “no, i want to chap it off. I’m thinking here,” as I pointed right below my collar bone. She gave me a quizzical look and said, “but that’s a good 6 inches…are you sure?” as if to say, are you crazy? Are you feeling ok? And I gulped but said, “yes. do it.” And with a heavy sigh, I gritted my teeth and let her chop away. I was afraid but I did it anyway, and it came out quite beautiful. I feel amazing, like a new wave of confidence has rushed over me!

So sometimes, it’s good to go outside the norm. It’s good to try something new. It doesn’t have to be something extreme or drastic if you don’t want it to be, but I think sometimes it is better if it is. I always say, the more crazy the more fun. OK no, I never say that, but I may start to if I try more new things in the future. And it really does make you feel better about yourself because you are giving yourself permission to experience life so to speak. You are allowing yourself to LIVE. And that’s ALWAYS a good thing.

xx

Christina Ciro