​Tis’ the season to put on a beautiful face of makeup and be glam for the annual holiday dinners, banquets, parties, and other festivities! My good friend Joan created this gorgeous gold and rose look for me. She is the creator of Poised Beaute, a beauty and lifestyle brand, which also highlights her faith. Stay tuned for a full video of how to achieve this look in the new year!
 
When asked what Poised Beaute is all about, Joan shared she has always had a passion for beauty, fashion, makeup, and lifestyle. She wanted to put a spin her interests and make them into a ministry. Joan believes that whatever we are called to do is to bring God glory, so she wants to incorporate her faith and love for Christ into her beauty brand.
 
The concept behind her brand is:
“A woman who is poised is not easy to come by…The epitome of grace, elegance, and confidence. The definition of poise is ‘A graceful and elegant bearing; composure of dignity and manner.’”
The Poised Beaute equation is: Faith + Lifestyle = Beauty (Faith shapes you which creates a lifestyle and the beauty comes out of this lifestyle)

​Joan believes that all of these traits tie into the concept of a confident, graceful, and elegant woman whose beauty shines through her.  She believes that as women of faith, we should be poised and bring a graceful manner and warmth into every place we go. We should show love to those around us and bring something different to the world around us. She further believes that in everything we do, we should have confidence because we know God is with us. Our presence should bring love, joy, peace and beauty out of everything.
 
Joan has been doing makeup, hair, and styling for the past 5 years, and wanted to finally launch a brand that united what inspires her most. This is why she will be incorporating faith into all aspects of her brand including makeup tutorials on youtube, beauty inspiration on Instagram, makeup services for events, and lifestyle content. This won’t just be fashion and beauty but also inspiration to love yourself as you are and to present yourself in a modest and poised manner.
 
Please follow this new and inspiring beauty brand at poised_beaute on Instagram and YouTube! Stay tuned for many great collaborations to come!

​“Learning to love yourself, flaws and all, is an ongoing journey.”
 – Beryl Otchere
 
My journey of self-love has been an ongoing process for years and began early in my life. Specific experiences and negative ideas that were planted in my mind in childhood by some of my peers took root. And it wasn’t until many years later that I realized these ideas were so predominant in my psyche.
 
I went to a primarily Caucasian elementary school. This experience showed me that when you look different from everyone else, it can easily become a basis for teasing by other kids. I’m a dark-skinned, Ghanaian girl with typical West African features like big eyes, a wide nose, defined cheek bones, etc. My features were very distinct from that of my classmates. From kindergarten, I have a few very distinct memories of two boys in my class making fun of how dark my skin was and how big my nose looked. As the cliché would have it, I don’t remember what exactly they said, but I do remember how they made me feel. I felt ugly, odd-looking, unwanted, and an outsider just by their words…
 
Side note – our words matter. Words can build a person up or break them down. And we oftentimes never know the full impact of the words we say. So we should all be mindful of the words we speak and endeavor to speak in a way that is positive and builds people up.
 
So throughout my childhood and teenage years, I walked around with a false perception that I was ugly. It was an idea that I accepted wholeheartedly and it led me to also believe that it would be a miracle for a guy to like me one day. When people told me that I was pretty, I never believed them. As I look back on those days, I wonder why I maintained this mindset.
 
One day, however, my paradigm of self-love began to shift.
 
Around 2012-2014, even as I had recently lost my dad, my faith was beginning to grow and I was beginning to believe so many truths – that I was redeemed by the blood of Jesus, that I was valued more than I could ever imagine by the God of the universe, and that I was fearfully and wonderfully made. As I grew closer to God, I began to realize that my worth was found in Him and that I was created uniquely and beautifully in His image.

​Meanwhile, I started following Youtube channels ranging from beauty and fashion to vlogs to religious content. At this time, many of the voices I was listening to were speaking on the idea of self-love and how we should all believe in ourselves and see our own worth before anyone else can. It was the beginning of a movement to empower women. This was the beginning of my own empowerment.
 
From then on, I was inspired to begin to view myself differently. The combination of God revealing to me the importance of self-love along with listening to people I respect speaking on self-love led me to take the steps needed to love myself. As fate would have it, just as I was beginning this journey and valuing myself more highly than ever, I met the man who would one day become my husband. What perfect timing on my journey. 
 
Here are some steps in the process of learning to love yourself…

• Recognize that you were created uniquely and that you shouldn’t compare yourself to anyone else.
• Recognize that there is no standard of beauty – regardless of your skin tone, ethnicity, height, weight, size, facial features, hair texture, etc, you are BEAUTIFUL and LOVED and VALUED.
• Recognize that you are uniquely equipped with talents, skills, and abilities that will allow you to succeed – there is no one quite like you and you were created to accomplish something in this world that no one else can do.

 
“You is kind, you is smart, you is important.”  - Aibileen (The Help)
Just believe that you are all of these things and more. You are beautiful.
Keep on learning to love yourself.
 
<3 Beryl

We live in an age when many people are oftentimes distracted. Our eyes are glued to our phones, laptops, or other screens all throughout a significant portion of the day. Technology has taken over and this is especially obvious when you see two people out at dinner, staring at their phone screens, communicating virtually instead of communicating with each other in person.
 
I love and appreciate technology, especially social media. I love seeing what my friends and family are doing, sharing in their milestones, and supporting them from the comfort of my bed. However, all of this endless scrolling takes up more time than we realize. And as a Christian, one issue I face in my faith (also as a busy dental student, wife, friend, etc) is finding enough time to spend with God every day.  I make all sorts of excuses and find myself struggling to spend even 30 minutes in devotion and prayer. Why is this so difficult? Because maybe I still need to learn how to maximize productivity and minimize distractions – more specifically, how to maximize spiritual growth and minimize distractions.
 
This is a concept I’ve been thinking about for some time now… How can I spend my time in a way that is spiritually productive? Although I’m referring to spiritual productivity here, the principles discussed can be applied to other areas of life as well. Due to all the newfound ways to be distracted, this generation of believers is struggling to concentrate in prayer and devotion. What can we do to combat distraction, particularly from technology? Here are a few ideas that Lord has led me to on my journey to seek Him more.
 

1. Put your phone away every day for some period of time – for me the best time for this is in the morning while I have quiet time with God. Choose a time to silence your phone and place it away from you. In this time, don’t worry about who might be texting you or the latest post on instagram, just concentrate on being in the moment, present with God and listening for His still small voice. The same principle applies to any other situation where you can silence technology in order to be fully present in the moment.
2. Assess how connected (or addicted) you are to social media. In 2018, many people literally can’t go more than 2 hours without checking Facebook, Instagram, or Twitter. Some feel as though they HAVE to see what’s going on at all times. Consider limiting your time online – in so doing, instead of thinking about what everyone else is doing, think about what’s going on here and now. Instead of comparing your experiences to other people’s experiences, appreciate your life and what’s going on now. Instead of dwelling on what you don’t have or where you can’t afford to go, concentrate on where you are presently and all that you’ve been blessed with.
3. Put your use of time into perspective – as you go throughout your day, try to ask yourself how important the things you’re doing are and how much time is being spent on each task. There are apps and websites that can help you track the exact number of minutes spent online. The new iphone update has a feature called “Screen Time” which does just that.

 
These are just a few of the ways to maximize spiritual growth and minimize distractions. What do you do to make sure you’re connecting with God every day? I would love to hear more tips of yours in the comments. Until next time, continue to make the most of the time you have and #bloom.
 
<3 Beryl