“I was approaching 44 feeling lost and powerless. I was exhausted from feeling like I was stuck in a cycle of feeling like my life was out of my hands. I am a recovering people-pleaser and I didn’t realized how bad it was until I noticed that I’m always there for people to my own detriment.

One day, I decided that enough was enough. This new era would be about me and I was going to take back my power.

I started by taking small steps. I made sure I was taking care of myself, setting aside time for self-care, and investing in relationships with people who respected me. I invested money into my interests–I had been wanting to start taking barre classes for years but never did. So I changed that. I’m happy to say that I just completed my 150th class over the weekend. I also booked two things for myself recently: A trip to London and my boudoir shoot with Veronica.

I also started MAKING people accept “no” as an answer after reading a quote by Oprah: “No is a complete sentence.” Being intentional about setting boundaries and made me feel less taken advantage of and surprise–nobody got made because I turned down a request I knew I didn’t want to follow through on.

As I started to take back my power, I began to feel more open to experiences in life. I had truly been living in a state of perpetual darkness and I turned the page in my life. It wasn’t easy and I’ve been through alot of tears but now I feel most in control of my destiny than ever before.

This photoshoot was to commemorate that.

I’ll remember when I look at my photos where I was mentally and emotionally. And this was the very best time to do this because, Veronica, you truly captured me. Beautifully and amazingly. Thank you.”