Jasmine Newton is a photographer and runs Javon Renee Portraits in Knoxville, TN. As a wife and mother of two, she loves empowering others, walking in her power and bringing laughter to anyone she can. She’ll be sharing about how to walk in your power.
Hi, my name is Jasmine Newton. I am a portrait photographer and TuesdaysTogether leader here in Knoxville, Tennessee. And I am so glad to work with the Rising Tide Society to talk to you about walking in your power. Let’s get to it.
A little over a year ago, there was a woman who told me that I was intimidating and it worried me. So I asked her, “what is it that I’m doing that is intimidating? Let me know so I can change it.” And she said, “no, you don’t need to change it. There’s absolutely nothing wrong with it. It’s not negative. It’s a very positive thing that you have. You’re a powerful person is what I mean.”
And I said, “what do you mean ‘powerful’?”
She said, “when you walk into a room, you’re noticed, you’re felt. When you speak people hear you and they listen. Just walk in that. That’s a powerful thing. Walk in your power.”
And ever since she’s told me that, it’s something that I take with me everywhere I go. Whenever I’m worried about something that I’m not sure I can achieve, or succeed in, or whatever my confidence level takes a little bit of a dip, I tell myself, “Jasmine, walk in your power.”
What Is Walking In Your Power?
So what exactly does walking in your power mean? To me, walking in your power means that you have to think about how powerful you are and how you work in this thing we call the universe. There is no one else in this world who is going to be like you. There is no one else ever in time who will be like you again later.
You are you, and you have these gifts and talents right now to do a specific something and that is powerful in and of itself. No one else in the world will ever, ever be like you with your specific talents again, and if you don’t come across those things, work hard, persevere and get to those things to make them happen, then they simply won’t happen.
But you also have to remember that whatever is for you, is for you. Nothing in this world can stop that. Nothing, except you. So what are some practical tips that I can give you as far as walking in your power?
Recognize Your Inner Critic
Well I’m going to start with this – recognize your inner critic. We all got them. That inner critic that tells you every day, day in and day out, what you can do and what you can’t do. You need to learn how to tell them when to shut up and when to sit down somewhere. That inner critic will continuously tell you things that could be lies, and you need to be able to recognize when that inner critic is doing that and tell yourself the actual truth.
So if you’re walking around saying that you’re not able to speak in front of a thousand people, what is actually the truth? You have to remember that you can do whatever it is that you put practice to and work on. Michael Jordan wasn’t the greatest of all time until he practiced and persevered to be good at it. There was a time where he still had to learn how to bounce a basketball. And just like Michael Jordan had to learn, you also have to learn and once you do, World, look out.
Start Somewhere
You have to start somewhere. We have this really bad habit of wanting everything to be perfect. Just this epitome of perfection before we start something but that isn’t real. There’s no such thing as perfection, but there is such a thing as starting right where you are and getting better and better and better at it.
I started doing portrait photography about five years ago. Before then, I had no idea how to use a camera–at all! I simply practiced, took classes, and now I’m pretty good at what I do, if I do say so myself.
You have to start somewhere. Put yourself out there and just start. Recognize fear, doubt, and negative energy whenever it pops up. There’s nothing wrong with feeling those things. Those are natural feelings to have. But you need to learn to recognize them and stop them in their tracks. And don’t be afraid to let them in. When it comes to fear and doubt, you need to look fear in the face and go, “you know what? I know you, I know who you are, boo. I’m going to let you in. I’m going to recognize where that feeling comes from get to the root of it. And I’m going to keep going because I got things to do. Things that have my name on them.”
I found out over the past five years of me being in business there are a lot of things I’m scared of. Fear is bigger than I actually thought it was for me. But anytime that I decided to push through that and go ahead and not let fear stop me, there was always something better on the other side of that fear that I never would’ve gotten to experience if I had let fear stop me.
Take Care of Yourself
The next thing you want to do is take care of yourself, give yourself grace, and have gratitude. We are not good to anybody if we are not good in our mental health. So anytime you feel like you need to take a minute, take a step back, take a breather, do that. Give yourself permission to do that. We all need rest. Even the person who created us all took a rest day. Give yourself permission and the grace to take breaks. Give yourself permission and the grace to make mistakes.
Again, there’s no such thing as perfection. There’s just you and what you’re here and meant to do.
Remember To Help Others
And the last thing that I want to tell you to do is remember to help others. Whatever it is that you feel like you need more of, you need to give more of. So if you feel like you need engagement, engage with other people. If you feel like you need help with your confidence, think about the things that you’re already confident in and help others reach their confidence in those areas. If you feel like the world right now has a lot of negativity in it, put a little positivity in it and see how all that positivity works its way back to you.
Engage with people, encourage people, and you will see that you will be getting that back to you tenfold. All of those are things that I do on a daily basis to walk in my power. And I gotta say, I feel pretty powerful. You can feel powerful too. All you have to do is work at it and recognize that there is only one you and that means there are things that you are here to do.
I want to thank the Rising Tide Society for inviting me to talk to you about walking in your power. In order to find me, you can find me on javonreneeportraits.com or follow me on all social media @JavonReneePortraits. Thanks for having me Rising Tide Society! Be safe.
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