Everyone has an untold story. A piece of them they wish was heard but remains locked within the rustic wooden box. However, a tale worth noting. So, this is mine.

 “Parasites” “Inflammation” “Decaying immune system” were all she could make out of the situation; the moment she was diagnosed with a parasite born stomach illness. All this within her own body? Taken aback, she was frightened and concerned for her overall health.

Elimination. “Eliminate a plethora of foods immediately,” expressed her doctor. This was going to be a huge change, one that she was uneducated about herself, nonetheless thrown overboard into an area of the unknown. However, being the rule follower, she stood ground to instruction. 

Take the normal college student. They’re constantly thinking: “This food is good to eat because it has the right amount of protein, nutrients and fiber needed to promote a healthy body.” Who am I kidding, no one thinks like that. So, this girl thought she was doing everything right and feeding her body with the right nutrition needed with the foods she was told were okay.

See, she’s the type of person to try and navigate situations on her own, suppressing the built up feelings of confusion, fear and stress. 

As she looked in the mirror, she was violently hit with a powerful wave of discomfort and lack of confidence, knocking her over on the bed, leaving her to sulk in her cold bare hands. She was uncomfortable with the changes happening to her body and progressively thinking, “How do I make this stop?”

Her heart. It felt like it had been stabbed every time she heard the comments regarding the assumptions of why she lost weight or “what happened to her” “her fault” “she’s changed.” She knew within herself she had physically transformed and was embarrassed. These were all “meaningless words,” but they did mean something to her and even more upsetting, those clouds of phrases didn’t accurately describe the situation. Evidently, feeling a sensation of internal damage with judgement as her enemy. The intimidating bully that ultimately stole her lunch money she had courageously saved up. 

Surrendering to retaliation, she made peace holding onto the fact that she knew within herself what truly was going on and that kept her going. However, she still shadowed in the corner giving way to these assumptions.

So, this feeling of self consciousness crawling up from her legs tingling towards the back of her spine. This was the disconnect felt between her mind and her body; she saw a physical person standing but this wasn’t herself.

The mind is something powerful, being the center of your thoughts and emotions acting as a force that exhibits all control. Her mind led her to believe her feelings weren’t justified because no one would care or believe her side of the story; the side that was never heard. So here I am, telling that side. 

Change. A change bringing positivity by encapsulating all the negativity, mis-understanding and feelings into a lifestyle that embodied taking matters into her own hands. Recently learning things about herself that were concealed before.

Now, this story wasn’t created to gravitate towards gaining attention, it was to focus on what came out of it.  

A passion for nutrition, well-being and health that stemmed from grasping a hold on the situation and educating herself. Constant research of how to navigate the stomach and knowledge about the right amount of nutrients the body needs to promote the best version of the self, since she was so deprived. Learning that others do care and she didn’t have to navigate it alone. 

Realization. That this stomach illness brought her to a low emotionally and physically and she became aware of the importance behind the mind body connection and feeling good. In other words, the input-output effect. Generally speaking, fueling your body with stimulants that make you happy, lead to an overall output interest of this feel good, a sense of motivation and confidence.

Reflection. One may ask this girl now, what is her goal? To that my answer is to educate and share my gained knowledge throughout this journey in a way that makes people feel good. Leading them to be inspired, giving the ability to generate something even more powerful. Specifically, showcasing these emotions within the realm of fashion, health, and nutrition but leaving it up to you to choose your feel good. Most importantly becoming connected with this underlying sense of happiness that we all strive for and photographing it from a different perspective. 

Think about it: why do we do the things we do? Because it makes us feel good.

That is, the Feel Good Factor.