The Wild Inspired

Hi friends!! This is a quick 2 minute read. Today I just wanted to take a moment to talk about natural products. As someone who suffers from a chronic autoimmune disease, chemical exposure is something that I have been trying to hunker down on more and more. We can’t control the air we breathe, or the grass we walk on, but we can control what cleans our homes, our clothes, our sheets & towels. Living the cleanest lifestyle possible with the purest ingredients is my hope. I put body restorative supplements & food into my system, why not restore everything else to as toxic-free and clean as possible? Even if you’re not suffering from obvious illnesses, chemical toxicity can present itself in less “obvious” ways like headaches, eye problems, intense hormone changes especially during your menstrual cycle, reproductive issues for men and women, gastrointestinal problems, skin irritations...the list is long. So, even if you don’t have a chronic illness, but you notice “weird” s

Currently slowing down. It’s day 1 of being back home from traveling. Reflecting on the past 3 trips in 3 months and how fast it all went, all the new places, meeting new faces... I’m overwhelmed in a way because when one trip ended I was already onto the next. I feel like I didn’t get to soak everything in and feel that gratitude deeply. So now I’m on overload of re-living memories. I have a good feeling I’ll be blogging a lot of this stuff in the next couple weeks because there were so many moments captured, so many clients in front of my camera, so many laughs with friends & family, and so many cool places I got to experience. I’m overjoyed. I feel like I just experienced everything I had dreamed of when I began photographing professionally. I was so scared to make a leap, to dream bigger, to charge my worth. I wanted to be accessible for ANYONE to hire me, but when I honed into a niche, and manifested the exact client I wanted, they came. I may be too expensive for a lot

Like a fog rolling in Our souls can become heavy, Settling thick into the cracks of soil. Blurring out all light... Blinding visibility. Doubting what lies just beyond our fingertips.  Staggered breaths of distrust.  We need the weight We need the darker shade of light. We need the reminder that even seemingly opaque walls are really translucent.  Reaching out blindly, we come to find that there is no sheet rock built before us, but just an illusion.  Sometimes we need this eerie stillness; the feigned blockage, To remind us that we must sit, uninterrupted, Allowing the settling of darkness into our fractures. It is within these surface punctures That we find ourselves again, That we strengthen our foundation within ourselves. And when we are ready, When we have bonded with our ugliness, we will discover that we are capable of a step forward. Even through the most sturdy of walls, even through the thickest of veils. And we will brea

(12 years) When this day arrives, it’s always hard to know how much I want to share with people. I struggle with new people in my life knowing about me, truly and deeply. Because of the stigmas our society holds onto about alcohol and drug addiction, it’s nerve wracking to open up. When people find out about this part of my life, they usually are very surprised. “Wait, YOU are an alcoholic, and now you don’t drink and are completely sober?”  It’s usually the same response, which is totally human & okay. I expect and welcome people to ask me questions since I know this is usually a surprise.  After that, either the same people are super supportive and don’t treat me any differently, or they start to change. And the latter is a big reason why I don’t talk about my sobriety publicly. It’s not that it’s a secret, it’s just that it is such a sacred part of who I am, and I dread people treating me differently because of it. But truly, the stigma will stay around if we don’t beg

Become your own queen (or king) Crown yourself, because no one will do it for you.  No one will bow at your feet, or worship the ground you walk on unless you, yourself place the crown upon your own head and kiss the ground you stand upon.  Whatever we feel within, Our self-importance or lack thereof, is how others will treat us.  We get in return, Exactly as we internally feel. So know that... You are noble! You are worthy! You are royalty! Believe that for yourself and anyone you encounter, Will believe that too. 

A [sorta] quick word on meditation 💭 ☁️  PSA: I am a novice and do not consider myself an expert in this area at all. I am a student, I remain teachable. This is simply my experience.  Sometimes a seed is planted when you least expect it, and you can water that seed at any time, give it light and watch it grow. The seed for me was with meditation and it was about 3 years ago during a spiritual talk with a wonderful man & friend named Bill. We were eating at Bareback (my fave) in Pacific Beach, CA. I was talking about my struggles in life: always second guessing myself, need for perfection, intensely gripping fear, anxiety, failing relationships. I was telling him about the burden and weight I carry with me daily. For the life of me, I will never be able to recall the exact words he used, but he told me a story about his relationship with his wife and how they were both struggling, until one day his friend said to them (not quoting him word for word but this was my rec

Hey Babes! Lets talk beauty real quick... As I grow older, I crave a more simple beauty/makeup routine. I concentrate more now on my skincare than ever before! I wouldn't consider myself a beauty blogger, especially in comparison to some of the best makeup gals out there, but I do have some tricks up my sleeve. One of them is making sure I keep up with my glow in the winter. If I don't get a little help in this department I look sallow, lackluster, tired & sick...not cute! I have played with MANY self tanning creams, mousses and lotions..all of which were mainly for body use, and I could never find one that I love for my face. Either the body-friendly versions would give me blackheads, or would make my face much too brown. Given that our faces are naturally more exfoliated than the rest of our body, having a slightly lighter complexion on the face, is more natural looking. So for the winter, I have opted to use NuSkin tanning gel not just on my body, but my face too. A

I have gone back to my roots...this is the EXACT blog platform I first started back in 2012. CRAZY!! I guess its proof that I have been blogging (or trying) for a LONG time...like before blogging was even really a thing HA! If you look far enough, you will see just how awful my outfits and photography skills were...eeeeshhhh. I have come a long way! My blog platform for the past 3-4 years was with another website, but it was hacked, so I have sadly lost all of my content from that timeframe. It makes me sad to have no way of regaining those posts and photos, but Im just going to let it go and embrace the nostalgia of this platform instead. It was fun to look back on where I began and get to revel in the growth and evolution of my style, photography skill & technology from 2012 to now. So, I guess this is me just saying hi and re-introducing myself on the first day of 2019. ::Hello, Im Alaxandra from The Wild Inspired:: This year, I would really like to spend more tim