10 Tips To Make You Feel Fantastic in 2016

I love January because it’s when we get to meet our new Cheekettes and help them start their fabulous Burlesque Journey to Glitter and Good times. But we know it can be a tough time for peeps, especially our showgirls, burly beauts and the Cabaret Clan. The Christmas shows are over, January can be quiet, you may have spent all your pennies and drunk all your gin and….you may be at the mercy of the New Years Resolution Army. Now don’t get me wrong, I love New Year’s Resolutions, especially when it involves booking a Cheek of It! course;) But they can also add a whole lot of unnecessary pressure to fix ourselves and work even harder and just so you know, you don’t need fixing and I bet you already worked pretty darn hard last year. And with the added knowledge that only 8% of people stick to their New Year Resolutions, maybe there is a better way to start the year.

So lets start by feeling good because when we feel good, good things start to happen around us, that’s just the law of attraction and you can’t argue with physics. So here are Ten Tips for feeling good for Cheekettes and like minded souls everywhere.

The quickest way to feel the love in your life is to literally count your blessings. write them down, it’s more powerful and even better, write your blessings in a beautiful notepad in a lovely setting. Take yourself on a little blessing outing. Your favourite coffee shop, park, library or gin joint and get scribbling. I estimate the feel good factor taking effect in 0-30 seconds. Oh and if you’re having trouble thinking of what to choose, start with the little things or the things we take for granted. From having clean running water to your snuggly bed. counting blessings comes with a major happysob warning!! By the time I get to counting all my Cheekette blessings, I’m usually swimming in an Alice in Wonderland pool of happy tears.

It’s so easy to focus on what we have’t yet achieved without stopping to acknowledge and celebrate what we have achieved. And once you start making this list you will be surprised at just how much you’ve done. Need some reminders? If like me you take a million photos, just scroll through your 2015 album and be prepared to be bowled over by your awesomeness! Don’t forget to include achievements made in your personal life, from relationships to self esteem. Even the tough times are achievements, make note of how you grew from a break up or a financial catastrophe. When you’ve finished, read your list to yourself and then to someone who loves you, preferably with cake and bubbles to hand. Seriously you are more amazing then you realise. Tip the reality of yourself into the positive and be surprised by how much more you can achieve from a place of self worth.

You are welcome to dance with us anytime, but I highly recommend dancing of all kinds, especially the dance in front of your mirror kind. This is one of the best energisers and self love invigorators I know. Bored of your usual tunes, then put on a Spotify Browse playlist and surprise yourself with some new music and some spontaneous grooves. Better still dress up in your favourite dress and dance like the shimmytastic, soul unleashing, Gorgeous Goddess that you are. And when you get too hot, treat yourself, the cat and whoever else is watching to a little striptease, then finale it out in your pants or if you are totally feeling the liberation, do a nudey dance; silly, sacred and Spectacular all at once!!

Goddess baths with scented candles, music and a glass of champagne. The whole bath and candles thing can feel like such a cliche but who cares, it’s glorious and so often we don’t treat ourselves as the glorious creatures that we are. In fact this one isn’t a suggestion, it’s homework! Want more treats? Good, get your nails done, (I’m taking a break from red and getting Pink toes for 2016!!) Book a massage, there are a tonne of cheap options on groupon, or try a treat you’ve never had before. I have to admit I can be terrible at this. There’s always something else to be done, I put off my treats until I have time and of course we all know what we put off, we never do. But when we treat ourselves, in a way that acknowledges our body we not only reward our bodies for all their hard work but we declare to the world that we are worthy of feeling wonderful and sure enough wonderful things start to happen around us!

I love date night with Mr Cheek but I also love solo dates, especially cinema dates. It’s cold, it’s dark and it’s rainy, escape from it all hermit style and cosy up in your nearest arthouse cinema, turn off your phone (obvs) and put the world on silent as you step into someone else’s world and allow yourself to dream. When I’ve seen a good film free from distraction I feel nourished, inspired and recommitted to my own dreams. Don’t stop at Cinema Dates, take yourself out for dinner, to the park, a boat ride, go check out that exhibition or if you’re feeling really brave go solo dancing! If you like this idea I highly Recommend Reading The Artists Way by Julia Cameron.

Be really, really kind to yourself. Weightwatchers have coined the phrase #WomanKind and although I don’t like to be suckered into corporate campaigns that rely on us feeling a bit crap to make money. Their ad has a point. We would never treat others the way we treat ourselves. We would never tell our friends that they’re not good enough or that they’re fat and ugly yet how many times do you hear a women say this about themselves. This essentially is self harm and it has to stop. At The Cheek of It! Self bullying is totally banned, I will spank the bottom of anyone who I hear being mean to themselves, spanking of course is totally allowed!! Ooh the Kink of It! And if you’re being mean on purpose for extra spankings, I’m onto you, three times and I start charging, and I’m very expensive;). So spanking aside, what kind thing can you say about you today? What kind thing can you do for yourself today? You are, so, so precious, you are the only one like you, You are even more priceless then my spanking service.

Now you’ve mastered some self kindness, pass it on, with a Random act of kindness. My mum called me all excited yesterday to tell me Radio Gloucester is running a ‘Random Acts of Kindness’ feature all through January. It’s like thousands of fairies are sprinkling magic dust over Gloucestershire. My sister took her cat to the vet and when she wen’t to pay, someone else had paid and another sister found her rubbish had been kindly taken from her back door to bin men. Now before you all pack up and move to the Kindest county in the UK. You can spread kind magic right here. If you need inspiration, check out Bernadette Russell who started #366daysofkindness in response to the London Riots in 2011. She’s a an inspiration legend and if you have kids check out her Kindness book for children.

I’m just about to move and I cant wait to do this one. Now choose carefully, try not to choose the photo where you look the slimmest or prettiest and go for one where the camera has captured you in full, fabulous flow. Where your energy is literally leaping out of the picture willing you to get your wonder every time you look at it. If you don’t think you have a picture like this, then book a photoshoot. I highly recommend Grace Gelder Photography, she will capture your inner shine through an intuitive and inspired shoot. Once you’ve got a pic, print, frame and put it in pride of place, And don’t forget to tweet it @burlesquecheek

I had the absolute good fortune and Angel luck to read Code Red by Lisa Lister towards the end of last year. Warning!! I have become evangelical about this book! I’m having to stop myself from going to Speakers Corner or parading outside your house with my READ CODE RED placard. I will probably write a more in depth blog about this soon. but for now all you need to know is, this book is a life changer. You know when you read a book and think, hmm great idea, stuff I didn’t know, I’m inspired. Well this is so much more then that. For me this book woke up knowledge I already had, sacred, magical, life affirming knowledge that was buried deep inside my very DNA. I will simply share what it says on the book- Know Your Flow, Unlock Your Super Powers and create a Bloody Amazing Life. Period! I’ve included this in my 10 feel good starters for the year because when you read it, you will let go of all the guilt and frustration you have at not having achieved everything yet (in this weird -we can do it all, no matter the cost to our sanity- paradigm that we live in), leaving you free to create the rest of your life in a way thats serves you, without burn out or exhaustion. Let me know what you think and join Lisa’s blog, The Sassy She.

Amazing! Just as I wrote that ‘Feeling Good’ by Nina Simone came on the radio, ooh synchronicity tingles!! OK, if you’ve completed even one of the above feel good tips I suspect you have let go of – ‘I’m a bit crap and I refuse to be present to any of my awesomensss’! – and have stepped into a space of ‘I’m amazing! If that’s the case, you are ready to write your New Years Resolutions. Or as I like to call it, a Desire list. A desire list is about creating your life through pleasure as opposed to fixing yourself. Remember you are already the most wonderful you, that you can be at this moment in your life. So now you just have to choose which of all the shimmytastic experiences in the world, you want to manifest into your life. If you desire to travel, write down how great it feels to travel, if you desire to perform more, write down how wonderful it feels to be on stage glowing your glittery heart out. If you desire a new relationship, write down how you want to feel in the right relationship. Want to get in shape, no worries, focus on the pleasure of feeling fit, healthy and vibrant and the more you focus on the desire you want fulfilled the more you will notice opportunities or people showing up to help you.

If you’ve taken one of our courses and in particular the Spotlight course you will notice how we started by asking you what inspires you, what brings you joy. We focused on how great it would feel to stand on the stage, we took action every week, exploring costume, styles, music, genres, what you like what you don’t like. When you felt crap and like it’s not going anywhere one of the TCOI team and your class peers would have told you, that you are amazing, that it’s a process, that the dark times allow us to figure stuff out and get wiser, it’s an adventure and as long as you follow light, you can’t get it wrong. And then 12 weeks later you graduated in full bloom, with an act that was a representation of what lights you up. It had nothing to do with fixing yourself a
nd everything to do with allowing your absolute divine pleasure to shine through. You desired it, you focused on what made you feel good and then with love, curiosity and fun you manifested it! And that, my darlings is a metaphor for life.

You are a creative force and every part of your life is an expression of your power, prowess and presence. So this year connect to your desires by; counting your blessings and achievements,
getting in sync with your unique rhythm and dancing it out. Date yourself, indulge in Goddess treats. Acknowledge your glow, be really, really kind to yourself, pass it on and FEEL GOOD and allow your desires to blossom. X

Do you have any top tips for feeling fabulous? Feel free to share them with the cheekette community in the comments below x x