April 10th, 2018

​Hey! I am so excited that you found us. If you are reading this, it is no coincidence. Either you know me and/or Felisha and you are wondering what it is we are up to, OR you found us for the first time and God guided you here. I believe the Universe made our paths cross for a reason, and I am grateful for that.
 
I’m Arika Rochelle App, soon to be Arika App-Booth (I’m getting married in less than a month!) As you may have read previously, I am the Self Love piece of our biz, Self Love & Style. I have a strong calling to help women realize their self worth. To be honest, I wouldn’t be able to teach self love if I hadn’t had my own journey struggling with it. I don’t want to sound cliché when I share that I had no idea what healthy self esteem was for many years of my life, as I recognize that this is a struggle for so many of us girls and women. I grew up around abusive relationships and chaos, and I had no idea that we had a choice in these patterns in our lives. I grew up very fear based, and as a result I developed some serious anxiety. At 20 years old I found myself in an abusive relationship of my own, and I knew that this couldn’t be my life. When I found the courage to end that relationship, the rest of my life would change. I channeled healing; heart, body, mind, and soul. I worked hard for my degree and I studied research on healthy self esteem and healthy relationships. I became part of an amazing organization that allowed me to educate hundreds of others on ways that they could learn to love themselves and prevent abusive relationships in their own lives, but I knew in my heart I needed to do more.
 
As I share with most of my clients, self esteem is an on-going cycle. Some days we feel better about ourselves than others, and all of us can relate to the fact that our inner voice can just be a brat. However, Self Love is a reflection of our self-esteem. When we show ourselves love, we express to ourselves that we believe in our hearts we are worthy of love. A lot of us will show love to just about everyone else EXCEPT ourselves, and I believe this is a backwards. Don’t get me wrong, we absolutely have a duty to contribute to the ones we love and the world around us, but we also have a duty to do that for ourselves.
 
Without expressing our own self love, we will see pain in suffering in every area of our lives. We will see it in matters of our heart, as our inner voice will be cruel and we will catch ourselves abusing ourselves and letting others abuse us. We will see it in our health, as our bodies will fail us and illness will find its way in. We will see it in our minds; in the form of anxiety, depression, and numerous other disorders. We will see it in our souls, as we will feel lost, and feel a sense of lacking of belonging.
 
That’s why I am on a mission. To expand God’s love and help women to rebuild their self esteem. I am here to help women discover the magnificence of their being.
 
Let me tell you about my best friend, Felisha.
 
Felisha is literally my other half. She is my identical twin sister, and one of my favorite souls in the whole entire world. She is the fabulous 'Style' piece of SLS.  
 
Felisha is a sensitive soul like I am, but she has a different kind of fire to her. When we were little girls, she would comfort me when I was getting bullied and when I was scared, but she would always tell anyone off who tried to cross me. She stood up for me before I ever discovered my voice. She protects my heart in the same way she protects her own, and she was the first person who I felt truly showed me what it was like to be unconditionally loved.
 
Felisha loved style before I ever knew that style was a real thing. Even though we grew up in very challenging financial circumstances, Felisha would always find a way to let her inner beauty shine on the outside. She would put on a pretty blouse or dress, or her favorite ‘jellies’ back in the day, and she would show that the right clothing item can help you to hold your head high no matter what’s on your heart and mind. As we got older, she helped me to develop my own sense of style. If it wasn’t for her I would have had no clue how to even do something as simple as style my hair or wear basic make up! She loved sharing her clothes with friends and helping people feel so pretty. So it’s no surprise that she chose a career helping women to reflect their inner beauty with style to feel most confident.
 
One thing that I absolutely love about Felisha and I, is that we are not your stereotypical girls.
We love that we have unique features, and we embrace ALL parts of us.
For example- we used to get so bullied for having ‘big noses’ and this used to make us cry. For years we felt pressured to be someone we weren’t. We even tried to conform to those standards for the longest time (if you see pictures of us in our 20’s we apologize in advance!) But we knew in our hearts that our imperfections were all part of who we are meant to be. We never wanted to get surgery because deep down we loved that we weren’t the perfect norm. We knew that we were strong enough to handle such bold “flaws”. We want to help all of the little girls and grown women out there struggling with their imperfections and let them know that it is beautiful to be unique! We love our big noses, it makes us who we are, and we are proud to be our own version of beauty!
 
We are so excited to share our journeys with you.
 
Feel free to reach out to us and let us know how we can be of a support to you on YOUR unique self love and style journey.
 
With that said, I want to say a prayer for you:

God,
I ask you to be with the person who is reading this blog at this very moment. Help them to feel YOU and help them to see their inner and outer beauty. Help them to see that you have a distinct purpose for their special life. Support them in all the ways in which they need You. Help them to connect with the right people and resources at just the right times. Show them that they are loved and that they are worthy of love.
 
AMEN.
 
Sending Love and Light Your Way!

Arika Rochelle