Sometimes we are our own worse critic. We say things to ourselves that no one would say to us unless they were trying to start a fight. We criticize our success at work, our weight, our ability to find love, and much harsher than our most critical friend could ever do.

When you feel insecure and unsuccessful, you must not dwell in these feelings. Instead you must flip the script: concentrate on who you want — and can — be!

Declare that you are successful, loveable and in shape, even if you feel you are not. Don’t just think these things as a passing thought: let it be your mantra. Whatever area you feel you are weak in, declare it as your strength instead.

Everytime someone calls your name or you take a sip of water, declare you are successful, beautiful, loveable — and any other words you need to empower the new you — even if you don’t feel it (it’s like the old saying goes: sometimes you have to fake it until you make it).

Remembered you are capable to be whatever you want to be. Concentrate on what you can be and own it!

I know you’re saying to yourself, “Inspiration Gal, why would I do that? It’s not true, and it won’t change anything.”

My dear Divas-in-turmoil. It’s not true — yet! Once you declare something positive, and start to be believe it’s true, the ways you can get there will start to unveil themselves to you. Seek out these moments, follow their paths, and your life will start to change for the better!

To Being the Best You Yet!
Inspiration Gal

photo credit: thepathtraveler/FDP.net

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Do you have any bad habits that you would like to change? I am sure we all have some habit we would like to change. This month, I want you to focus on changing or reversing a bad (or not so good) habit.

Of course, that is easier said than done. If it was easy to change a bad habit no one would smoke cigarettes and no one would overeat! Well, Inspiration Gal would not ask you to do something and not give you a few tips to make it happen!

1. Visualize it. I love free anything, free food especially. If a co-worker has brought in some food to share, I’m all about enjoying it. I don’t know about your co-workers, but mine bring cookies, bagels, cakes, fatty casseroles and cupcakes to work. Delicious but not always nutritious, and healthy eating means healthy life! Every night before I go to bed I visualize myself eating healthy food during the day. I see myself walking past the cakes and cookies and having a healthy snack instead!

2. Create some consistency. I used to always misplace my keys. I would think, “I need to keep better track of my keys,” but never realized how. Then it dawned on me: if I put them in the same place every day, I would always know where they were! Now I hang them on a hook near the door and have developed a habit of hanging my keys up as opposed to losing them all the time.

3. Put your money where your mouth is. So you want to get in shape and every new year it’s your resolution. You join a gym, go for a few weeks in January, and then stop going by February 15. It’s time to up the ant: hire a personal trainer! Can’t keep your house clean? Hire a housekeeper. If money is an issue, “hire” a friend or relative to keep you on track. Tell your best friend that if you miss a day at the gym you have to give her $10. If your friend likes money–and who doesn’t!–they will help you keep that promise.

4. Reward yourself and celebrate milestones. If you are trying to stop smoking, reward yourself with a massage after a week of not smoking, or visit your favorite ice cream place. If you are trying to lose weight, reward yourself by buying a new outfit every time you lose ten pounds, or by having a small, healthy treat.

5. Allow yourself to falter. Changing or eliminating a bad habit is not easy. You will get uncomfortable and it will be hard. It takes time and patience, and you may fall off the wagon a time or two. Accept that you got off course and get back on course. Don’t beat yourself up.

The truth of bad habits is that they are easy to develop, but hard to live by. And the inverse is true: good habits are hard to develop, but easy to live with! Remember that saying and the tips above and start breaking those bad habits!

photo credit: Iamnee/FDP.net

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Tanay, who began talking to her father, Michael’s older brother Tito, when she was in her teens, is following in the family business. Not only has she rerecorded the classic ’80s hit “Naughty Girls (Need Love Too!),” she’s working on a new single, “In the Spotlight” (seems like an appropriate title!)

Watch below as Image Gal Samantha von Sperling gets the exclusive scoop on Tanay’s career and her NY Fashion Week adventures!

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Humans are selfish by nature. When we’re born it’s all about us — our tiny little brains aren’t formed enough to be caring. All we know is that sometimes we are hungry, sometimes our bottoms are wet and sometimes we are too cold or too hot. When any of these things occur, we cry and someone (and we really don’t care who) fixes them. As an infant that’s just how it is. But as you got older, did you leave that infant mentality behind, or are you still wanting people to fulfill your needs without giving something back?

If you’re still trapped in that infant mentality you need to break away. And if you see the world only in terms of how it can help you, you aren’t really living. One of the greatest joys in life is helping someone else. The smallest favor can change someone’s day — or maybe even his or her life. And the best thing about favors is the return on them is usually 110 percent!

You can bring a co-worker a cup of coffee or a candy bar that cost you a dollar, but the return on it can be astronomical. You can send a $3 greeting card to a friend who is having a rough time and give them the motivation to keep on persevering. Why not help out a total stranger? At a Starbucks drive-through window, a woman paid for her coffee and gave the cashier an extra $5 to pay for the coffee of the car behind her. She didn’t know the person behind her but she made his day. And guess what he did? He paid for the coffee of the person behind him, and the person behind him did the same thing. This went on for two hours. What a great way to start the morning; pulling up to the drive through and getting a free cup of coffee! Apparently it made those people feel so good that they wanted to pay it forward for two hours!

My challenge to you this month is to break away from your infant mentality and fulfill the needs of others instead of your own. Pick a person to be good to everyday. It doesn’t have to cost you a cent. It can be as simple as giving a stranger a compliment or offering to pump gas for the elderly person in front of you at the gas station. My favorite is volunteering to babysit so a friend can spend a night out with her husband. Even putting your shopping cart back at Wal-Mart to help the pimple faced cart boy counts. It might be a little thing to you, but it could mean the world to someone else.

To paraphrase John F. Kennedy: Ask not what someone can do for you but what you can do for someone else.

Inspiration Gal

photo credit: adamr/ FDP.net

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Enter our NY Fashion Week Swag Gift Bag giveaway and take home some Fashion Week of your own!

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The not-for-profit organization founded by legendary songwriter and producer, Nile Rodgers, honored American Idol alum Adam Lambert with the Unity Award at its annual Celebration Gala inside Manhattan Center’s Hammerstein Ballroom in New York City. Actress Rosie Perez and on-air journalist Touré co-hosted the festivities, which welcomed the likes of Ramona Singer, Aviva Drescher and Taylor Dane!

Check out our Divalicious exclusive interviews from the carpet!

photo credit: © Shahar Azran

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The beginning of Fashion Week at Demeter custom fragrance event at the Duane Reade Look Boutique.

I’ve always wanted to hold an Oscar, from Oscar Roadtrip at Distrikt Hotel.

Backstage in the chaos at W Hotel Union Square with Bobbi Brown Cosmetics, Prive and KISS Nails.

Cool nails by KISS for NY Fashion Week!

With designer Mathieu Mirano at his show at Lincoln Center.

With Conair Style360 host Rocco at Tumbler and Tipsy by Michael Kuluva show.

At Vantan Tokyo at the Stage at Lincoln Center.

The NOLCHA  clothes!

At Yotel for NOLCHA Fashion Week Closing Party with liquor rep and friend Steve Shaw Jr. in a private booth sponsored by Iceberg Vodka!

I sent my mom a Papyrus card from Lincoln Center to tell her I wish she could have been with me at the shows!

Until next season!
Image Gal

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Have you ever felt like you made a bad decision? It could be something simple, like deciding to buy cherries. The other day I had a craving for cherries, and they were on sale at the grocery store. It’s February and I know cherries are not in season, but they were a good price and they looked delicious through the plastic bag. Once I got them home, I realized they were in bad shape. They had pock marks on them and were not sweet.

My first reaction was why did I buy these cherries knowing they were not in season. I felt it was a bad decision and I found myself getting upset.

When I find myself lamenting over bad choices, I realize there are two ways I can look at the situation. The easy way is to say, “That was so stupid; I knew I should not have bought them! Now I’m out $7 (for FRUIT), and the one I ate will probably give me dysentery! That’s what I get for trying to be healthy!” You focus on the “bad” decision, and if you are not careful, you can start rationalizing every decision in your life as “bad.”

I want to share something very powerful with you. If you heart is in the right place, you cannot make a bad decision. When you question your decisions, I want you to first analyze your heart and your motive. Was my heart in the right place when I bought those cherries? Did I have any malintent with the cherries? Well I certainly was not going to buy the cherries to poison anyone, so my heart was in the right place!

Great, my heart was in the right place, but it still seemed like a bad decision since they were basically inedible. At that point, you have to think about all the reasons buying these cherries were the right decision. You may have to get creative, but think of it as a fun game. Here is an example:

While buying cherries…

1. I saw that next to the cherries, some apples were on sale. I bought some and they were delicious. I would have never experienced the joy of the apples if they were not next to the cherries.

2. I saw an old lady who looked like my grandmother who passed years ago. Seeing her face made me smile.

3. Taking time to buy those cherries and apples, I avoided traffic on the thruway.

4. I realized the color of the cherries was the exact the color I want to paint my living room.

5. There was man picking out cherries next to me and he looked sad. I smiled at him and he smiled back. Maybe that was the pick me up he needed to help him get through his day.

6. I learned something new. Don’t just rely on what you see through the plastic bag. Examine the cherries individually before you buy them … or go to the Farmers Market.

Have fun with it. Let you imagination run wild with the good reasons you did something instead of all of the bad. Train your mind to see the good in everything and everything in your life will be good!

Inspiration Gal

photo credit: Victor Haddack/FDP.net

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When I have a lot of back-to-back days in full hair and make up, sometimes my skin can start to act a little out of control. A facial can help, but it simply is not going to reset my skin the way a peel does. Dr. Parikh is a fantastic dermatologist who understands the problems of hyperpigmentation that can be especially challenging to darker skin tones with unruly complexions. He is also the hippest, kindest and most positive person anyone would want to meet. He’s so full of brilliance and warmth that you could just eat him up with a spoon!

I always walk out of there glowing and looking slightly windblown. It’s whether we agree to set the peel to gentle or “deep fry please!” that determines whether I’ll gently flake for a few days or start to peel like a snake. This time, I suggest the deep fry followed by a mellow weekend of catching up with laundry, cleaning, reading and social networking so my skin had time to catch up with its imminent rosy glow.

The result? Glowing clear skin that is brighter, firmer, smoother and more uniform (the two days of rest and putting ones’ life in order also does some good!).

When a dermatologist tells me there is a product on the market that they like, I listen and promptly purchase it! In this case it’s M2 Mandelic Malic High Potency Skin Refinish. It claims to do everything. It’s so potent that you cannot use it for one week after a peel. I can’t wait — I’ll keep you all posted!

Tribeca Skin Center, 315 Church St., NYC, (212) 334-3774.

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