The Self-Care Maven – Meet Amber Janae

Do you know what I love about Sundays? Self-love Sunday’s by Amber-Janae! There are so few of us out here that provide our readers with an open window into our personal self-love journeys. AJ, does just that. She’s honest about her failures, her pain points, and struggles, but she also let’s you in on how she’s working against them, and turning these things into lessons learned. With a few books under her wing, and one more on the way, Amber-Janae is holding your hand through your own journey, by simply being real about hers. Meet Author, Amber-Janae!

Amber-Janae, its pleasure to have you on YS.com and a part of this series! Tell the YS.com clan about yourself!

It’s such a pleasure to be a part of the series and join both you and the YS.com clan. Well a little bit about myself- I am an author who currently resides in San Francisco, CA. Aside from pushing out books, I am also the founder and creative mind behind my self-help blog whoisamberjanae.com. My blog is my space where I choose to fully document my life’s journey for the sole purpose of empowering, inspiring and uplifting the world around me.

So I have to ask, would you say that your confidence level is ‘on fleek’, or is it more of a work in progress?

I am working on becoming “Fleek Mill” in the confidence area. I think everyday for me is a work in progress. Over the years my confidence has grown tremendously. I am a lot less breakable in terms of someone attempting to dim my light or diminish the woman I’ve grown to be. There are moments that come around and cause me to question who I am, but they are very brief moments. I’ve learned to master the art of redirecting the negativity which helps me to keep my confidence levels high.

I love that you’re open about your self-love journey and that you dedicate your Sunday posts to self-love. What brought you to share your journey with the blogging community?

One day I just decided to get really serious about discovering all of who I am. (Hence the name who is Amber Janae.) Just as I was curious about all of me, I thought how cool would it be to let the world in on this journey as well. I had never been openly candid about any of the things that I had endured in my life. I felt it would become a healthy way to not only be honest about my sufferings, but for me to release all of the emotional baggage that I was harboring. The intention was really for it to help me, but with time, I saw my bravery to be a refuge for others. I then devoted all of me to making sure everything that I put out into the world was not only a win for me, but a win for all of the women who discovered my blog and relied on my stories to inspire or encourage them.

How do you feel about today’s society and its progress of accepting depression?

I still feel like there has been a slight progress, but there is so much more further we have to go in terms of society accepting depression. There are still many of us who have yet to accept depression for what it truly is. I also find that society tends to be insensitive on the subject of depression. Not understanding that depression isn’t just a switch that can be turned on or off. It’s important that we learn how to properly deal with or speak to a person suffering from depression because the wrong choice of words could be further detrimental to their condition. We are still learning as a whole the importance of accepting and understanding all of what depression is, and how to effectively help those that are suffering to deal properly.

In 2014, you published “A Woman’s Quest to Self-Love? What do you hope readers take away from your personal accounts shared throughout this book?

I would want for all my readers to take hope with them. Encouragement and faith in God. It took all of me to relive the moments that I shared in “A Woman’s Quest to Self-Love.” It’s difficult to be reminded of what dark trouble spaces we were once in, but a change in perspective can help us cope with our past. That was the overall message I wanted to convey. I was very candid about my struggles, how everything negative in my life weighed me down and how my perspective helped me to better receive life’s trials and tribulations. I want my readers to have faith and understand that what we go through is all a product of God’s plan. We are only as defeated as we think we are. I want us to all stand encourages and have faith that there is life after pain. While we are all a product of our circumstances, we are not them and they are not us. We do not own any pain caused by others nor do we own self-inflicted pain. There is always room to overcome the bad to better receive all of the good that is ahead.

It’s a new year! Are there any plans for a new book?

Yes… The New Year definitely means a new book is on the horizon. I am actually in the final editing stages of my 4^th book, “The Truth Behind My Awakening.” I have so many great feelings about this next book. We are getting to the root of all that we need to in order to awaken a new level of self- emotionally, mentally and physically. I also hope to release another fiction book this year or potentially publish some fun fiction stories on the blog that are related to the message I convey throughout the blog.

What words of advice would you share with your 16-year-old self about self-esteem, self-worth, and of course, surviving these transformational years?

Love yourself. So much easier said than done of course, but my advice to my 16-year-old self would definitely be to love yourself. I would also tell my 16-year-old self to choose life. Choose to be free. Choose to not determine your worth by how others treat you or the words they choose to describe you. This life is a life of yours and in order to be strong you have to grow to ignore your critics. Forget who doesn’t accept you or love you as long as you love you and you’re committed to a growing relationship with God, you’ll be just fine.

Where can we find you (websites, social media, etc.)?

http://whoisamberjanae.com/
https://twitter.com/WhoIsAmberJanae/
https://www.facebook.com/Whoisamberjanae/
https://www.linkedin.com/in/whoisamberjanae/
https://www.instagram.com/whoisamberjanae/