The Ffave Formula

By Cindi Augustine

The Ffave Formula is a unique style creation tool and a path to body positivity. Through the Ffave system you’ll learn how to master the art of creating a personal style that tells the world who you are and how you want to be treated. Fashion is art that we wear but style is a powerful form of non-verbal communication that you should be using to your advantage. Each letter in the acronym Ffave is a step in the process to buying a wardrobe that works for you, and in choosing every day outfits that will build your confidence. Style is not about beauty, it's about representation. Make exactly the impression you want to make. Everyday. With more confidence and less frustration.
This is self-care at a higher level. This is self-respect and self-esteem. Let the FFave Formula make it easier for you. Everyday.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Cindi Augustine
• Release date: Jun 4, 2021
• ISBN: 9781005189204

Cindi Augustine

I'm a life coach specializing in image transformation and self-esteem. My vision is a world where women are free to follow their dreams unencumbered by low self-esteem, lack of confidence and body dysmorphia. My mission is to support women in their quest to let go of society-based expectations and redefine power and beauty on their own terms.

Book preview

To Thine Own Self…Be True

As someone who never has (and never will) live up to any media definition of beauty, I’ve had to learn to find my beauty in different ways. Through that, I came to recognize that unique beauty exists in every individual.

It’s no coincidence that the fashion and beauty industry chooses to idealize a physical standard that only reflects a small portion of the human population. After all, how better to ensure a large market for your products? The first rule of successful marketing is to identify something as a problem or a need, then offer the perfect solution.

If the majority of us were happy with our appearance we would not willingly throw away money to change the way we look. There’s a lot of money to be had in the tactic of first creating a desire for change and, then by offering at great cost, a strategy to help us reach that unreachable ideal. As well, the more we fail, the more desperately we seek and embrace the next strategy. We become trapped in a consumer loop fed by our insecurities, struggles, and - sometimes desperate - hope.

Getting free of that spirit-draining loop happens when we can objectively evaluate our situation, and the solution offered as well. Unscrupulous businesses aim to keep us from that objectivity, creating an everlasting mode of dissatisfaction and false expectations. Scrupulous businesses that offer real solutions to real problems are sustained by the successes of their customers, not by how long they can keep them paying for unrealistic dreams.

More and more, as I exercise my artistic eye through photography, I expand my concept of beauty. One of the first street photos I took was of a homeless man sleeping on a bench in the rain. The strength of will it must take for someone to stay alive in such appalling living conditions far outshines the un-groomed hair and grubby mismatched clothing. There is, in such strength and in such vulnerability, a stunning example of the  inner strength that reside in human beings.

That is truly what I find beautiful.

Beauty is not found in wearing a certain size or having a particular shade of hair. Beauty is not in the shape of your breasts, or whether you have six-pack abs. It’s not eye colour, skin tone or a lack of scars or wrinkles. Beauty is in how you feel about life, what you do about life, and about how you move through each precious moment that you have.

The most amazing thing about beauty is not that it resides in the eye of the beholder, as we so often blithely quote, but that it resides in the heart of the believer. When we finally recognize our own beauty, then suddenly those around us recognize it too.

Such belief is like rich soil to a plant. It nourishes and encourages continual growth and well-being. Personal beauty is a garden that we must tend and maintain. Not through hair dyes, make-up and plastic surgery but through good deeds and good attitudes, through good friends and good living…

The title of this chapter is of course, a Shakespeare quote from Hamlet…and as I begun, I’ll end…with another quote from the same play:

What a piece of work is man! how noble in reason! how infinite in faculty!

in form and moving how express and admirable!

in action how like an angel! in apprehension how like a god!

the beauty of the world, the paragon of animals! – (Act II, Scene II)

So, after all this lofty talk about the importance of beauty within, why do I even care about the external trappings of style?

Because I have experienced personally how important it is to tell the truth of our inner selves through our external representation. Because I have learned that, as a visual species, humans will always use visual cues to inform their impression of the world around them. That is how it is, that is how it has always been.

Because I know, personally, how incredible it feels when the outside is in harmony with the soul within.

Recently I attended the 50th anniversary of the school where I once worked. I knew most of my previous coworkers had no idea I’d lost 100 lbs in the 18 months since they’d seen me last. I knew they’d be surprised. I was both excited and nervous to see their reaction.

It was even more moving and emotional than I could have imagined, complete with hugs and tears, and laughter. It was worth every moment of struggle losing the weight; weight I’d carried around most of my life. After many years of watching makeovers on TV, it was gratifying to have my own personal reveal, my own moment of true transformation.

I have always been a die-hard fan of the TV show What Not To Wear. I love fashion and I adore makeovers and transformations. The fashions and hairstyles were naturally fun to see, but mostly I was captivated by how almost every recipient walked away more empowered and confident than they had been at the beginning of the show. No matter how successful or happy they thought they were when they walked onto the WNTW set, they took a journey that left them feeling better about themselves.

In 10 seasons, I recall perhaps two people who proved unprepared to embrace their transformation. In retrospect, as I watch those episodes again, it becomes obvious that these people took on the opportunity