black actress

(New Video Post) What Do You Need to Succeed? #SelfLoveSaturday

February 18, 2017 by admin

Happy Self Love Saturday,

This post is going up late because I was speaking on a panel for The Toronto Black Film Festival on “How to Make A Web Series” It was a great panel with a packed room and it gave me a good boost. Literally last night I was feeling a little doubtful and confused and today I was reminded that I’ve done a lot of work and still have more to go. I’m grateful.

Anyway today’s video goes with my thoughts for today and I ask a simple question? What Do You Need To Succeed? Once you think about it, then ask yourself if any of this stuff currently in your life? The environment? The people? Whatever it is, whatever you need, start today.

Filed Under: Uncategorized Tagged With: Andrea Lewis, black actress, coconut oil, curls, degrassi, dreams, friendships, health, juicing, jungle wild productions, los angeles

(New Video Post) Who is In Your Circle of Influence #SelfLoveSaturday

January 7, 2017 by admin

“Love in your mind produces love in your life. This is the meaning of heaven.
Fear in your mind produces fear in your life. This is the meaning of hell.”

I’m re-reading “A Return to Love” By Marianne Williamson. It is such a beautiful and eye opening book and probably the best thing I’ve done for myself this month. I’ve hit the chapter on “Relationships” and Marianne simply puts it that all of the relationships in our lives are for the purpose of teaching. We are to teach the people in our life something and they are to teach us something and all of it is strategically put together by God. Reading this gave me a big “a-ha” because I’ve been analyzing my friends a lot in the last little while and why we’re in each other’s lives, but Marianne Williamson reminded me it’s about teaching. I often forget how important the teaching process is, and both positive and not so positive experiences can teach us something that will change our lives and perspective forever. This is a necessary part of growth. Check out my video below, inspired by “A Return To Love” and the below quote for a little more #selflovesaturday inspiration.

Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us. We ask ourselves, ‘Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous?’ Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God. Your playing small does not serve the world. There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won’t feel insecure around you. We are all meant to shine, as children do. We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us. It’s not just in some of us; it’s in everyone. And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others.

Filed Under: Uncategorized Tagged With: #selflovesaturday, Andrea Lewis, black actress, coconut oil, friendships, health, juicing, los angeles, self love, self love saturday

(New Post) 5 Ways To Have The Most Productive Year Ever

January 1, 2017 by admin

Happy New Year!!

Its the first day of the year and all of the plans, the resolutions and all of the other wishes are starting today! Like many others I am very excited for a fresh start and a new chance to apply the lessons I learned from 2016 into this year and form better habits to allow me to dream bigger and reach for more. I’ve been very fortunate to naturally be a self motivated person but I realize not everyone is like this and we all could use a pick me up every now and then, myself included to set us up in the most productive way. So to kick off my 2017 I made a list of my top 5 tips that I’ve used for staying motivated and having a productive year. Read below and let me know what are you doing to ensure that 2017 is your most productive year ever?

1.Get Motivated and Break Your Bad Habits

It takes 21 days to make or break a habit and a lot of people say it’s easiest for their mentality to start a new challenge on the 1st of the month. Take advantage of this day and mark it on your calendar as the start of your challenge and then mark off your completion day. Start with identifying the habit that you want to break ie. smoking, cursing, sugar, negative thoughts or the habit that you want to gain like reading daily, meditation, positive thoughts, daily exercise. Now take the baby steps to motivate yourself daily by starting everyday with a list of the tasks for the day and highlight the challenge on your list. Highlighting it is making it a priority for your day. I’m currently doing the 21 day detox again and on my daily task list I have the detox highlighted with a note to do a food journal through my day. Making the food journal one of my priorities helps keep me on task for my goal and learn healthy eating habits.

2.Meditation and Daily Affirmations

“I am _____” Look at yourself in the mirror and say 10 positive things about yourself and your life daily. This practice is proven to act as a confidence booster and personal motivator. Putting positive intention on your life aligns your thoughts with your daily work. Using daily affirmations and adding in meditation are the perfect way to keep you zen all year. I love meditation because I think it’s like having a very relaxing conversation with God. No words, just deep breathing and clearing your mind of stress, worry and daily distractions. The practice of meditation can be difficult to start, but if you focus on short periods of time, 5-10 minutes to begin it makes it a lot easier to build your practice up. Find a quiet space, close your eyes, relax your body (I prefer to be sitting, that way I don’t fall asleep lol) and focus solely on your breathing. I’ve also added in using meditation music to help keep my mind focused and the music is a big help in making me relaxed.

3.Get Creative

Get a notebook and write down 5 creative ideas that you’d like to do this year. Coming up with creative ideas is a great thing to aim for and look forward to in your year and can be equally as motivating and exciting as booking a vacation! So have some fun, dare and dream and ask yourself “what do you want to do?”

4.Plan Ahead

It’s time to make your plan for the next few months. Get a big white board, or a note book, or just a plain piece of paper, anything that you can keep in front of you daily. Take those creative ideas that you wrote down in the step above, and now it’s time to realistically write down a plan for them with a deadline for starting and completing. Plan out for the next 4 months, take the time to daydream about what your ideal work load looks like? Are you working like crazy from now till March because in April you’re taking a spring break? Or is the last Saturday of every month the deadline for a new chapter in the book your writing? All that matters is you write the plan down in a simple way and you have it somewhere in your room or home that allows you to see it everyday. Seeing it daily will act as a reminder and is the most helpful way for you to actually complete your goals.

5. An Accountability Partner

My mom always says “one hand washes the other” so ask for help from the people around you. We can’t do everything by ourself, and our friends shouldn’t just be in our life to look cute, so don’t be afraid or too prideful to ask them for help with your ideas and to hold you accountable. Ask a friend to remind you about your deadlines or even be a nag about completion dates. Send them a screen shot of your calendar and in the nicest way possible ask them to remind you about the important things and do the same for them.

I hope these tips will help, wishing you guys nothing but productivity and success in 2017!

Filed Under: Uncategorized Tagged With: Andrea Lewis, black actress, coconut oil, degrassi, friendships, gratitude, how to, how to be motivated, how to be productive, how to have a productive year, most productive year ever, motivation, productivity, self help, self love, tips

(New Video Post) Stop Sabotaging & Find Your Purpose #SelfLoveSaturday – Last Post of 2016

December 31, 2016 by admin

The video above and message below is for anyone who has spent this year and all the other years sabotaging themselves out of their purpose. Stop doing it, find your peace, believe in yourself, let go of your bad habits and step into your light.

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2016 was a weird year for me, I’ve said this a bunch of times on this blog, but once again, it was really weird! Kinda felt like Mercury was in retrograde the whole year lol. So I’m going into 2017 positive, ready and realistic. I’m not setting goals for the whole year like I usually do, or making any grandiose promises of how “2017 is going to be MY year and last year was just a warm up” blah blah. Instead I’m just setting up my goals month to month which is what I usually do, and it helps me to stay on task.

I learned a lot of important lessons this year about myself, one being that I have a lot of ideas, but in order for me to accomplish them I have to plan them out in the most realistic way possible. Write them down, give them a deadline and I will complete it. That was a positive discovery.

The 2nd being that I have a pattern of doing self sabotaging behavior, both consciously and unconsciously and this is something that I have to actively work on and unlearn. I sabotaged myself all year in ways that I have already done in the past (gaining weight, cutting off my hair, falling into a depression and relying on other people to fix it) so realizing that I was on a loop was equally shocking and annoying for me. This was also a positive discovery because once you realize where the problems are in your life, the only thing left to do is fix it.

I am very confident in the fix and in the conscious changes that I’ll be making to my life for 2017 and on ward. I’m not ashamed to say I’m not perfect and some of my issues and mistakes are solely brought on my own choices, but life is about growth and becoming your best self for the time and place. I’m going to continue to figure it out, in the best way that I can and I am going to unlearn as much as I can. There’s a quote that I read this week that basically said, Hell is meeting the person you could’ve became. I would hate to get to the end of my days and I realize I held myself back from being all that I could be.

2016 was the year of shining a spotlight on my dark spots which now in hindsight I’m realizing it was exactly what I needed because in 2015 I felt like my self love journey was in a rut and was lacking inspiration, but God said “hold up little girl! You still have work to do!” LOL.

So here’s to hoping that in 2017 I surprise myself!

Thank you all for your continued support, have an amazing New Year’s Eve and a fantastic first day of 2017!

Filed Under: Uncategorized Tagged With: Andrea Lewis, black actress, coconut oil, curls, Depression, dreams, gratitude, issa rae, self love

(New Video Post) Stepping into Your Light

December 30, 2016 by admin

I created my youtube channel trailer this week and in doing it, I realized I’ve done a lot. Not to toot my own horn but I’ve been pursuing this thing for awhile and in creating my channel trailer it kind of felt more like I was creating a demo reel on my life’s work lol. It was an interesting experience on deciding what to put in, and how I wanted it to come across and just who and what is “Andrea Lewis Channel”. In the end I was proud looking back at it, thinking about where I started my career and then why I started this youtube channel and if my initial goals met my current ones.

My mission and my goals for my career are still the same as they’ve always been since I was a little girl but in reflecting on my career and my life as an artist I had a sad realization that I’d yet to truly step into my light. I looked back on my work and realized that I had a lot of moments that I could’ve done more. And this is not one of those “we’re our own worst critic” moments, this is real honesty, that I am actually capable of being, doing, acting, giving, living, having, believing, dreaming and did I say BEING more!

When I look back, there is always a moment that I can reflect on where I wasn’t giving my all, I wasn’t truly giving myself a fair shot at winning. The slightest and simplest self sabotage in the most irresponsible of ways. Not always consciously but most of the time just simply being lazy. As I’m writing this, I’m actually having an “ah-ha” moment of just trying to think why? The word safe immediately comes to mind. Maybe I found safety and comfort in holding myself back just enough? Like as if I’ve been willing to take just a little bit of risk, just a small leap of faith lol. But the full thing? The real pressure on myself to go 150% though? To be in the best shape of life? To work on my craft and my skills so feverishly that I could never doubt them? To think about my looks strategically and to be vain for just a moment so that it would benefit me? To finally find my light and actually stand in it? I haven’t done that, I know that I’ve just been comfortable and doing just enough.

One of my best friends, boyfriend always accuses her of only going 30% “She hasn’t tapped into her real potential yet, she’s not really trying yet.” Whenever he says it, I feel like he’s talking to me and not my friend. But birds of a feather stick together right? And he’s right my friend is only operating on her lowest setting, but her and I had a real conversation one night about her fears about herself. Her reasoning for holding back was simply her own doubt that she could handle the pressure. Afraid she’ll disappoint and not measure up to the requirements. But you’ll never know if you don’t try right?

I’ve been fortunate to witness a lot of my friends and peers, take the challenge of stepping into and owning their light. Stepping up to the pressure and making the changes necessary to be and do what they wanted. They all found a way to own it, even if that meant they had to fight harder than they’ve ever fought before, but in the end that fight took their lives and careers to another level. And though I’ve gotten far and I’m grateful for all that I’ve learned and experienced, I’m now at a stage where my “cutting corners” and playing it safe is beginning to catch up with me and make me very frustrated and restless.

I’m sharing my honest thoughts and progress with you guys because I know that I’m not perfect, but I’m striving to be the best version of myself that I can be and that requires me to be open. I say all of this to say, if you’re anything like me, ask yourself honestly if you’ve found your light? And if you haven’t what do you need to do find it and own it?

You’ll never know if you don’t try

-Sincerely my nagging conscience.

Filed Under: Uncategorized Tagged With: acting, Andrea Lewis, black actress, coconut oil, curly hair, jungle wild productions, los angeles, love, self love

(New Blog Post) The Analysis of ‘Choice’ #SelfLoveSatuday

December 24, 2016 by admin

Happy Self Love Saturday. Today I’m talking about choices.

Lately I’ve been analyzing my choices and why I do what I do, where it stems from? What these choices say about who I am, and what I want in my life and as well what my choices are highlighting about my mistakes?

Why does “drama” and stress come into my life, And did I make a choice to invite it in? Because I really do believe that even in the negative or not so good things that happen in our lives we still had a choice in how we dealt with it and sometimes we had a choice in letting it in all together.

How many of us say, I don’t like “drama” but still have friends, people or situations regularly in our lives that invites drama or we may in directly find ourself involved?

I’m naturally very maternal and I find that along with this trait comes my need to help solve and fix the problems of others, especially if I feel like I have a lot of knowledge or understanding of the scenario. I’m also an empath,

Being an empath is when you are affected by other people’s energies, and have an innate ability to intuitively feel and perceive others. Your life is unconsciously influenced by others’ desires, wishes, thoughts, and moods. Being an empath is much more than being highly sensitive and it’s not just limited to emotions

I will easily scroll through my twitter or Facebook feed and read 2 or 3 stories, watch a couple videos and be in tears for a multitude of reasons. And my intuition is literally like a wifi signal for my friends moods and problems. I’m only realizing now that I’m like this, and in order to not feel overwhelmed with the problems of others I have to protect my energy and time because I will easily give myself to people and situations that can drain me. I’m still learning this lesson and adjusting it regularly though.

I recently experienced a situation where my time and effort were taken for granted and the best way for me to explain the way I felt was, played. I was definitely disappointed, but my intuition kept saying to me in this moment “you played yourself”. Somewhere in this situation, I let my maternal instinct get the best of me and I made the choice to give my energy and my time. I made the choice to be forthright and involved in a way that I should’ve known would naturally put me in a place of vulnerability because I would end up expecting reciprocation or face disappointment. But either way my maternal and empath ways were going to end up depleted and I didn’t need to be. I made the wrong choice. I should have made the choice to help from the sidelines instead of carrying the baggage of someone else.

But I couldn’t help but ask myself why I made this choice? Why did I set myself up for disappointment? Did I not listen to my intuition or did my ego think I was capable of fixing something that was meant to be a lesson for someone else? I’m still not sure to be honest but all I know is somewhere I made a choice and the choice has made me analyze a simple and subtle problem that I think could’ve been avoided. I don’t like stress and drama but I walked right into it, I opened the door wide open and invited it in, so being annoyed in the end is no ones fault but my own.

But the loop hole that I missed has made me think, and think and THINK about what my choices say about me and how do they help me to move ahead in life? Do I make positive choices for myself? Am I self sabotaging even within a good intention because I am ignoring clear signs of “drama”? Sometimes self sabotage is not as obvious to us as we think it is, and one simple choice can lead you down a wrong path.

There’s nothing wrong with helping your friends, and there’s nothing wrong with being empathetic but taking on baggage, or parenting grown ups, these are choices that can lead to problems. And even within a good intention you can be making the wrong choice. A good intention should help both me and you in the end and that’s not being selfish, that’s just being smart.

I sincerely hope to learn and have a better understanding of my choices in 2017 and to leave the unintentional drama and stress behind.

Have analyzed your choices? How have your choices affected you? Let me know in the comments below and have a wonderful Self Love Saturday & Christmas Eve! xo

Filed Under: Featured, Uncategorized Tagged With: actors, Andrea Lewis, black actress, Choice, choices, curly hair, degrassi, health, jungle wild productions, los angeles, self love, self love saturday, TV

(New Written Post) 2016, Discomfort, Patience & Faith

December 10, 2016 by admin

I broke my camera. I honestly feel lost not being able to use it everyday, edit and post a video. I hate missing a #SelfLoveSaturday so today I’ll be writing instead.

I’m in between apartments right now so my life feels a little more chaotic than usual, and even though I think I’m doing a pretty good job of riding the wave I can’t wait for just a bit of calm and to be settled. I think Mercury is in retrograde though so the uneasy feeling I have doesn’t surprise me. I have a mix of emotions going on that I need to settle but i’m not exactly sure how, which is why this post is going to seem like a big vent session. For the Leos:

Mercury enters Capricorn, one of the hardest working signs in the zodiac, on December 2. Mercury in earthy Capricorn will stimulate the sector of your chart that rules your day job and your responsibilities, as well as your health and habits. Expect to do a lot of talking about these issues this month! But don’t expect everything to move full speed ahead: Mercury retrograde begins on December 19.

I have a friend that I love dearly but there’s a few things that are annoying and concerning me that have come up in the last little while and truthfully my guard is up. I have a love/hate relationship with my own guard because 1. I hate the uneasy feeling & 2. It takes a while for it to go back down.

I know that my intuition is sharp and I don’t gain these feelings for no reason, but I haven’t figured out yet how to deal with the emotions & energy in a positive way. In a way that helps me to understand myself, my boundaries and my friends. In the last 5 years of my life I’ve had a few changed friendships because of this feeling but I’ve yet to come to terms with it. I still blame myself for the discomfort and loss of friendship, I question if I’m just a bitch or too sensitive. And I get frustrated that I haven’t learned how to channel and express these emotions in a clear and positive way.

I want to, I need to.

I’m ready for 2016 to be done with, it was a rocky year for me. I made a lot of upward progress in 2015 and then ’16 came and said “lets walk through this Quick Sand instead.” I fell into a depression again, I gained, lost and gained weight. I’ve struggled all year with what I’m supposed to be eating, if i’m not on a detox, then I regularly wake up with an upset stomach. Literally as I type this right now i’m in discomfort. I lost my relationship with my boyfriend (though I’m in a better place with it now) and I had a good chunk of the year where I had no clue what I was/should/need/want to do. And i’ll be honest I’m only holding on by a thread to the few confirmations that I’ve had in this later portion of the year. And that’s probably the most interesting part of it all — normally in my business as soon as Thanksgiving approaches things slow down a lot, but right now for me, its actually picked up. I’ve been filming for my production company like crazy, and its great! Its rewarding and exciting! I’m doing my best to have a different new year, a different outlook and experience and I actually think the work is going to pay off.

Like I said 2016 was not my favorite year of life but through it all I’m still optimistic for next year. I think a lot of good is going to happen so i’m anxious and ready for it to start. I’m going to try to figure out how to deal with my discomforts in a positive way that serves myself and those around me. And i’m going to continue to apply patience and faith to myself, and my years. Patience while in a struggle and faith that in the end it will all be okay.

Filed Under: Featured, Uncategorized Tagged With: Andrea Lewis, black actress, curly hair, degrassi, Depression, dreams, fitness, happy, health, jungle wild productions, love, self love, self love saturday

(New Video Post) Gloing Up? What Now? #SelfLoveSaturday

December 3, 2016 by admin

Happy Self Love Saturday!!!

So we’re in phase one of the “Glo Up” what do we do now? This is when we plan, strategize and then execute. We know we want better for ourselves and to change and now the only thing to focus on is how? How, why and what do we need to do? I love strategy, it gives me energy to come up with a new plan and I’m truly excited when I begin to execute it. The last 2 weeks have been spent, dreaming, analyzing and planning for my future and accepting my present state. I feel hopeful, grateful and a lot more energized.

Take this weekend to make a plan for yourself, check out my video below and let me know how your beginning is going!

Filed Under: Featured Post 3 Tagged With: Andrea Lewis, black actress, coconut oil, curly hair, fitness, friendships, gratitude, hair, happy, health, juicing, LA, los angeles, love, self love, self love saturday

(New Post) A Quick & Beautiful Stay @GodfreyHotel #SoloTravel #Chicago

November 28, 2016 by admin

A few weeks ago I had the pleasure of taking my first solo weekend getaway to Chicago and staying at The Godfrey Hotel and I had an amazing time!

Chicago reminded me of my home town, Toronto it had a small-big city energy and my uber driver told me people refer to it as “A cleaner NY” which is the same thing that people say about Toronto. Chicago is a beautiful city, full of friendly people and it really was as clean as an average Canadian city lol.

I stayed at The Godfrey Hotel in downtown Chicago and the staff treated me amazingly! Big shout out to Molly and Joey for being so gracious! My room was huuuuuggggge, with a simple but elegant decor, 2 big screen TV’s and an amazing view of the city. This was my first time having a solo getaway, I was in Chicago for my #BlackActressEvent but normally my work trips are a day in and out of a city but this time I wanted to treat myself and have a chance to be in a new city and have a bit of quiet time. The Godfrey Hotel has an amazing italian restaurant located in the lobby called, “Dolce” and italian food being one of my favs naturally I had to go and they had my favorite fish, Branzino, on the dinner menu and they did not disappoint. I did a couple vlogs (watch HERE & HERE) while I was there, a lot of meditation and put into action the practice of gratitude in the present moment. I felt very happy and at peace focusing on the present and loved every moment of my trip. Thank you again to the friendly staff at The Godfrey, Molly and Joey, The Creative Cypher and everyone who made my trip to Chicago so much fun.

Filed Under: Uncategorized Tagged With: Andrea Lewis, black actress, chicago, degrassi, dolce, italian, self love, the godfrey hotel, vlogs

(New Video Post) 21 Day Detox Complete! [Vlog] #SelfLoveSaturday

November 19, 2016 by admin

Happy Self Love Saturday!!!

I did it! Woop! Woop! Completed the 21 Day Detox and look and feel great! Like seriously, so much more energy, focus and positivity was brought into my life over the last 21 days. My next challenge is a 5 day raw challenge, I’ll only be eating raw vegetables and fruits and nuts, seeds, juices and smoothies. Writing it out, it sounds pretty extreme lol but it’s only for 5 days and I really want to cleanse my system in every way possible so I’m excited for the challenge. For those of you who are doing the 21 day challenge with me, keep going! And if you’re thinking about starting it, I strongly encourage you to! You can find all the rules HERE

To follow my 21 day Detox Vlogs, click the links below

Day 11

Day 13