The Knockoff Syndrome

We are paying to put on beauty, meanwhile our true beauty remains diminished.  The reason why we consider things like clear skin, shiny hair and a slender body as beautiful is because, at the most fundamental level of our innate instincts is the need to procreate with a healthy mate that will carry our DNA to the next generation.  It boils down to survival of the fittest.  

What has happened, however, in the past century is that we have learned to fake health.  The quality of our food continues to diminish and disappear and our level of activity has become a recreational option.   We treat our bodies with little respect or thought for what it actually needs to function at its optimal level yet we are still able to look completely "healthy".  It's like finding a perfect knockoff for a Coach bag - you appear to own the luxury without actually paying for it. 

And the beauty industry has tapped into it.  You wanna eat what you want, drink what you want, live as hard as you want and still look great?  Then buy our product!  A friend pointed out the clever wording that advertisers use - "Healthy Looking".  Be it skin, hair, body, name it.  But is healthy looks as healthy does?  What are we really buying when we shell out $80 for that skin cream that promises a glowing even complexion?  I submit to the court that we are buying a lie.  And even worse, most of these products are so riddled with toxins that we're harming our bodies even more by using them.   You know what gives glowing clear skin?  Hint, it didn't come from a lab but you could grow it if you wanted to. 

But who wants to eat fresh vegetables and fruits and lean meats and beans and grains, it's all so hard and confusing.  Just give me a pill and hand me my diet Coke, I got no time to figure that stuff out.  

We live in a society where we have traded in our health for the quick fix.  We've so disconnected from our bodies that we leave it to doctors, magazine articles and makeup products to carry us through life so that we don't actually have to take responsibility for the consequences of our actions.  That is until our doctor tells us we've developed cancer, or diabetes or we see our pale drawn complexion in the morning before we can paint on the facade.  

 Do we want to just look healthy or do we actually want to be healthy?  Our skin is the last thing to get nutrition.  So what is your skin telling you?  As you see yourself makeup free, start to connect with your body, with what it's telling you it needs.  Begin to see your body, not as a flawed reject from the manufacturer but as the miracle that is you.  Everything that goes on in your body in every second is a miracle.  As I sit here and type I think of all that is going on between my brain, my fingers, my cognitive and sub-concious thought.  Our bodies are a thing to be admired and celebrated, not picked apart and "fixed".  

I challenge you now to close your eyes and place your hand upon your heart.  Feel it beat as it pumps life giving blood to every inch of your body.  Feel your breath go in and out without thought.  Become aware in this moment of how many thoughts your brain can sort through in a second all while making sure everything is working as it should.  Take this moment and honour your body and with that thought look at yourself in the mirror and acknowledge the miracle you are.  

You are no knockoff - You are a miracle!

  

Do You Talk to Your Mother With That Language?!

Day 5 is a gloomy lazy day, perfect for watching a documentary.  Today's selection?

Hungry For Change

I give it 5 out of 5 for every day I've made it without makeup. 

Much like Miss Representation, Hungry For Change deals with the diet industry and the lies it feeds us (pun intended) to fund a multi-billion dollar industry. 

What's the key to losing weight?

"I accept myself unconditionally right now!"

Something I've been repeating to myself throughout this no makeup process.

And I was reminded of an assignment I created some years ago from a self deprecating conversation I was having with a friend. I was berating myself for, who knows what, my meal choice, my man choice, whatever, and she stopped me and said, with no lack of passion, "would you talk to anyone the way you talk to yourself?!".  Answer is, of course not!  Which got me thinking, what are the things I say to myself on a constant basis?

So I went home, grabbed my journal and began to create a list of all the negative things I was saying to myself at the time - I wish I had a funkier wardrobe, why can't I just lose weight, my skin is a mess, why do I still obsess over that guy?! and on it went until I had 40 things written down on my list that I held against myself.  

The assignment was simple.  Each day I would take one item from the list and address it as though I was speaking to a friend.  Why this works for me is because I give FAR greater grace and understanding to my friends when they are struggling then I give to myself.  

I'd like to say the assignment instantly turned my life around as I began to swim in a sea of self love but the truth is, the list actually took a couple of years to complete.  I'd forget about it or, more truthfully, avoid it but it always lingered in my mind and I would be reminded of it every time I'd hear a friend say, "you're so hard on yourself".  

This year I finally completed it because, more and more, I desired the same acceptance and love for myself that I bestowed on others.  The funny thing is, looking back at some of the things that were on my list I thought "Really? that made it on there?! I was actually holding that against myself?"

In the end I found, and continually find,  the grace to be me.  And as I forgive myself for all the things I'm not, I have begun to really become aware of all the things I am!  

I go back to the quote I used on my original post.  "Love is not love which alters when alteration it finds".  What this says to me is that, through the eyes of true love there is only acceptance and grace. 

 Most mothers when they look at their child see only pure beauty and wonder.  If someone were to come and suggest a few areas they could tweak, she would lunge at their throats like a lioness protecting her young - just ask my teacher friend when she suggests that a student perhaps needs some learning assistance to a parent!  The love of a parent is unconditional. 

So I accept myself unconditionally because I love me! I'm fun and I have really cool friends and I sing when punching in my pin number at Tim Hortons and I've had the opportunity to impact people's lives and I'm a hard worker and I like art and well, enough about me.

So my challenge to you, my No Makeup Maykers, as you go through this month and as you see yourself, maybe for the first time, look through the eyes of love.  Let's stop being our own worst critic and start being our own best lovers!