How Do You Greet Yourself in the Morning

Day 10! You'd think I'd make it to work on time with all the extra time I gain not doing my makeup!

So I came across this video today and I thought to myself...

When you wake up and look at yourself in the mirror, do you greet yourself like

THIS ?

Or

THIS?

Which will you choose when you wake up tomorrow?

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!

  

The Beauty of Gratitude

Tonight I took my makeupless face to a club to hear my friends band, 8 Bit Dynasty.

 Little plug, download their EP from Itunes for only $2.99!

8 Bit Dynasty

I've known this gifted group of musicians for years, some of them for over a decade.  I met them as students at the college where I once worked as liaison for the music program.  Most of them, at some point, sat in my office and shared their lives, their hopes, their struggles, their dreams and their jokes with me.  Some I worked closely with, toured with, some I watched develop at a distance.  And there they all were together on stage sounding amazing and my heart was filled with gratitude.

Gratitude for the opportunity I've had to be in their lives.  Gratitude for the smiles they greet me with when I show up.  Gratitude for knowing glances when inside jokes are made.  Gratitude for all the laughter I've shared with each of them.  Gratitude for allowing me to be me and gratitude for the music they have brought into this world.

What does this have to do with No Makeup May?  Absolutely everything!  For tonight they were the mirror through which I saw myself.  Tonight I saw myself as the person who inspired them, who they admired, the person they want to share their funny stories with, to make me laugh, the person to be a witness to their greatness.  I am the person who is beautiful without makeup, I am a musician, an artist, a friend.  

I have said that I wish I could see myself as others see me because then I might see myself more truly.  My eyes dart too quickly to the rolls on my sides, the circles under my eyes or the 

dimples in my thighs (huh, that rhymed).  But these people, my friends, see me and I'm pretty confident they think I'm pretty swell.  And perhaps if I spend less time obsessing about every little physical flaw and more time on the love of my friends and the love I can give back to them, then maybe, just maybe, I will begin to see what they see when they look at me.  

Day Six - Welcome Back Sun!

It's a beautiful Sunday day.  After hiding from us for the past week the sun is out again so I am out to enjoy it!

So I will leave you with an interesting article by Dan Pearce from his very interesting site "Single Dad Laughing"

Please enjoy, reflect, discuss.

Worthless Women and Men Who Make Them by Dan Pearce

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!

Day 4 - Shut The Front Door!

Woke up this morning really wishing I didn't have to go into work.  Little insecurity hangover if you will.  All part of the process!  

But it's Friday!!! So I've decided to have a little fun and create a top ten list of things to do with the time you have left over from not doing your makeup!

1.  Top of my list - hit snooze ___ times 

(dependent on how much time you gain without doing your makeup.

2.  Read a book - also dependent on how much time you normally spend on your makeup

3.  Play a round of Draw Something

4.  Sleep In

5.  Write an email or text a beautiful woman you know and tell her why she's beautiful!

6. Take those extra minutes in the shower and do some belly button maintenance. 

7. Sleep longer

8.  Pet an animal - it lowers blood pressure which you might need depending on how you feel about not wearing makeup.  

9.  Write down a list of 10 things that are awesome about you!

10.  Did I mention you can sleep in longer?

Happy Weekend!  

Can't wait to sleep in!

Day 3 - Shouldn't this be Getting Easier?!

I just cannot write this post tonight!  I have been wading in the pool of insecurity and I don't want anyone to see me in my bathing suit ofshame. 

Shame that I succumbed to all that I am trying to change - the notion that a woman is only valuable if she looks good.

This is not supposed to get harder!  But when I was reminded that my company had planned a big social event for the office today, suddenly I found myself trying to weasel out of going.  "I've been really busy, I just need a night at home" I told myself but I knew deep inside that there was no way I wanted to be in a social setting with my "fresh" face.  Because today my face felt less "fresh" and more seriously lacking in makeup.  But a coworker challenged me saying that this is what it's all about.  Easy for her to say, she "forgot" about NMM and put makeup on this morning!

I mean, I think I'm pretty cool.  I'm smart, super funny, inspiring, creative and I can belt out a broadway tune like nobody's business.  But tonight all I could think was "why did I start this stupid thing?!  Somebody please give me some makeup!".  Now I didn't completely fail.  I still managed to put myself out there.  I engaged in some great conversations, cracked some jokes, yet all the while I kept hearing the sound track of inadequacy playing softly in the background.  Tonight the only thing that mattered was what I thought everyone else might be thinking of me.  

And yet, having just written that I'm reminded of something I have heard at various points in my life in various forms.  I've selected David Foster Wallace's take on it -

"You will become way less concerned with what other people think of you when you realize how seldom they do"

How egotistical can you get, really?  Thinking that someone is spending every moment thinking about me.  Truth is, most people are just thinking of the next thing that's coming out of their mouth and if i just shut off my own inner monologue and listen to what they have to say I just might find out that there are far more interesting things to listen to then the old worn out lie of a story that plays in my head. 

Like the story of a guy who was working on his own out in the field and got his pinky caught in some equipment and when he realized that he was on his own and no help would be coming he decided to "free" himself from said pinky using a friggin' credit card!!!!  Now that's something worth hearing about and is definitely another article in the making....but not for this blog :)