Laughter and Happiness

 

There are these mornings where I find myself laughing at myself on the way to class because I'm so damn funny (well, I think I am). I laugh at all my simple bloopers, the embarrassing and ridiculous things I say and do, and more importantly I laugh at how awesome life can be! There has never been a point in my life where I have felt more empowered and happy. And the best part about it all is that its up to me to feel that way, I decide how to be the best me. So here's to laughter!!!  

My best friend sent me this today. Priceless. :)

Everyone needs a cheerleader

After confessing that I was exhausted and had a few blemishes that were coming through (not to mention I was asked if I was hungover today, and I'm not), I received this beauty of a message.... 

"You know what I see? I see a very kind hearted person. I see an amazing friend who is powerful. I see someone who cares and who is beautiful for every reason she thinks she isn't. And most importantly, I see someone who is real. :) chin up, buttercup. Your life is beautiful."

My day significantly improved, needless to say. 

Day 9

Day 9 required a Mentors360 dinner.

I think we all cringed when we put on our business outfits and walked out of the house without so much as lip gloss on; however, there's something powerful about going to a leadership dinner where lipstick & heels are practically required, and we're bare-faced & happy.

It begs the question... which leaves the greatest impression: the person or the make up?

These two are joining me in the journey. 

Jordyn Coon (guest blogger) and Ashley Grucza -- both doing the 30 day challenge and defying everything we ever thought about being strong, professional women.

Four Letter Words

I had the worst day yesterday. One of those days where you'd be lucky if you had just woken up on the wrong side of the bed. And even the struggle bus is late picking you up. And then one person (or three) says the kiss of death: "You look tired." 

And I played into it. 

I put in my headphones, walked in the rain, and listened to "Bad Day" by Daniel Powter.
**cue dramatic movie scene**

I would have owned up to it: my mood was affecting exactly how I saw myself. At one point, I looked in the mirror and noticed the bags under my eyes, the flushed look I was sporting, and the veins that just kept getting darker, and the only word that came to my mind was "ugly." 

Ugly -- the same burning word I would use to describe snakes, rainy days, mean personalities, and horrific football blow-outs -- and I was using it to describe me? Ugly is a word I would never even use to describe another person, so in what universe was it ever okay to say to myself?? Goodness gracious, I should have had someone slap me on the spot. 

Unfortunately, my day yesterday was not that uncommon amongst, well, anyone. We're all guilty of unforgiving thoughts. And I wish I had the answers on how to not ever feel that way, or to combat it when you do. I don't. I am still figuring it out.

But I also feel like that's exactly why I'm doing this challenge. These 30 days aren't just beautiful moments strung together like The Sound of Music -- there are very real days and very real moments. 

The only lesson I can glean from yesterday's experience is that I need to start implementing a version of the Golden Rule: "Do unto myself as I would do unto others."

Day 9 and the day is looking promising. :)

Enough For Me

When Bri invited me to be a part of this 30-day challenge, I have to admit (with chagrin) that my thought process was something along the lines of "This means I can not put on makeup each morning and have a noble sounding excuse for my laziness." I didn't expect it to actually teach me anything. I was wrong. I consider myself to be confident, to be secure in my looks, and most everything else about myself. I have taken enough late night, post-shower trips to froyo, or gone to class without make up (because of the previously mentioned laziness) enough times that I figured a month without makeup would be easy. Again, I was wrong. Because when you go an entire month (so far, one week) without wearing it, you realize what occasions cause you to reach for your mascara and eye shadow. 

One morning last week I woke up knowing I would be meeting a male friend for coffee that day. I was tempted to break my commitment and put on my makeup. The insecure part of me said that he wouldn't think I was pretty enough without it. I reminded myself that I had made a commitment and needed to stick to it, but I wasn't pleased. And then I thought "If he doesn't like my face: my God-given, non-artificially enhanced face, then I don't like him." (Which is a bit childish since this means I'm deciding for myself that he doesn't like my face, when I don't actually know the answer to this question. I think we, as women, often do this). This made me realize that I do have insecurities that I thought I didn't. 

There is a deeper issue that  just wanting to cover up our flaws with makeup. We (at least I do) often put on makeup thinking that if we can just make our faces look "better" that everything else will seem better too. Or maybe everything else won't be noticed because our faces are distracting. There is a nagging feeling in many of our gut that says "I'm not smart enough"..."I'm not funny enough"..."I'm not skinny enough"..."I'm. Not. Enough". And this is a part of ourselves that we need to tell to shut up. Because, who are we saying that we're not enough for? Who are we letting be the standard of what IS enough? And why are we letting those people, those thoughts, make us feel insecure? At the end of the day, we need to be enough for ourselves. 

So, the next time I wake up wanting to put on makeup so that a guy thinks I'm pretty enough, I'm going to look in the mirror and say "I think I'm pretty and that's what matters. I am enough for me" 

Barefaced and Beautiful

When did it start happening for you?

I remember when I was 6 and told my mom that I thought I was fat.
Thanks to my mom, who is one of the most real women I know, that was the first real memory I have of learning about self-worth.

Then I think I was around the age of 10 the first time I begged my mom to let me wear make up. I watched my sisters get ready in the morning and wanted nothing more than to be as beautiful as they were. Oh boy, I would coat the glittery lip gloss and double-layer the shimmer on my eyes every chance I could get. 

I just wasn't pretty enough -- yet -- but with that make up, I could feel bold and beautiful and worthy. 

How wrong is that? 

I watched this video today and was hooked (and horrified) within the first ten seconds. Even if you aren't participating in the Audrey Hepburn thirty-day challenge, take one day this week and participate in the Barefaced and Beautiful campaign. Remind yourself what the lip gloss and shimmer will always be missing out on -- authentic and real beauty.

Not every morning is easy....

Waking up this morning was near impossible....especially after yesterday's 8 mile run, mountain of homework, and fighting possible gluten intolerance. But, somehow after hearing that my roommate was awake (she never beats me out of bed), I peeled my down-comforter off and headed for the shower. I missed my first class -- definitely not sad about that (stats is not my friend.) Even after the rough start I feel great about my day and I'm ready to tackle any challenge that comes my way. My positive attitude often comes from the texts I receive from Briana, like this one from last Friday, "TGIF. You're Beautiful :)" can't beat a confidence boost like that!

Selfies & Snapchat

Snapchat may have started a beautiful revolution. 

Seven words I never imagined saying. 

Between the awkward faces, the funny #livesnaps, and the classic selfies, I think Snapchat unknowingly started something kind of awesome. They started a trend that says loving your awkward, adorable, crazy self might just be... dare I say it.... okay.

I used to hate selfies with the best of them. I thought taking a picture of yourself looking gorgeous was some sort of cry for the self-centered... But then someone said to me, "What's so wrong with selfies? What's so wrong with wanting to feel beautiful about yourself?" 

How right they were.

May selfies start being a revolution of empowerment for women to love. their. bodies. Let's smile and laugh and take silly photos and be happy. Cheers to loving our beautiful selves.

Cue this video:  http://unlooker.com/selfie/

Day 4

Day 5.

The funny thing about not wearing make up is that no one even notices but you... and, after a while, even you start to forget. :)

That Tube of Lipstick

I read a story once where a little girl – maybe around 5 or 6 -- asked her mom if she could borrow lipstick “so [she] could be pretty, too.”

And my heart broke. 

Let’s just add this story to the list of reasons why I have to finish this 30-day challenge.

To be honest, I don’t know what the end of this challenge looks like. I don’t know how I will feel or what I will find to be true. All I know is that I need to be certain that my make up will not box me into my comfort zone. I need to know that I’m not using it to be “pretty” again. I need to root myself into these values so I can teach my one-day daughter that beauty is not found in a tube of lipstick. 

--

May my daughter feel most free in her pink tutu and bare feet.

  

May my daughter feel strongest with the dirt underneath her fingernails.

May my daughter feel most gorgeous when she’s laughing.

May my daughter know that beauty is in living. 

And my strongest hope? 

May my daughter never even realize that society defines beauty by appearance.

Day 3

Day 3.

We look at eachother every day and say, "Well, aren't you beautiful." 

I think everyone should hear that at least once a day.

Day 2

Where to begin... Why did I volunteer myself to a make-up free, exercise-aholic, and loving myself kind of month? Well, because those three points sound incredible. Who doesn't want to eliminate the 10min of covering up true beauty each morning? Why would I not want to have extreme amounts of endorphins flowing through my body, making me feel like I can conquer the world? And most importantly, I think it's time I appreciate and love who I am!  In the name of loving who I am, I pledge to forgo the artificial and push my body (physically and mentally) to a point where when I wake up in the morning I can look in the mirror and say "you're one amazing chica!"
-Cora

Day 1

Day 1. 

Today we both admitted that our make up had tempted us. I was all-too-close to grabbing for my mascara before I left because "a coat wouldn't hurt." However, receiving the text from Cora that said, "no make up! Yay for loving us!" was completely worth it. 

Make up free and so happy.

The Challenge

I have to be honest with you all. I hate the way my nose gets red sometimes and how the veins on my eyelids become darker when I’m tired. I cover up my face because my skin tone can get uneven, and I coat the mascara because my eyelashes aren't thick, aren't long, and aren't perfect. I'm guilty of wishing that I was prettier.

However, something has really been eating away at me. Ever since I saw the Aerie lingerie campaign (go look at it, it’s pretty cool), I kept thinking about how fearless those people were by showing off their cellulite, stretch marks, and even tummy rolls… they embraced their flaws and looked, dare I say it, happy. Then came the moment I stared at a picture I’d posted (above) -- a moment of pure bliss -- and all I could see was the fact that I was wearing no make up... and wondered if people would notice the same thing. And that’s when I became disgusted. Hobey-ho, so here we go. Cora and I talked about this same thing and came up with a solution that may be temporary and certainly isn’t perfect, but it may just give us the right to take back the mirror. We’re calling it the Audrey Hepburn month, and it involves a lot of loving your all-natural, God-given, freaking-beautiful body. 30 days with no make up. We invite you to join us. Now, we understand that those who join us may not be able to go all-natural 24/7 --afterall, we are women who will stand beside you at the events that require lipstick and heels. That's really not what this is about. This is about taking back the mirror on the days that we don't have to get dressed up and, most importantly, feeling just as free and happy about it as we do when we slip into our pajamas. Our real faces should be our comfort zones.  

We know Audrey Hepburn wore make-up. We know that she rocked heels, pearls, and the all-too-fabulous dresses... But we also know that she was so much more than those things. This was deemed the Audrey Hepburn month because she represents a sense of empowerment and pride we are all searching to find.

Today we commit to loving our blemishes, our veins, our scrapes, and our shadows. We are real. We are painstakingly original, and that must be the most beautiful thing about us.