get real.

My super rad friend, Trish, (can't beat that name, can ya? :) invited me to join a Facebook page last week called Wake Up and Get Real SF - A Tribute to Justine Bateman . Her idea for the group was sparked by the following 5 minute video (that I love!):

On her page Trish urges her gal pals to post photos of themselves in their most natural state; no makeup, no fussed with hair. Just us in our most authentic ways. 

Whoa. No makeup? No guss or fuss? Plastered on the internet just one google search away?! Kind of a scary challenge, huh?

But I knew it was important for me to participate, both for myself and for the other women on the page...not to mention all the women around the world who just wanna make peace with how they look. So, here goes. This is what I posted:

"Welp, here it is, as promised. My Saturday morning, pre-shower, bed headed self wearing nothing on my face besides lotion and chapstick (because natural skin does not have to mean dry skin!) This is a very eye opening experience for me, at 27 years old, and I am honored to be on this page with such beautiful women. Thank you, Trish, for reminding me to take a look at my most authentic self on a daily basis and send her love. To *tell* her she is lovely. And to pass along the good vibes to all of my fabulous sisters around the globe. I'm excited to see how this face continues to change as I adventure my way through life :) In Gratitude, Trish"

I'm going to say something now that is scaring me big time to put out on the great world wide interwebs: I love what I see looking back at me. And, I love what the simple process of taking this photo made me realize. Here I am doing my best "Olsen twins" smile for one big reason--I'm slightly embarrassed by my toothy grin! I've always been self conscious that perhaps my teeth look a bit too big and that the funny way my lip curls up (my family calls it the 'bull ring') makes me look a tad goofy. But hello, my smile is my smile! Smiling is a sign of happiness and joy and openness...why the heck would I ever, ever try to stifle that? How could that ever, in any way, be less than beautiful? As Buddy the Elf says, I like smiling! Smiling's my favorite!

A moment after taking the above photo, I pushed myself to take another. This is me, mid laugh. Toothy bull ring-ness and all.

So THEN I had a radical thought; what if I posted a VIDEO of myself getting real? I mean how freaking real would that be? And since I've never done a video blog before, this could be a truly genuine place to start.

Internal debate:

ego: WHAT?! Without makeup!? YOU HAVE NO MAKEUP ON!

self: OK crazy, let's take it down a notch.

ego: Girl you are the cray cray one. This is a ter.ib.ble. idea. Yous fo SHO gonna regret it. (my ego is a bit sassy sounding).

self: Let's just think on it for a bit! The right answer will come to us.

ego: Whatevs. 

About 2 hours later, urged by my tiny spirit voice inside, I sat back down at my computer and recorded a mini video for you all. I didn't rehearse or make any edits. I simply opened iMovie and hit "capture" (kind of a fitting term, don't you think?) Even though I SO BADLY wanted to rerecord it after I hit "done", I stuck to my guns and my super real self and kept my very first pass to share with you here.

Well look at that. It's officially out there. And I survived :)

I highly recommend this process to all of my Grateful Lifers. When you take a moment to just get real with your face (and your body), you take a moment to acknowledge your authentic self. And that self is, I promise, pretty rad.

Thank you, Trish, for this awesome idea. You continue to be a light in my life and I am so very grateful for you.

Always,

Trish