Beautiful Faces in Ugly Places

As I sit here on this beautiful morning I receive an email from a beautiful woman who is also going to start this cleanse. In this sweet note she relays to me that after reading my story she was inclined to share hers and what a story she has. After I finished that email, I went to other women's profiles and just looked at their 'about me' sections. I then proceeded to my facebook page and went to some of the beautiful women's pages that I am close to or know just to to read and "research." What I found was very interesting. What I found was this: behind every beautiful face there are dark tunnels, secrets, hidden "cancers" eating at them slowly. Even the one's I thought look happy all the time, of or just beautiful and look like they have everything together had many hints to their inner miserable beings. This is sad.

I myself have a tendency to be very hard on myself. My husband tells me all the time that what we think and say reflects through our lives and eventually comes to be. Over Christmas he even took time to ask me to please be kinder to myself. I laughed it off telling him that it doesn't bother me. That it motivates and reminds me to change. But when I really sit and think about it it's not true. It is just a fear that I will be complacent with my current self and not ever become better. - BUT - I cannot become better if I tell myself that I am fat, ugly, not worthy of love. If I keep that up my mind can't and won't comprehend beautiful, smart, pretty girl. This in and of itself (positive self-affirmation) is a daily thing. It is not always easy, but it does help to think (when you see a beautiful woman) that somewhere deep inside she had dark places and struggles too. (But she shouldn't) We are beautiful women!

God made us all in His image, making us marvelous creatures! So what if the media says you should be a size 2 or 0. SO WHAT! Are you healthy? Are you happy? Is your inner goddess at peace? If so, then you are everything you need to be and more! This is no excuse to not care for yourself and let yourself go saying that you are what you're supposed to be. No - this is quite the opposite! This is the biggest excuse to take time for JUST YOU! Take a candlelit bubble bath, indulge in your (healthy) cravings, spend a little more on groceries if it means you will spend much less on doctor's visits. Talk a walk in the woods and just breathe in deep. Do whatever it is that de-stresses you. For me, it's play piano, write, walk, or just drive. Find whatever yours is and DO IT! You don't have time you say? Well, do you really NEED 8 hours of sleep? What about 7 or 7.5? Get up 30 minutes early before anyone else and just take the quiet time for YOU. Do you really NEED to watch your television sitcoms? Cut it off and pamper your beautiful body! Do you really NEED that one whole hour lunch break? Find a quiet place and just indulge in the silence. Just 30 minutes a day can and will do you so much needed good! You deserve it but you, and only you can make it happen.

I send out a special thanks to my husband, for his patience and loving kindness. I also say thank you to my new found friend who is caught in this tough life but who is also strong enough to recognize the "cancer" in her life and bravely want to begin weeding it out. You both made me really think and have inspired me greatly!

Go out today, love yourself and be beautiful!