GIRL, WASH YOUR FACE by Rachel Hollis

*STOP BELIEVING THE LIES ABOUT WHO YOU ARE SO YOU CAN BECOME WHO YOU WERE MEANT TO BE*

This was such a great book! I love Rachel’s raw and fresh outlook on life. Each chapter she goes through a lie about herself that she believed.   For example: Are you not thin enough?

Unlovable?

A bad mom?

Do you think you don’t deserve to be treated well?

That you will never amount to anything?

THESE ARE THE LIES!

When things are allowed to sit in the darkness, when we’re afraid to speak them aloud, we give them power. When you keep silent, you give those lies power. By recognizing the lies that we have told ourselves, we can then grow into a better version of ourselves.

YOU and ONLY You are ultimately responsible for who you become and how happy you are. Your life is up to you. But you will never believe that if you don’t first understand the lies that get in the way of it. YOU choose your own happiness. You have control over your own life and I refuse to let anything or anyone decide what I get to have. I get to decide who I am!

 

 

This book is a favorite of mine because she talks about how YOU are in control of your own life! How you get one and only one chance to live, and that life is passing you by. We need to stop accepting less than we deserve. 

She gives this analogy about a caterpillar that I just love. She says a caterpillar is awesome, but if the caterpillar stopped there- if she just decided that good is good enough – we would all miss out on the beautiful creature she would become. 

Guys! That is just amazing! I love that so much. It is so very true. Sometimes in life we think we have reached our potential, and little did we know, there is so much more in store for us.

 

We all have our tough days and I like that she talks about how on the days that seem the hardest, remember that- an inch or a mile…forward momentum is the only requirement! Because I don’t know if you’re similar to me at all, but I screw up all the time. 

We’re all falling short!

Even though I fail over and over again, I don’t let it deter me! I still wake up everyday and try again to become a better version of me. She goes on to say that “other days I eat cream cheese for dinner”. The gift of life is that we another chance tomorrow. and that’s the beauty of it all…there are more chances to do better and get it right. How it is okay to still love yourself even when you do things you’re not proud of. 

 

She describes her life as chaos, family fighting, her mother sleeping for weeks at a time. Her brother Ryan committing suicide at the age of 14. She realized that if she wanted a better life than the one she was born into, then it was up to her to create it. I couldn’t agree more with that sentiment. Each day I work towards becoming a better version of myself. I surround myself with positivity. I spend more time doing things that feed my spirit. 

You must choose to be happy, grateful, and fulfilled. If you make the choice EVERY SINGLE DAY, regardless of where you are or what’ going on, then you WILL be happy. Because comparison is the death of joy, and the only person you need to be better than i the one you were yesterday. I used to call the mom comparing and judging ‘The Comparathon’ and I just had no time for that. We all have different stories, experiences, children, challenges, struggles, etc. I wasn’t interested in perfection or the ‘norm’, I was interested in what made me happen. Finding joy and in that I love her motto of  “Slow down your YES”. That one really hit home with me because I am the type of person to jump up to help someone in need. Overcommit myself, sign up for too many things and never take a moment to think about how it would affect me or my mental health. It was always about others.  

One of the a-ha’s that i have come to figure out in life is that I used to keep my to-do list so full that I would never allow myself to just BE. I would tell myself that I could relax, or watch a movie, or get a massage once ALL my work was done. And guess what?

All my work will NEVER be done!

I was under the illusion that in order to be loved, I felt I needed to produce something.  A need to PROVE MY WORTH. A need to stay so busy doing something that i forgot to really live. 

 

When she discusses being successful, I really connected with that. She said that “I am successful because I refused to take NO for an answer. My dreams weren’t someone else’s to manage. Nobody gets to tell you how big they can be. ” 

How stinkin’ true is that?!

By waking up early, being the hardest working person in the room, asking for help, being able to fail over and over again, and working constantly to improve both myself and my brand. THAT is the KEY. Small things can have monstrous effects. 

Another great lesson she discusses is how sometimes we do stupid things that hurt our loved ones when we’re trying to figure ourselves out. It’s not that we intentionally hurt someone we care about, its just that we are caught up in our own mind. Perception means we don’t see things as they are; we see things as we are. 

When you run into failure or a road block or a ‘No’…No doesn’t mean that you stop…it simply means that you change course in order to make it to your destination. Because NOBODY gets to tell you how big your dreams can be. Remember that someone else is praying to have the kind of chaos you’re currently crying about. <<<<That right there, that one got me. It is SO very true. While I wallow away at times about my stress or my situation, there are plenty of people out there that would take my place, take my troubles, and be grateful. That perspective always helps me to get out of my funk and move along. We need to remember to give ourselves permission to do the best we can and the grace to be peaceful on the days when we miss the mark. Because if we are unhappy, IT’S ON US!

When discussing hardships, whether or not you choose to see this time as something wonderful- the time when God is stretching you and growing you or maybe forging you in fires hotter than you think you can withstand- all of it is growing you for the person you’re becoming, for a future you can’t even imagine. What it boils down to is FAITH. The belief that your life will unfold as it was meant to, even when it unfolds into something painful and difficult to navigate.

The problem with ignoring your chaos is that chaos by nature is incredibly stressful. It’s like trying to pretend you’re not really sick when you clearly have the flu. Embracing chaos might be the path to finding peace.You can’t blame the past for the things that went wrong if you aren’t also willing to be thankful for the things that went right. Let’s bring it back to the caterpillar, i f the caterpillar just chose to stay a caterpillar, if she decided that the chaos of metamorphosis would be too much for her to handle, she would never know what she could become. Changing her entire being has to be painful. It has to be scary, and hard, and overwhelming. If she didn’t fight against the fear, if she didn’t allow the change to turn her into her true self, we would never know how beautiful she is. She would never know that she was meant to fly. 

I focus on being the self, most loving version of myself-but whether or not you approve of that isn’t my concern. Someone else’s opinion of you is none of your business. I cannot live as half of myself simply because it’s hard for others to handle all of me. I have so many goals and dreams for myself. They’re big and wild and full of hope. 

 

You were not made to be small. 

You are meant to be the hero of your own story.

 

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