(Peaceful “Shanti” Warrior- A graceful transition from warrior II, take deep breaths while holding the pose. This pose help strengthens the back, increase flexibility and widens the hips while building strength in your legs.)

Listening to the radio early morning on my drive to work I hear the question of the day, “At what age do you feel most beautiful?” Callers began to share their stories and experiences, the consensus respond was, “NOW. I feel the most beautiful right now, at this moment in my life.”

One caller who was in her early twenties recently had a baby and although she admits that at first she was insecure about her tummy fat but she was amazed at what her body was capable of, bringing new life to the world. She said she has never been happier with the birth of her daughter and being with her family. Another woman said she finally accepted herself for who she is and could care less about what other people thought of her. She just turned forty and said now she just doesn’t care for the negativity because she did all that in her her twenties and thirties.

This short segment resinated with me as I drove under the beautiful morning sky, the sunrise brought rays of color across the horizon. I take my exit and thought to myself, do I feel beautiful right now? I smiled as if I’m sending comfort to myself. I do feel beautiful with my present self, as I am right now. I thought about my decision to stop wearing eyeliner and to wear minimum makeup to work, and to force myself to accept how I looked naturally and be okay with it. It definitely took some time to get used to it. I never wore a lot of makeup but sometimes we feel naked if don’t have anything on our face. Girls, you know what I’m talking about. Before I never left the house unless I had at least eyeliner and mascara on, I would feel embarrassed and insecure because I know I do not look my best. You have this knot inside you warning you better not see anyone you know while running this errand. And if you do, you instantly regret not wearing any makeup outside.

This is a struggle that every girl has no matter how beautiful they are, everyone has bad days unfortunately, and it’s a reality for most girls. Especially with all these advertisements and media standards of beauty floating around us.

It took me a good two to three weeks to get used to the no makeup look when I first moved down to florida. It also started because florida was so hot and sweaty that by the end of the day you look terrible anyways so I just got lazy as well. After a while, I became more familiar with just my natural look. Everyone that knows me knows that I am a very confident person and doesn’t really struggle with self esteem, however there are days I wish I can change this and that about my body. Everyone has flaws and we are our own worst enemy, the harsh-est critic. I know I can clean up well and look very pretty but a face full of makeup then wiping everything off makes me feel like I’m taking off a mask at times. When you are so used to wearing a mask, it’s hard to leave without it. 

Nevertheless, I feel beautiful not just because I accepted my natural look. I feel beautiful because I’m older and wiser. I’m more open to new ideas and experiences. The funny thing is when you are young and wild, you think you are holding the world in your hand and you think you know everything about everything. When you get older, you realize, oh boy was I wrong, I have so much to learn. Working in a corporate job, I have learned new skill sets that I did not knew I had it in me. Management was much more complicated when you work with people with all sorts of personalities. The more people you meet and stories you hear, you realize that you have yet to live and that everyone has their struggles and challenges that you never expected. These people will empower and inspire you to be a better person. You start to care more about life and its wonders and possibilities, you stop caring about gossip and drama, leaving all the negativity behind. Truth be told, if you are being building your own empire, you won’t have the time to bad talk about someone else. I knew all these before but I am still learning it now. Perhaps I knew but I did not fully understand it.

I have a full time demanding job, I have two houses to manage and I practice yoga. I am focused on advancing my career and building a real estate empire. My goal is to retire early and become a yoga teacher. I am super busy that I don’t have time for any negative vibe. I am enough drama for me to handle.

At the end of the day, it’s all about your mindset. Set goals for yourself, long term and short term ones. If you have a vision, then go for it. There are endless possibilities. If you don’t try you will never reach them. But you have to WORK HARD. You can try and fail, get up and try again until you succeed. If its meant to be, it will fall into place. If not, at least you tried, now you can move on. Do it because you want to not because you have to. Do it because you love it, you crave you, you want it, you believe in it! 

I challenge you all (girls) to try to go makeup free or minimum makeup for two weeks. I promise you that you will feel a big difference. Whether you have high self esteem or not you will find that people love you and respect you for your skills, your talents, your realness, for who you are as an individual. Consequentially you will also love and accept yourself. Try it out, baby steps, this may not happen overnight but what do you have to loose? 

xx,

D