Take It All Off. Your Makeup, That Is.

While getting ready for bed last night, I happened to look at myself in the mirror. Gone was the makeup. Gone was the moisturizer. Gone was any stitch of anything at all. All that was looking back at me ... was me.

We can all be extremely hard on ourselves. We always want to look like this celebrity, that friend, the random girl walking down the street. It's so easy to look at ourselves and see only the flaws and imperfections, never the positive traits that make up who we really are. I'm certainly guilty of this -- focusing on the pimple forming on my chin, the extra 15 pounds around my middle, the grey hairs spouting from my scalp. I needed to remind myself that, once in awhile, it's okay to just look at ourselves and find the beauty, both inner and outer, that really makes us who we are.

And so I present to you this picture ... taken in my hotel room in Pittsburgh (I'm on yet another work trip). Not a stitch of makeup on, my hair in a messy (and somewhat frizzy) topnot, not even slathered with moisturizer or eye cream or lip balm. My skin's a tad shiny and blotchy and the dark circles under my eyes are definitely visible without the ability to hide behind my glasses. But hey, that's just me.

I encourage you to take a real look at yourself in the mirror, too. You may find you like what you see staring back at you.