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Is beauty an illusion?

Is beauty an illusion? I love the description the IPhone dictionary has for illusion. It says it is an erroneous mental representation or the act of deluding.

Have you looked in any magazines lately of images of women appearing in ads or fashion layouts? Do they look authentic to you? And yet you are supposed to aspire to look like and use the products they promote. I don’t know about you but I just can’t buy into that crap.

There are a few brands that promote real women in their advertisements. The key word here is REAL.

Dove soap stood up and launched an amazing campaign about real beauty in real women. More magazine is one of the few publications that have real women in their editorials. Daily we are brainwashed by images that have been airbrushed and altered to sell things we really don’t need.

The skin care industry is a multi-billion dollar business. Why? They ignite our burning desire to want to look better (which is ok) by selling us products that re grossly overpriced and make miniscule improvements. I laugh when I think of my mother’s beauty regiment of Ivory soap and Pond cold cream. She never more face makeup, just some powder, rouge and lipstick. She had amazing skin all her life. Barely a wrinkle until she got into her eighties.

So how much is too much?

I know if I tried to purchase all the products recommended for a woman my age, I would need a second mortgage and an addition on my home. I take very good care of my skin, treating it from the inside out. I maintain a healthy diet, Good nutrients and vitamins B, C and D daily. I drink a ton of water, no carbonated beverages and no alcohol (in recovery). Of course I don’t smoke as well. I love Basis super-fatted soap, great for sensitive skin since I get broken capillaries very easily. I follow with Thayer’s Lemon Witch Hazel Astringent (it works as well as the very expensive toners). Then I apply Aveeno Daily moisturizer with SPF 30 and Bare Minerals makeup. At night I use a Vitamin C cream that I by on Vitacost.

So being completely transparent, I have tried some of those miracle creams with fancy French names. The experience was comparable to applying Crisco to my face but at 100 times the cost.

Bottom line, spending more doesn’t necessarily mean you are going to get better results. A lot of people tell me I have really healthy skin. So you be the judge.

Here I am bare faced…like it or not.

Would love to hear your comments below.

Faithfully,

Mal

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Mal Duane is a Best Selling Author and Personal Life and Recovery Coach who has overcome life challenges using the steps in the Alpha Chick Process. Her personal mission is to help women excel in all areas of their lives from business to personal relationships. Mal has been featured with Fox 25 Boston Morning Show, CBS Radio, Aspire Magazine, Healthy Living and Metrowest Daily News. She has also been a featured guest on over one hundred Blogtalk Radio shows discussing recovery and personal transformation.

Mal’s book, Alpha Chick, Five Steps for Moving from Pain to Power, is a best selling book and is available on Amazon.com.

Has love failed you?

I don’t know how many times in my own life I went to such levels of despair thinking that I was unloved or being rejected by someone I thought I loved. It was the fuel for my alcoholism for many years. I would think I am not loved so I will beat the crap out of myself. Sound familiar?

Love Does Not Fail For You When You Are Rejected or Betrayed or Apparently Not Loved. Love Fails For You When You Reject, Betray, and Do Not Love. . . . Therefore, The Most Direct Way To Know Love In every moment Is To Be Love In every moment. By Adida Samraj

When I first read this, it knocked me on my ass. I had to go back and reread it a few times before I could fully understand the enormous lesson in this statement.

I have written many times before that everything starts with us. I am not trying to sound like a broken record but the truth is we are responsible, we have the power to choose. Everything comes from within and most importantly love starts with us first.

You can’t give away what you don’t have!

So in order to attract love you must BE love. When you become emotionally reactive to another person, you attack or you judge. When you do this, you are shutting down the flow of love within you. But what if you stay open, maybe even be vulnerable-you stay in the energy of love. You are elevating the vibration of the emotional disagreement. How can someone not love you for that?

When you are rejected in a relationship it hurts. Retaliation doesn’t make you feel and better and it only keeps you in a state of “lovelessness”. When you withhold love, who are you really keeping it from? Instead feel the pain or sorrow from the ending of a relationship. Be clear on what you feel, acknowledge your feelings and transcend them.

Let go of the wounded ego, the small voice from within so that you can connect to your radiant love consciousness.

Love is your birthright-no one can take it away from you accept your wounded self!

Faithfully,

Mal

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Mal’s book, Alpha Chick, Five Steps for Moving from Pain to Power, is a best selling book and is available on Amazon.com.

What I learned from spraying toilet bowl cleaner on my head

I am going to share with you this week the craziest and almost dangerous thing I did to myself because I was so self-absorbed and not paying attention to what I was doing. I was lucky but I have since heard stories of some real disasters from people who did the same thing when they were not paying attention.

There is a very powerful lesson from this simple mistake.

Live Faithfully,

Mal

If you like our content sign up here for updates and a free gift!

Mal’s book, Alpha Chick, Five Steps for Moving from Pain to Power, is a best selling book and is available on Amazon.com.

Self-Esteem – How to Improve Your Self-Image

“I have low self-esteem, but I express it the healthy way… by eating a box of Double-Stuff Oreos.”

Miranda – as played by Cynthia Nixon on Sex and the City

Ok, I admit it; I am definitely a self-love junkie! The definition of a self-love junkie is someone who has traded hating and abusing themselves for loving and caring for themselves. A woman who shows up looking good and has put effort into her appearance, not for others, but to honor herself. This isn’t someone who is constantly taking SELFIEs. It’s a woman who isn’t afraid to spend time on herself and her wellbeing, knowing she deserves to feel and look good and that this can truly impact others in a positive way.

There is no pill, drug, book, man or woman that will do more for you than your own self-love. You don’t have to buy it, eat it or sleep with it. How cool is that?

Once I was able to discard all the masks from false perceptions that I had been wearing and discovered my inner divine self, my life transformed dramatically. You see, I firmly believe that low self-esteem and lack of self-love is the root of all evil for women as well as men.

It is those ongoing thoughts of fear that you are not good enough that keep you chained to old behaviors, abusive relationships and jobs you freaking hate. Why live your life as a hostage?

What if you did an about face? You wouldn’t have to chase love, it would show up and you would recognize it. Where did we learn to stay out of the way, to not shine or be noticed? It is a painful awakening to realize our destructive patterns are desperate attempts to fill in what should have been given, what we needed to develop properly, as self-loving women.

I want you to think about this for a minute. Anything in your life that is not living up to your expectations or is painfully challenging is because you don’t feel in your heart that you are worthy of having it. If you don’t feel that you deserve happiness what you attract will fulfill those exact thoughts of unworthiness. Energy is a magnet for what you want in life. When you send out negative energy you create a negative experience. You can even impact your health.

That is the missing key to The Secret! The Law of Attraction is so powerful. You can go around all day thinking I want this or that but if you feel deep within you that you are not worthy, the game of manifestation is over.

The good news is that your self-love and self-worth are your responsibility. Things may happen in your life that can put a ding in your armor but only you have the ability to fix it. Many of us go through life lacking self-worth because of old experiences or as a result of broken relationships that we’ve had. But these things do not define our worth as human beings. We need to know our self-worth is not a reflection of other’s opinions. Understanding this is the crux of creating new beliefs.

I am not trying to oversimplify your current unhappiness, fear or lack of wellness but you have more control over this than you think. It takes work. It takes commitment and discipline. But to create the life you desire, why not?

Once you become perfectly honest and open to seeing yourself with a loving heart, the negative emotional framework of self-condemnation disappears.

There are three things you can focus on daily to increase your feelings of self-love and worth.

You are a divine being put on this earth with a purpose to fulfill (although maybe you haven’t discovered it yet).
You have a divine birthright to be happy, joyful and passionate, knowing you are worthy.
When you release the busyness of your mind and connect with the silence of your soul, you will discover your authentic self.

Remember that life’s challenges are stepping stones to your own success. By loving yourself and holding on to a belief of your self-worth you can dramatically change your life and the path you will travel.

*This article was previously published on MariaShriver.com.

Live Faithfully,

Mal

If you like our content sign up here for updates and a free gift!

Mal’s book, Alpha Chick, Five Steps for Moving from Pain to Power, is a best selling book and is available on Amazon.com.

The Happiness Secret

Probably more than anything else in life, we all strive to be happy. Sadly, for various reasons, happiness eludes many of us. Some reasons are self-imposed and others we attribute to other people. The trouble is, when we feel other people are responsible for our happiness we are giving away control over our own lives.

Wake up call: Your happiness is your responsibility

Until I learned this lesson personally, I never really experienced authentic happiness. I lived my life thinking that the right dress, man, car or job would bring me happiness.

Over the 4th of July holiday, I was watching my grandchildren playing when it really hit me:

We are the creators of our own happiness.

Their endless imagination, to my amazement, kept them engaged all weekend in blissful recreation. There wasn’t a moment of boredom or any sense of lacking something. Each one of them had significant roles in the games they created.

My two granddaughters went from being ballerinas to princesses and my grandson, Remy, was dancing with them and had a cardboard tube as a sword. Their shrieks of pure joy touched my heart.

The only time there were tears was if one of them fell down or took the others toy. Their happiness sparked something in me. I remembered how happy I was when I was five years old. I would sail in my boat with my dog all day, or go into the woods and collect things that I thought were treasures. What if we kept that sense of wonderment throughout our lives?

The truth is, it never really leaves us, it just gets clouded over with crap. What if we freed ourselves from the fear of what other people think and just lived with the intent of being happy!

Happiness is not about having more but is about being more. Being the real you, the one that felt she was a princess and could dance like a ballerina. The girl that didn’t see any limitations but only possibilities in the simplest of things. She is still there, hiding within, just waiting to break out and reclaim her royalty in her kingdom.

The lesson here is to reconnect with the mindset of full appreciation of what is. To experience a joyful heart that is not covered over with grievances. To play, and not care who is watching. And if they are, then give them one hell of a performance!

Here is a great playlist from Anna Luther that will absolutely increase your happiness.

Gotta go – Grandma is on her way out to play in her kingdom.

Live Faithfully, Mal

If you like our content sign up here for updates and a free gift!

Mal’s book, Alpha Chick, Five Steps for Moving from Pain to Power, is a best selling book and is available on Amazon.com.