Realbeautyis…

Choose to give: because you want to amplify — your soul, your life, your love.

“To the world you may be one person but to one person you may be the world.” ― Bill Wilson

Here’s 14 simple + powerful ways to get your giving wheels spinning…


Donate your old cell phone to Cell Phones For Soldiers

Use GoodSearch (powered by Yahoo) to search the Internet. Every time you search the Web they give money to your favorite charity.

Volunteer at your local soup kitchen or thrift shop.

Donate to Miracle For Maddie & help raise funds for the benefit of families coping with the financial hardships of childhood cancer treatment.

Donate your used baby clothes to Baby Buggy. They help families in need.

Become a member of StepUp and help empower high school girls in underserved communities to reach their full potential.

Get Involved with the Sahasra Deepika Foundation for Education & help provide impoverished children opportunity and hope through education.

Build houses for people in need with Habitat For Humanity.

Donate your hair to Locks of Love.

Become a micro-lender with KIVA and help alleviate poverty and empower an entrepreneur.

Volunteer to read to the elderly.

Support Stay Vocal’s efforts to reuse apparel in an attempt to help save the planet.

Buy a pair of TOMS sunglasses and give the gift of sight.

Support your local animal shelter or simply text ASPCA to 25383 to donate $5 to ASPCA rescue efforts.

Send a VDAY e-card (the perfect gift for Valentine’s Day) and help end violence against women and girls or text Text VDAY to 50555 to give $10 to VDAY.

Here’s your REAL BEAUTY assignment for the week.

Each morning close your eyes & say to yourself, “I am a genius”.

Sit in that belief for a moment. Notice how it makes you feel. I don’t care if you REALLY believe this or not right now. Each one of us was born with a natural genius ability.

Think on this:
What lights you up?
What activities do you enjoy doing most?
What makes you feel most alive, most turned on?
What do you think you’re really good at? What would your friends say you are good at?
Are there moments for you when time stands still? If so, what are you doing during those moments.

Don’t pressure yourself to figure out exactly what it is right now. Allow yourself to sit in the questions and see what surfaces. Give yourself persmission to say, “Yes. I am a genuis” and then see what thoughts follow.

Commit to doing this each morning for a week & let me know what happens!

I came across this powerful quote today and as I started to share it in an email to my brother, I realized that I should share it with you too.

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“The man who makes NO mistakes usually doesn’t make anything!” – unknown

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Don’t be that (wo)man, Lori.
You are FAR greater than you know.
I know it. I really do.

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Don’t get caught up in being afraid to make a mistake. Mistakes are the juicy part of life. They are the catalyst for insight, growth, change & possibility. Why on earth would you want to deprive yourself of that?

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So even if it’s just for today, go ahead and give yourself permission to try, to begin, to be bold, to learn, to push yourself to the edge, to make a mistake and come back around even stronger.

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Don’t you think it would be a far greater tragedy to play it safe by remaining a prisoner inside your own fear than to risk making a mistake in the name of living your biggest life? I hope you answered YES.
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ps. There’s a lot more activity & inspiration happening inside the Real Beauty Is facebook community. Click here to connect with me and thousands of other likeminded ladies!

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Have a wonderful weekend and DARE to be yourself!

with REAL beauty,
xo Lori

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Yesterday I received the email below from a close friend of mine & it resonated so deeply with me and is SO in line with what REAL BEAUTY is all about, I just had to share it with you.

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As you may know Rosh Hashanah began at sundown last night. This holiday is a celebration of the New Year & the birthday of mankind. At Rosh Hashanah permission is granted to the Jewish people to start over, leave our old shortcomings behind & start the New Year with a clean slate. But what occurred to me as I read my friend’s beautiful email is that we can grant ourselves permission at any moment in our life to wipe the slate clean, move beyond our limitations and rejoice in who we most want to be.

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I hope that you will take a moment to read the email below regardless of your religious beliefs. It doesn’t matter if you pray, or go to church, or if you even believe in God, because the message here is about realizing the choice and the power we all have to start over, move beyond, forgive the past & celebrate life.

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Whether your past year or the past hour has been one of great challenge or great joy; it’s officially behind you. And when we allow parts of our energy to be stuck in the past we can’t possibly move forward as our most expansive and powerful self.

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We all deserve a chance to start again, to try another way, to celebrate what is good.

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And if you have a hard time giving yourself permission, then I’m officially giving it to you. So, there’s no excuse. Go ahead and take action. Wipe your slate clean and take this day to anchor even deeper into loving yourself and celebrating your life.

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(please note: The email below has been modified from it’s original version to include the content that is most relevant to the Real Beauty Is community)

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Dear friends,

Happy birthday to the world, we’re nearing the celebration!
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Rosh Hashanah is translated as “head of the year.” We’re about to be given the opportunity to start over, this is a permission granted to the Jewish people and one which comes with great relief and also great responsibility.
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When you wipe your slate clean this week and rebirth yet again, consider how you want to build yourself up.
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In the coming year -
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will you open your heart to the unexpected, to people, places, and things you never anticipated?
will you allow for compassion to take precedent over self-interest?
will you be generous with your time, with your energy, with your resources?
will you insist on being right, or will you decide to be happy?
will you look upon your fellow man and woman as if you were looking upon yourself or your child, with hope and genuine interest?
will you make the effort, go the distance, keep smiling, and love with less restriction?

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We ask for what we need in shapes and sizes we may not even know.

What you wish for will be granted to you, but you may not even know it.
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Look around, see your life, really see your life on this day, the birthday of the world, your prayers have been reflected back to you in the form of your life.
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The short end of the stick is in the eye of the beholder.
And one man’s stick is another man’s oak tree.
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This is everything you asked for.
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May these days ahead be filled with good thoughts, positive vibrations, and deeds of affection and optimism.
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I pray for all of you -
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that this Rosh Hashanah be the sweetest that you have known to date,
may the sweetness resonate with you throughout the year ahead,
marking each day with the joy and the peace you speak to in your prayers and in the intimacy of your heart’s dreams.
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In love & in celebration,
Meredith
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Your current life is a message to you, so lean in and listen carefully to what it has to say. **It really is everything you’ve asked for.**
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If you’re not living the life you REALLY want doesn’t today seem like the best time to grant yourself permission to live another way?
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ps. If Meredith’s email moved you (as it did me), check out her Morning Love Letters; a daily offering of wisdom, truth, love and inspiration.

with REAL beauty
xo Lori

Recently, while leading a Real Beauty Is workshop I shared the following story I heard told by Sir Ken Robinson.

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“An elementary school teacher was giving a drawing class to a group of 6 year old children. At the back of the classroom sat a little girl who normally didn’t pay much attention in school, but in the drawing class she did. For more than 20 minutes she became completely absorbed in what she was drawing. The teaching found this fascinating and asked the little girl what she was drawing. Without looking up, the girl said, “I’m drawing a picture of God.” Surprised, the teacher said, “But honey, nobody knows what God looks like.”

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The little girl said, “They will in a minute.”

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I LOVE this story because it speaks to the deep confidence and belief we all had in ourselves as children. It’s a powerful reminder of a time early on in our lives when we didn’t care what others thought, when the only force driving us was our imagination, our curiosity, our playful spirit, and a deeply rooted, pure desire to simply be led by our heart, doing exactly what it was we felt ‘called’ to do. Whether it was playing with mud in a swamp, building a tree fort, coloring into your imagination, playing make believe or singing & dancing with wild abandon.

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Can you remember that time as a kid when you were blissfully lost in the moment, wrapped up in your imagination, your creativity, your sense of wonderment? Remember what it felt like to be so magically lost in the present moment that you lost track of time?

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When’s the last time you truly allowed yourself to follow your heart, to enjoy your moments, and to get lost inside your imagination?

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When’s the last time you felt anchored into your deepest sense of confidence and desire?

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Remember as a child when you believed that you could do anything? Where did that belief go? How did you allow it to slip away?

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Each time we turn our backs on ourselves and stop believing in the limitless possibilities of who we can become and what we can achieve we damage our spirit.

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When we continue to feed ourselves stories of lack and limitation we restrict the very expansiveness that lies inside each and every one of us to know the immeasurable possibilities of who we really are.

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“When we first arrive in this world, we know who we are. We know what we can create. We know our future is fluid, malleable—we know we can shape it by the stories we choose to tell ourselves, by the stories we choose to live. And then, we lose that inner knowing. What we know gets clouded over by what we’re told is possible. By stories about lack and limitation. By Someday, and Maybe, and If and When. We lose the knowledge that all things are possible, within the boundaries we have chosen for our incarnation.” – Hiro Boga

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No matter where you are in your journey of self-discovery & self confidence maybe the place we really need return to in order to believe in ourselves again is back to the 6yr old inside us who was always rooted into our deepest wisdom.

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That little girl (boy) always knew that our most prosperous & enjoyable life is deeply anchored in an absolute knowing & a fearless confidence that each one of us has to “draw God.”

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THINK ON THIS:

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: How can you silence your voices of lack, less than, limitation and doubt?

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: What’s REALLY preventing you from believing deeply in the limitless possibilities of who you can become? Get clarity on this and make an action plan for moving beyond.
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: Challenge yourself to move forward with a NEW life strategy that deeply values and incorporates a fearless sense of play and self-assuredness?

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: How bad to you REALLY want to start feeling good? (because this lies at the foundation of how determined, persistent, & successful you will be)

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with REAL beauty
xo Lori

I am a wondrous medley of contradictions, a very real fusion of opposing forces, layers and messiness. And in the past I have used this truth about myself as a way to label myself a hypocrite and feel BAD.

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Here are some of my contradictions:

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: I crave deep connectedness with others, and also require much solitude.

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: My most meaningful life includes being a wife & a mom, but I have days where I want to run away from it all.

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: I am grounded in deep self-love but can still be self-critical and judgmental.

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: I believe deeply in the unlimited possibilities of who I can become and have moments of self-doubt.

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: I am deeply intuitive and have moments of uncertainty.

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: I am passionate about health and wellness and still need my sugar fix.

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: I am fearless and fearful.

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: I am crazy organized and still have a junk drawer.

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: I have anchored into my most purpose driven life and still have moments of feeling lost.

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: I am committed to practicing non-violence but can still turn the sword upon myself.

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: I can be anchored in gratitude and still take things for granted.

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: I have a deep inner knowing that I am exactly where I need to be but still question if it’s all going to work out.

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The REAL me has angles, and curves, and layers and moods and seasons and depth and contrast. And what good does it serve to make myself feel bad for the complicated, mysterious and beautiful fusion of who I really am?

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Where’s the value in living inside a space where I force myself to be folded, and small, uncomfortable and reduced?

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Just like the magnificent contrast in a photograph; it’s impossible to experience the full effect of the light without the balance provided by the darkness and the shadows.

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It’s only now that I realize that the interaction of our opposing forces creates sacred space to cultivate our creativity, our divine power and our most REAL self. It’s the blending of our contrary forces (the yin and yang) that allow us to solidify our strength.

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Each time we use our opposing dimensions as a reason to believe that we are not enough, we strip ourselves of a mighty opportunity to live deep and lay claim to who we really are.

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We can use our beautiful contradictions as swords against ourselves and as reason to play small in the world OR we can rejoice in our dimensions, find beauty in our layers, celebrate our unique ways of being, and see the magic and power in our varied ways.

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What will you do to celebrate your magnificent medley of contradictions today?

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“Authenticity is not an either/or equation. Your soul is an all-inclusive package … frills, foibles, and contradictions. It’s your opposing parts that leverage your magnificence into full force. Don’t resign yourself to your idiosyncrasies. “Accepting” yourself is a passively lame option for full-tilt self love. Exalt your contradictions, celebrate them, go so far as to use them to your divine advantage.– D Laporte

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MORE INSPIRATION:

Read this: you’re a mess of contradictions. how very beautiful