As of February 1, I joined Caitlin Boyle and Molly Barker (and others!) in their Naked Face Project. These women make a HUGE ripple in this river o’ life. Among many other things, Caitlin is the founder of Operation Beautiful. And among many other things, Molly is the founder of Girls on the Run. I invite you to read Caitlin’s and Molly’s motivations and observations in their respective blogs.
My motivation is this ~ I want to pay attention to what I HAVE BEEN paying a lot of attention to re: how I look to others AND how that makes me feel about myself.
I’ve been aMaZeD by the number of private response I’m getting to Naked Face. Some are supportive. More though, are questioning:
- WHY are you doing this?
- Don’t you care about how you look?
- WHAT’S the big deal?
- HOW will this change anything?
- Are you trying to make fun of those of us who ARE trying to make ourselves look better?
The dialog is being rich and, well, ENriching. After the first few messages/calls/face-to-face questions, I spent less and less 
time trying to explain myself. That’s when I noticed I’d let myself be hooked by what others think about me. That’s when I remembered that noticing is WHY I’m doing this. I asked more and than I answered. Then I listened. And THAT’s when the conversations began.
A HUGE ‘aha’ this week has been recognizing the difference between caring about with others think OF ME and caring about what they think. What others think is very important to me. What they think of me ~ not so much.
As I’ve mentioned before, Naked Face is helping me see people (including myself) for who they really are. I’m now noticing that having a cleaner face, hairier underarms & legs and even more unkempt hair (than usual) has also made me a better listener.
Hmmm… who woulda thunk it?
What nudges you to see and listen to others better?
Lisa’s Cheap Therapy blog 
Don’t know how I feel about your hairy legs and underarms, but you are sooooo beautiful you don’t need anything else!
What nudges me, the deep desire to truely follow Jesus by loving and serving others. That is what this Holy season is all about. Not what I’m “giving up”, but what I am “doing”! You gotta listen to know how to serve.
aw shux, Linda. thanks for the love 🙂
thanks,too, for sharing your holy nudgeR.
Sometimes, unfortunately, it’s when it comes back to me from a 3rd party, that I realize I hadn’t seen a situation clearly, hadn’t listened to what I sounded like to others. It happened to me today, and it didn’t nudge me, it knocked me into realizing I had better be more observant, to notice my effect on other people, because it’s sometimes not for the best. ): I need to listen better, not only to others, but to what I am saying to others (with or without words).
I didn’t realize I had been away so long…until I stopped in today! WOW…what an amazing way to work at paying attention to the here and now!
Learning to listen…really listening to what someone else is saying instead of what I want to say when the other person stops talking…. has been a HUGE journey for me. It started while I was in marriage counseling and while my marriage did not survive, the life lessons I learned have.
I have found that listening isn’t easy….but so worth all the hard work! I just can’t handle no shaving or hair straightening, but I can work at the paying attention part….
And to answer your question about what nudges me to see and listen to others better….. Lessons learned and the benefit of seeing the look of relief on another’s face when they are understood are my nudges!
Love ya and all the thoughts you provide me to think about ! Happy day!