Book Club | Girl, wash your face
- Carly Morton
- Jul 14, 2019
- 3 min read
Updated: Jul 27, 2019
'Girl, wash your face' by Rachel Hollis kinda just exploded on to the scene. One minute, I hadn't heard about it at all, the next second bloggers and YouTubers from around the world were all raving about it.
The book is written by American blogger, mother, wife and entrepreneur Rachel Hollis and features the tagline "Stop believing the lies about who you are so you can become who you were meant to be". I highly recommend this book!
Each chapter of this motivational, self-improvement book centres around a lie that we've been told or tell ourselves that prevent us from living our best and brightest life. While a couple of the chapters are centred around being a mother (and that doesn't yet include me) they are still written in a way that makes you feel you can relate. Some of my favourite chapters were 'I'm not good enough', 'No is the final answer' and 'I need to make myself smaller'. Each of these chapters helped me to strip away the lies I had been telling myself that had inadvertently made me feel insignificant and reminded me that we are all badasses at heart and the best way to #liveyourbestlife is to be authentically and unapologetically YOU.
I like to read Amazon reviews of books before I buy them. One of the reviews to this book said something to the description that they found Rachel to be conceited and constantly bragging about her achievements. I strongly disagree with this sentiment. I found Rachel to be a powerfully motivating and confident woman and that the instances were she talked about her achievements in life, it was simply for the purpose of inspiring others to persevere and go after their dreams. In fact, I think that the anecdotes littered throughout really added a personal element to the book and made it more interesting and relatable.
The best thing about this book is that at the end of each chapter, Rachel offers three things that helped her in realising the falsity of the lie she was told. For instance, in the chapter titled 'I need to make myself smaller' she outlines how a willingness to offend, a bold statement and an encounter with a guru helped abolish that lie from her life. FINALLY, a book that gives me practical strategies and steps towards changing your life. Now I'm not saying, I would go and literally mimic everything Rachel did and hope it worked out for me...but seeing the process of how people transformed their life is really powerful in giving you the direction you need.
As with every 'book club' blog, I have selected a few pearls of wisdom from the book...
"I have so many goals and dreams for myself, and not one of them is small. They're big and wild and full of hope. They require faith and courage and a whole lot of audacity. I cannot get there, I will not get there, unless I start embracing every side of my character- including the sides of me that make other people uncomfortable." (p.129)
There are so many parts of me that I try to shut off in order to please other people, for example my over-organised, perfectionist nature. However, this helped me to realise that we are only going to get the things we want in life through being ourselves.
"For the longest time I thought I needed a drink...Food, water, shelter, healthy relationships...those are things you need. Anything else you insert into that category becomes a dangerous crutch- and you don't need a crutch if you are strong enough to walk on your own." (P.194)
Perhaps your vice is not drinking, but chances are you use food, alcohol, social media, reality television or something else as a way to wind down. I know from seeing people I know go through this, that it can be a quick spiral to rock bottom. For me, I often come home and immerse myself in social media to shut off my brain from a long day. I realise that this can quickly turn into an unhealthy habit and really need to start curbing it now before it gets the better of me.
The final lines of the book summarise the message so well...
"Girl, get a hold of your life. Stop medicating, stop hiding out, stop being afraid, stop giving away pieces of yourself, stop saying you can't do it. Stop the negative self-talk, stop abusing your body, stop putting it off for tomorrow or Monday or next year. Stop crying about what happened and take control of what happens next. Get up, right now. Rise up from where you've been, scrub away the tears and the pain of yesterday, and start again...Girl, wash your face!" (P.213)
Make sure to give it a read. While your at it, check out my other book club blogs.
Carly xx
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