You Are More Beautiful Than You Think
https://www.thewowstyle.com/50-beautiful-painting-art-to-get-inspire/
The industry of beauty is built on an often impossible ideal. To facilitate our adaption to meet quality control and maintain an ideal image often requires expensive harsh chemical products and invasive or destructive practices. We know this, and we choose to pursue this ideal to meet the ever so deeply powerful underlying need for acceptance, or to avoid her shadow sister, rejection.
I could write about the cost of living up to the ideal of beauty; the comparisons we make with ourselves in the presence of this ideal: being too fat, too thin, too short, too tall, too pale, too dark, too grey, too mousey, or just too old. The ugly truth of living up to an ideal, especially when that ideal is youth, is that it cannot be achieved easily by most, and this is exactly what the beauty industry thrives on; the impossible! Meanwhile, behind the facade of beauty, an ugly showcase is often concealed: poor self-esteem, eating disorders, nerve damage and scars from invasive beauty treatments, osteoporosis, organ failure, and sometimes death from anorexia, or anxiety and suffering derived from the harsh and dark thoughts of negative self-judgement with which we bully ourselves when we believe we do not live up to the ideal of the moment. There is nothing beautiful about manufactured beauty. But we know this, and yet still we pursue it, so writing about it has little impact. And so, I will write about something that is has had an impact on me: true beauty.
True beauty shines from a loving being; one who speaks with care and kindness to others, while holding the same silent truth within the secrets of their own mind; the unseen beauty of acceptance of self, others, and life.
Acceptance is now, it is with who we are now, with what is now; it is surrendering to the fight and saying ‘it’s okay, I accept this, and I accept myself’, it is a powerful choice to love. From a state of acceptance, a new peace is born, and it shines with a light of serenity that we can begin experience; with our acceptance we give ourselves permission to be authentic, vulnerable, and free. The choice to love the self builds self-esteem, from which a person is able to strive for their most cherished values, and precious dreams, because now they matter more than the illusions in life, now that the choice to embrace the real self and real life has been made clear.
To the person who chooses to pursue the path to love, there are many challenges. The first and perhaps the most challenging of all, is to break free of the old ideal, and to banish the judgements and fears of cultural conditioning. This will take courage and strength of heart and mind. Thankfully, these qualities grow in the presence of love; when we choose to accept what is and guide our thoughts and actions in the direction of happiness, joy and meaningful purpose that aligns with heart-centred values, inner strength grows in response to every new loving thought made and action taken.
Ask yourself, ‘What matters to me now, truly, deeply, in the centre of my heart?’ Then choose it. The ugly face of an ideal may haunt you, but if you say ‘no’ to the illusion; the impossibility of endless youth, abnormal and unhealthy body shapes and sizes, or, a different you, if you stop comparing yourself to others, and say ‘yes’ to you, your true beauty will shine until the shadows have no power. This is true beauty and it doesn’t cost you any money and it doesn’t cost your life. True beauty is free, it is a choice, and you are free to make it in any moment and as often as you wish.
Writing the content was the easy part of the creative process for this article, it just came from my heart, but to make it more appealing, I wanted to add an image. What image depicts true beauty in a format that many relate to? Asking myself this question highlighted how easy it is to depict an illusion of beauty; the images the magazines depict, perfectly photo shopped to live up to the impossible and the unreal; that the only way to create something that we should all pursue, something that will be desirable to many (to ensure vast product sales), is to create something unreal and unattainable. It makes marketing sense and supports profit margins.
So what then is beauty, if depicted in an image that we can truly relate to, and something that is real? When I experience beauty, it can be witnessing a random act of kindness, a moment when I recognise my own acceptance of myself or a situation, it can be a release; letting go of a fear that cast shadows in my mind, to make space for new light; it is positive thoughts and peace in the mind.
Perhaps the difficulty in depicting a universal image, is that true beauty is not confined to a manufactured image that is so easy to source from millions of digital (photo shopped) on-line resources, true beauty is expansive and vast: the radiance of a fiery sunset reflected on the surface of still waters, birth and death, connection between two souls in love, pure happiness and joy and it is a moment, this moment, when we come into it, as we are, feeling what we feel, and accepting who we are and what is. True beauty is seen in the wonders of life; it is perception, a choice, a way of seeing ourselves, and a way of being. The problem in depicting true beauty is that it is so incredibly vast that it cannot be confined to an image, and it is subjective, which is the beauty of true beauty; it cannot be manipulated into a common doctored image, and neither can we. You are far more beautiful than you can imagine.
Copyright Antonia Behan. Published in Marbella Rocks June 2015
http://issuu.com/samnichols0/docs/marbellarocks_june15_5c095db0172cb6/c/su6lf02
