I really love natural beauty. I also love the look of a woman aging with grace and not fighting the natural changes that come with that process.
As well, I have no judgment if a woman chooses to ‘enhance’ her process. As with everything though, there is a line. Over the line and enhancements turn downright freakish. There is no beauty in that to my eyes.
We all know the cultural insistence on beauty being a particular way. When I read the statistics on the money women spend plumping up the wallets of the beauty industry, it borders on embarrassing!
A line came to me for an art piece several years back and I still love it today (thank you Creative Spirit! :)… “Beauty is seen from the outside in and felt from the inside out”. I probably love it because it feels like truth to me.
When I was in my late twenties, I had a terrible skin breakout, at its worst, it was painful and disfiguring. Talk about freakish. I hid for months, cried most days, and searched like a crazy for solutions to the problem.
While it was a long journey, it taught me some of my most valuable life lessons. One of which was the knowledge that I am more than my body or beauty is more than skin deep.
The second lesson that began at that turning point in my life was how to cultivate beauty from the inside out, and NOT accordingly to cultural standards.
While Botox is one solution to the grooves and gutters of the face, it’s not the same thing as cultivating beauty from the inside out.
What I’ve learned about cultivating beauty from the inside out is that when I tend to the following, I feel my own unique version of beauty and it’s not only more than enough, I find an honest appreciation in it.
Also, I love feeling liberated from the cultural hooks, shoulds, and hurry-ups or else. I’d much rather use my energy in other ways, like being creative for example.
Anyway, here’s my personal recipe for cultivating beauty from the inside out (in no particular order)…
- I am 100% aware that beauty is a reflection of my inner health and doesn’t come from a product.
- A ‘product’ may help but it isn’t “it”
- I only use products that are chemical free, organic, natural, and plant-based. My body knows what to do with that. On the flip side, dealing with the borage of chemicals steals my Qi. Qi that would otherwise be available to cultivate a healthy inner terrain.
- Sleep is non-negotiable.
- There is no such thing as perfect, I prefer imperfect wholeness. Wholeness feels beautiful to me.
- Beauty is in the eye of the beholder, I am the first beholder. I must own it. Period.
- Everything I put past my lips either builds my health and beauty or tears it down.
- Every thought I think does the same thing.
- If I don’t move every day, I accumulate toxic waste that steals my health and beauty.
- My morning ritual that connects me to the truth of life, my spiritual purpose, and to the great cosmic, universal life force or Qi is probably the single most important ingredient in my health practice.
- This practice gives me the strength, courage, and capacity to stay on track.
- Light and Love consciously cultivated radiates as beauty.
- My health is a dynamic ongoing process, not an either/or, one-time event. I think of it as a dance.
- I’m clear I don’t “arrive” at health and beauty, rather I’ve created a relationship with it, and I treat it like I do all my cherished relationships.
- Which means it gets better with time.
- Fun, laughter, play is a part of my recipe that can’t be substituted with other ingredients.
- Expressing myself creatively, as I was designed to do because I’m a human being, takes my health and beauty to an entirely different level.
Well, that covers what I can think of at this moment. If there is more, I’ll let you know 🙂
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