defining beauty

Beauty is everywhere.
We clearly see it in lushious blooming flowers in the garden…
it’s easy to find beauty out in a cared for garden.
But how do we really find it in people? How do you define beauty?

For some, beauty is clear when it’s on the surface ~ a girl with trendy clothes, make up and a designer handbag by her side. She would also most likely be skinny with a face and hair of a girl you’d see in a fashion magazine. Is that truly beautiful?

Some, see beauty as ‘acceptance’ of what their body size and shape is. “God made me this way” is a common quote I keep seeing over and over again…. They are people (maybe mostly women) who don’t try to fit a certain image. They don’t care, they’re beyond the superficial standards of the world of what and who defines beauty. They don’t care and they don’t bother pretending they’re something they’re not to please others. Is that beautiful?

Some, try and obsess, compare and loose themselves in who they really are. Because they don’t like what they see in the mirror. Their appearance gets in the way of their confidence, it gets in the way of their love for themselves. They probably get caught up with the latest face cream they saw an advertisement for, or the ‘best’ new conditioner for their hair that promises more shine and more vibrance. They try hard…. and often spend a few hours out on their ‘shopping therapy’ as they just declared this morning that they have ‘nothing to wear’ in their closet. Trying too hard – isn’t beautiful either.

It seems like we live in a world completely torn between what’s truly beautiful. Don’t we? We obsess, we buy and buy some more, we fix, and diet, stand on the scale, and pluck, and colour, and inject things, and lift things, and add and remove things from under our skin (think silicone and liposuctions). We get the latest, trendiest, designer things. We allow ads, commercials and people who get paid lots of money to sell us things that we ‘believe’ will make us beautiful.

And then there are people, both men and women, and even young teenagers who have completely given up on themselves. They just stopped caring. They have the only one body they live in, they think in, they breathe in ~ and they just stopped caring for it!

Why is it so hard to see that being beautiful can be a choice!

To me, true beauty is about a healthy glow, looking fit and strong.
Smiling, being confident, passionate and willing to change.

We go and easily spend $300 within just a few short hours on new clothes and overpriced perfume ~ but we cringe when we see that it’s a little more to spend on organic food.

Beauty does not happen with overpriced makeup and overpriced designer clothes, but with goodness you can put inside your body and good-things you can do with it that will help you radiate and glow on the outside.

No, beauty is not about just being skinny and looking ‘done-up’. And I’m sorry, but if you’re not careful with your diet and are not eating enough healthy foods and you don’t put in the effort to exercise ~ no, it was not God who made you this way. You made you this way. You need to love yourself again to take care of yourself.

If you don’t like the way you are ~ you can change you.
Loose your stubborn ways ~ wake up to feel more beautiful.

First, we need to feel a spark within to love ourselves more. Love stirs up passion and excitement… which welcomes and embraces change. It’s like a light inside that breaks through and gives us a sparkle and a glow to let ourselves shine bright! That radiance makes us more confident and powerful. We still can’t move mountains, but we can move ourselves – move our body and MOVE. Go for a walk, a speed walk, a swim, do yoga…. Get stronger and passionate about our uniqueness, our style, our own ‘sparkle’.

When we exercise, start to get fit – we feel more beautiful. Push yourself to be strong and powerful. Have a good sweat (which removes toxins). Building muscles – builds confidence!

However, exercise alone will not do it. Feed your body, feed your beauty with healthy foods; plant-based foods. Vitamin and mineral loaded vegetables, whole grains, beans, legumes, nuts and seeds, probiotics, healthy oils and fats (such as flax oil and avocados) that provide the foundation for proper digestion. You are what you eat!

Be good to your body
and your body will be good to you.

You will love what you see in the mirror. You will look the hottest in your old pair of jeans and a white t-shirt. You will radiate and sparkle with real beauty. Your confidence will overpower your old self-conscious emotions about a scar you may still always have from a surgery (I’ve got one right on my neck), or some stretch marks you might always have as a beautiful reminder of how your body carried your babies so strong. (got those too). These marks will get categorized as your ‘beauty marks’ and you will not even think of them…. we all have some scars from our past…. but we wouldn’t be who we are today, if we did not have them. Embrace your scars, embrace your own healthy and strong beautiful body. Be beautiful, inside and out.

Just like a flower in the garden, that looks luscious and vibrant and has a strong stem with delicate and silky petals can only thrive so well in a caring environment with a nutrient rich soil, with sunshine and water feeding it life and beauty. Do you think that same delicate flower would radiate the same way on a depleted uncared for soil?

We need to be our own gardener and take care of
our own body’s ability to bloom beautifully.

Real beauty radiates with what we feed it and how we nurture it.
Be good to yourself first.
Love yourself first and you will bloom in true beauty.