Be Beautiful

No doubt many of you have heard the saying “beauty is more than skin deep”.  So what does beauty look like beyond the skin that covers us all?

For those of you that have read my earlier blog posts you would be familiar with my journey of struggling with low self-esteem. In my struggle I was always consumed with how I looked and how others viewed me. If my hair did not look perfect it would ruin my whole entire day!!! Not Kidding!!! There was no peace in my heart only anguish and pain.

The truth is the average female is never going to compete with a photo shopped super model on a magazine cover.

As an audience we are presented with the magazine cover while having no clue  to the many hours of hard work it took for that one perfect shot!

The movies, magazines and t.v. portray “The Beautiful Woman” as someone who is physically attractive.  They are equipped with the perfect teeth, hair, figure, clothes and lifestyle. “The Beautiful Woman” is depicted as someone that walks into a room causing chaos amongst a mesmerised crowd gazing at this amazing flawless female specimen. Imagine for a moment if thought bubbles were visible displaying individual’s thoughts as this beautiful woman walked into the room. The thoughts could read something like this:

“Who is that incredibly good looking woman?”

 “Oh I hope my husband isn’t looking at her, if he does, he is going to cop it when we get home”

“Oops I better not look too long or everyone else will notice that I am looking”

“There goes my effort at looking good tonight”

 

In a scenario such as the one I have described, the focus tends to be on the looks of that beautiful woman. Is anyone interested in wanting to know about her as a person? As in whom she really is on the inside? Her journey in life the struggles and triumphs!

Most people would get stuck at that point and not know how to go beyond those amazing looks to get to know her as a person. After all, this beautiful woman is a human just like everyone else.

What about if someone in the crowd decided they were going to approach this beautiful woman to get to know her? A brave person decides to have a conversation and they find out that while she is stunning in the looks department there is something about her attitude that is ugly suddenly shifting the focus off the looks to her as a person.  The ugliness takes over at that point! She still has the good looks however the brave person realises that she is not someone they want to associate with.

On the other hand imagine this beautiful woman having a beautiful heart!

A beautiful heart goes a long way. As females we can get so consumed with trying to look good on the outside forgetting about how we present ourselves as a person.  We make choices every day about how we are going to react in situations. We can be self-centred or others focused. We can be stingy or generous with our money and time. We can be rude or polite. We can ignore how our behaviour may affect others or we can choose to think before we speak or act. We can be unforgiving and resentful or we can choose to forgive anyway!

A person will always be remembered for how they make others feel not so much about how good looking they were. As you grow older your looks change year after year. Now that I am older and travelling through this midlife season in life I am noticing that it is more important to keep my heart right. Midlife can be such a challenging season so it is worth investing into “being beautiful” earlier rather than later.

In no way am I saying to ignore your looks and just let it all go! I am saying to “Be Beautiful” as a person. When faced with situations think about how you will respond?

People will want to hang around you when you are “being a beautiful” person.

True and lasting beauty starts and continues from the inside out!