by Faizal Abdi
While beauty is almost as subjective as love, it’s something that you can explore and discover in yourself over time. This article focuses on both inner and outer beauty.
Steps:
1: Seek beauty around you.
How do you define beauty? As you go through your day, try to make note of things and people that strike you as beautiful: art, the sky, someone’s freckles. If you can, write them down. Find your beauty. Try to understand what makes them beautiful to you. They may not be beautiful to others, but that’s the reason beauty is in the eye of the beholder.
2: Recognize the beauty in yourself.
Look in the mirror and search for beauty. By now, you’ve probably noticed that the most beautiful things in life are often subtle and hidden. The same goes for the beauty you hold. Maybe you have smooth, well-proportioned hands, or a flawless forehead, or perfectly-shaped shoulders. Whatever it is, it’s yours – revel in it.
3: Enhance your physical beauty.
Looking beautiful is all about emphasizing those features in you that are already beautiful. There are millions of ways to do this, as there are millions of potentially beautiful features on a single body. The important thing is to experiment with accentuating that beauty until you can look at your reflection and feel like you’ve given your beauty the representation it deserves.
4: Develop your inner beauty.
There are plenty of so-called beautiful people out there who lie, cheat, steal, and even kill. Their beauty never lasts, but yours can. By finding yourself and building your character through integrity, you can be beautiful both on the inside and on the outside. Better yet, your inner beauty will always emanate and never fade, wrinkle, or turn grey.
5: Create beauty outside of yourself.
Now that you see beauty and you are beautiful (as you always have been, but now know it), it’s time to make beauty. Art is a very popular emulation of beauty, but it’s possible to inject beauty into everything you do (your work, how you interact with people, and the way you decorate your room, for example). This is an extremely satisfying pursuit that will not only make the world a more beautiful place, but it will also bring your quest for beauty full circle.
Tips:
Even though what is considered beautiful varies from person to person, there are a few broad characteristics that most people seem to agree on:
Health is beautiful. There’s nothing beautiful about destroying your body, even if you do it slowly by neglecting your body.
Character is beautiful. Think of the most beautiful people you know; now imagine them spitting on a homeless person. They’re not very beautiful anymore, are they?
Tell yourself every day when you wake up: “I am beautiful. No one can take that away from me.”
If you are getting older – in your thirties, forties, or older, you will be beautiful in a different way than a younger person. You will have lines, perhaps scars, perhaps some grey, you may have mannerisms or ways of moving that have become uniquely you. For a woman, you can take these changes and either use them to feel deeper, richer, more nuanced, more sensual, or you can feel worn down, comparing yourself to younger women.
Warnings:
Being fake (a form of deception) is one of the ugliest things in the world. Don’t think that in order to be beautiful, you can’t be yourself.
Many people have terrible judgment and don’t recognize beauty when they see it. They may say things that can hurt you, but don’t let their ignorance ruin your happiness, because those who mind don’t matter, and those who matter don’t mind.
Beware, some people may also overemphasize inner beauty as the only area one should work on enhancing. Do not believe making “adjustments” to your outer beauty is being fake.
As long as you are comfortable, you are good to go.
