What qualifies as beauty has often been caged in a tight box of standards and it has come with its consequences. We see healthy and beautiful bodies harshly impacted by eating disorders, young boys and girls beating themselves up for not looking like someone on a magazine cover, and even a constant unacceptance of what we live with - our body. It's almost a silent unacceptance, too, because after a point it simply becomes a way of thinking that often goes unquestioned and unchallenged. What's interesting about all these incidences is that many times, as outsiders, we look at these individuals and say 'But why? There was nothing wrong with them at all,'...

And perhaps that is where the trouble is.

Statements such as the ones above imply that there really exists a 'right' and 'wrong' way to physical appearances, therefore reinforcing that there is one specific way to look. But, taking a closer look at that remark also reveals differing opinions on beauty...

Which is why beauty is subjective.

Years of thinking beauty was only looking a certain way combined with growing up, maturing, and seeing all kinds of people has shown me something amazing: that the beautiful thing about beauty is that it's everywhere and in everyone, nullifying any attempt at defining beauty. How can beauty - a concept that transcends boundaries and regions - ever be defined? Or put in a box? Who are we to say, then, that there is only one way of being beautiful? That would be like saying that there is only one way of, well, being.

Beauty looks different on every person, after all. For some, it's their radiant energy and for others, it's being physically fit; for some, it's having a radiant complexion while for others, it's having certain physical features. Going even further, for some it's what they are able to accomplish of their career or personal goals, while for others it's how much they are able to serve others.

There are as many different kinds of beauty as there are people in the world, which leads me to believe the following:

True beauty is level-ground, like a field with infinite kinds of flowers where there is no hierarchy of mountains and valleys.

Maybe it's just me, but if I was in a field of flowers of an infinite kind I would not be able to look at just one and say 'Yes, this is the prettiest of them all,'. Instead, I might say 'Wow, this one speaks to me the most' or 'This one feels like home'. There are no mountains and valleys that make some flowers higher or lower than the others, the field is far, wide, level, and with neverending beauty.

Just like all of us.

🌸🌹🌺🌻🌼🌷💐