How much time do you spend obsessing over the way you look? Think about it for a minute. How many times can you remember saying or thinking, "I look like sh*t right now?" How many people have you looked at and automatically felt insecure? How many times, even in the last 24 hours, have you forgotten that you're beautiful?
Somewhere between scrolling through photos of cross fit trainers on our Instagram feeds and tuning in to watch the Victoria's Secret Fashion Show, we've lost a sense of normality. We've begun to measure beauty by the size of the gap between our thighs or the length of our bleach blonde hair. We've come to evaluate our self-worth by the number of likes our photos get on social media. When did we start needing to be "liked" or to feel loved?
We often criticize society for redefining beauty based upon body type. To empower women, we've launched campaigns and clothing lines to remind each other that curvy is sexy or that plus size is pretty, too. But still, we are missing the mark. Becoming so concerned with size has obscured the truth that beauty is much more than size.
In today's world, feeling beautiful feels exhausting. Aren't you tired of staying up every night recalling everything you ate that day? Of counting every single calorie so you know exactly how much self loathing to take to bed that night? Maybe it's the guilt that has exhausted us; we sleepily look in the mirror with our eyes half-shut.
I write this for every time I've had to say, "shut up, you look beautiful" to my best friends. Oftentimes I look at them and think they're the most beautiful people I know. I look at them and wish that they could see themselves the way that I see them, the way the world sees them. I write this to remind them and you how beautiful you are.
Beautiful is above and beyond the way we look--It sounds simple. But if it is so simple, why do we have such a difficult time remembering that it's true?
Beautiful to me, is witnessing the way a person lights up when they talk about something they're passionate about. Beautiful is the happiness experienced when cheering up a friend or smiling at a stranger. Beautiful is how you look when you have tears in your eyes from laughing until you cry. Beautiful is how you look when you're in love. In the end, beauty is an inside job. Beauty comes from within. The best news is, the sooner you recognize this, the more beautiful you appear, and the more beautiful the world becomes.
You have the capacity to fully and truly see yourself. I challenge you today to remember that you are beautiful.
