Is True Beauty REALLY In The Eye Of The Beholder?
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Is True Beauty REALLY In The Eye Of The Beholder?
Even if I don’t want to admit it for all its shallowness, there is a belief, an ugly ‘truth’ I have held in the survival part of my brain about beauty, that says to me as a woman: If I look good, I am ok.
Ugly isn’t it, this belief about ‘beauty’? With all the images, expectations and rules we are bombarded with (from young) about what it is to be a woman, is it any wonder we struggle with the confidence to feel ‘ok’ about ourselves – let alone feel unreservedly amazing, gorgeous and truly beautiful?
How is it that I went from the beautiful, confident little girl I was to an adult woman who checks herself in the mirror to confirm she is “ok” by how she looks, or waits to be told she looks good or beautiful and is left feeling plain without it? So what other beliefs had I been running with?
To have beauty AND brains is threatening
I’ve found myself around beautiful women who were skilled professionals, leaders and academics, but feeling like it was wrong for them to be both smart and beautiful. And of course, if you weren’t beautiful, then you made yourself attractive (and worthwhile) with a sharp, clever mind or as a hard worker, a great cook or by being wealthy. It felt threatening to find beauty and brains in the one being. Ultimately though, as the story the world sells goes, it is the beautiful woman who lives happily every after with their handsome prince (or without if they choose), wanting for nothing, with the world at their feet.
Brains were a poor second place to beauty– if you didn’t look good, being smart was the next best thing.
Without beauty or brains you didn’t even figure in the story
I remember being surprised to find ugly people that were actually married… who would want them, I thought? Yet I’d be the first to say that inner beauty is true beauty. I knew the truth, but these ridiculous thoughts came from what I learned as a child, not from a teacher but from life, from all the subliminal sources we are constantly immersed in that tell us how it is.
"The more we know about our true essence, the more we can come back to who we really are"
Serge Benhayon Esoteric Teachings and Revelations
The reality is, as any magazine will tell you, beauty, glamour, sophistication, sexy aloofness and a slender, fat free body is what is of value – the billion dollar fashion, cosmetic and women’s health industries confirm this by their very existence. By their presence alone we are told loud and clear that beauty matters – and if you don’t have it, there are plenty of people to help you buy it.
I remember being surprised to find ugly people that were actually married… who would want them, I thought? Yet I’d be the first to say that inner beauty is true beauty. I knew the truth, but these ridiculous thoughts came from what I learned as a child, not from a teacher but from life, from all the subliminal sources we are constantly immersed in that tell us how it is.
- Suicide is the HIGHEST CAUSE of death for young men (2008)[i].
- Suicide accounts for 1 in 5 deaths in men aged between 25 and 44 (2008)[ii].
- Men are twice as likely as women to have substance abuse problems[iii].
- Over half of all Australian men have experienced some sort of mental health condition during their lifetime. Over half of all Australian men have experienced some sort of mental health condition during their lifetime. 1 in 2 Australian men will have cancer by the time they are 85[iv].
- At any one time, 1 in 8 men are experiencing clinical depression[v].
- Over half of all Australian men have experienced some sort of mental health condition during their lifetime[vi].
The reality is, as any magazine will tell you, beauty, glamour, sophistication, sexy aloofness and a slender, fat free body is what is of value – the billion dollar fashion, cosmetic and women’s health industries confirm this by their very existence. By their presence alone we are told loud and clear that beauty matters – and if you don’t have it, there are plenty of people to help you buy it.
I remember being surprised to find ugly people that were actually married… who would want them, I thought?
The reality is, as any magazine will tell you, beauty, glamour, sophistication, sexy aloofness and a slender, fat free body is what is of value – the billion dollar fashion, cosmetic and women’s health industries confirm this by their very existence. By their presence alone we are told loud and clear that beauty matters – and if you don’t have it, there are plenty of people to help you buy it.
The Make Over
The Brady Bunch was the first place I saw a make-over. I think Marcia made over a plain (a nice word for ugly) girl into someone beautiful – off came the glasses, down came the hair and with a little makeup and different clothes, voilà the transformation from frog to princess was complete!
Conscious Presence Gentle Breath Meditation
Take a moment to enjoy just being you.
And this is the tragedy of our time – the make-over that opens doors to the world and yet closes the heart to trusting and honouring the beauty within and the immeasurable richness it is.
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The ugly truth is that the make-over is but a shadow of the real unfoldment of beauty that comes when we connect to who we are, knowing ourselves to be precious by the very essence of our being – like a baby, so delicate, fragile and full of their own loveliness, not because of how they look, what they do, say or think, but because they’re just them as they are, breath by breath.
This is the true beauty we all come from.
When I connect to this, a makeover happens from the inside out, unfolding the beautiful woman I am and dispelling the ugly ‘truth’ about beauty.
With appreciation for the wisdom and beauty that unfolds from the Women’s Groups inspired by Universal Medicine.
