Who Is The Beholder That Matters Most?

The beauty industry and popular culture would have us all believe that beauty is skin deep and can be improved upon by striving to meet the ideals set for us. But whose ideals should we be following?

Beauty standards shift dependent on what country you are in, what era you are from, and what your belief system tells you is ‘good’.

Should you be buxom and curvy to demonstrate your wealth and ability to buy plenty of rich foods? Should you go under the knife to seek out the perfect nose, lips, or eyes? Should you be pale-skinned and bleach away the natural tones? Should you be athletic and have a sculpted torso or appear fragile and waif-like? At different times and in different places all of these have been desirable.

If by some lucky lottery draw you happen to meet the criteria of your time and place, what then, is that enough? Or will you carry the underlying and invisible anxiety that comes with knowing physical appearance doesn’t last?

I’m tired of all the nonsense about beauty being only skin-deep. That’s deep enough. What do you want — an adorable pancreas? Jean Kerr

It seems as though no matter what body you are born into you are also handed an impossible struggle to achieve an ever-changing perfection unless your sense of your own beauty comes from somewhere else.

Do you choose to exist at war with yourself, with the inevitability of time itself, or let go of external measurements and focus inside on experiencing beauty rather than looking for it?

Beauty is an experience, nothing else. It is not a fixed pattern or an arrangement of features. It is something felt, a glow, or a communicated sense of fineness. D. H. Lawrence

We have all had moments in which we are struck silent our breath pulled from our bodies at a stunning view or had the hairs rise on our arms listening to a voice so full of something ‘other’ that it almost brings tears to the eyes. This is the experience of beauty and it is something that can be completely unique to you.

You don’t need to work to appreciate the natural beauty around you. You don’t need to spend any money or learn anything new. The only requirement is for you to slow down long enough to notice

I believe seeing the beauty that is all around you, accepting it, drinking it in, and knowing how special it all is without anyone having to influence or manipulate it in any way, is the first and most important step to experiencing your own beauty in the same way.

We need to pull back from the manufactured and see things in their natural state, and once reconnect with that on an experiential level, looking in the mirror we are met with the beauty of us as we are, not a reflection of what consumer culture would have us believe.

So, the next time you go outside start to notice. The next time you look up from your screen and stare out of the window, notice. The next morning you wake up and see your uncovered face, notice. Your beauty is there to be experienced from the inside out.