Beauty: A Note On Stripping Away The Superficial

I have recently been focusing on beauty. How it’s defined and viewed. Why it is that people aspire for certain looks or qualities and what draws us to those things. Why sometimes the most natural things are labeled as marvels. There’s a magic to creations that are raw as well as objects that exude grandeur.

Personally, I have begun to immerse myself into a chapter of discomfort by trying to remove the superficial beauties I practice or place on myself to feel like Im achieving the standards of what our world considers “pretty” or “attractive.”

Minimalism and living simply are things I have found to be extremely valuable in many ways at this time in my life. In terms of beauty, I feel like by stripping away the excess, I have been able to access a whole new side of how I see my body, my appearance, and my role in certain environments. I can listen to my body and take care of it by nourishing it how I feel it should be nourished, not by what others might recognize as looking “good”. I push myself physically so that I can feel stronger, confident, and motivated. There are no markers of my success except for feeling better in my own body, and that has been such a freeing feeling. Although it may not be a new concept, it is a new one for me to have internalized. That I can feel beautiful and healthy just by satisfying my own self.

Now, what I wear isn’t what makes an outward statement of my style, it simply is an expression of who I am, what I find beauty in, and what makes me feel happy as well as comfortable. I don’t have to be a loud voice in the room or be recognized. Another extremely freeing feeling.

Taking a long term approach to beauty has been a large shift for me, and an even more important one. In the past, if I wanted to enhance my beauty, (or what I considered it to be), I would find the most immediate solution to make that happen. Now I am learning that it takes time and patience to care for yourself in ways that will create longer lasting and healthier expressions of beauty. No matter through what form of beauty this focuses on: skincare, vitamin intake, exercise, style, diet, etc., doing things that are for the betterment of our bodies and minds just because they are so precious is so important.

Overall, not feeling like I have to prescribe to a certain standard has allowed me to find what I consider beautiful. And although it has been difficult to make myself lose certain things about me that I used to hold dear as beautiful about me, I know that this discomfort is nothing compared to the most pure, natural beauty I’m allowing myself to grow into and express. I am grateful that now, I am allowing others to learn the beauty in my heart and not just see the construction of beauty I fought for so long to build and maintain.