What Does it Mean to be Beautiful?

How would you answer that question? I’ve been thinking about this a lot recently. When I look at my friends, I see so much beauty. I think, ‘You’re so beautiful.’ 

I get different responses back:

Thank you

Aww, that’s sweet

No, I need makeup

Maybe after 40 pounds

Ugh

I had someone tell me that they think it’s shallow to talk about someone’s beauty. That’s so interesting. It got me thinking about what view of beauty they have.

Is beauty just physical?

Is beauty just exterior?

Does beauty mean someone fits in some mold of exterior shape and look?

Is beauty only for a few?

I’m not sure which view they have or if it was any of those.

As I really reflect on this, I don’t look at models and think ‘you’re beautiful.’ It doesn’t mean they’re not beautiful. It just is not where my head is at. 

This is what beauty is to me in a person:

Life

A listening ear

A shared experience with common mindset

Seeing someone in person

Laughter

Support

Grieving together

A helping hand

Someone who wants to help

Love

Reassurance

Growth

Learning

Giving

Engaging

Understanding

Wow, this got hard to stop listing out.

Beauty is so many things to me, and that’s the whole point.

Beauty IS in the eye of the beholder. I’ve heard it before, but it really has more meaning. It isn’t about the exterior really. 

How could those things ever identify beauty? How would you even describe the exacts of what is beautiful and not beautiful by exterior definition.

Imagine how hilarious that is: ‘You must be at least this tall, weigh no more or less than…, your nose must fit in this category, your stomach can only be a certain size, your hair has to be this thickness – no more or less.

Yuck! This is what we do to ourselves by accident though. We have some erroneous standard of what we SHOULD look like on the OUTSIDE. We don’t even know how to really define it; we just know it should be very different from what we are.

What’s the result of that? We prevent ourselves from seeing the beauty that we have.

Imagine this:

What would it feel like to be a beautiful woman on the outside and hate yourself on the inside?

Exactly what it feels like now.

You are beautiful. I will keep telling you that. You cannot stop ME from seeing your beauty. 

But you can stop yourself. Why do you want to do that? As a punishment for something not deserved?

Define beauty for yourself. What does that even mean? 

How many hours and days are we spending thinking about how ‘not’ good enough we are outside, inside, whatever?

We’re missing all the beauty.

Here is what I’m going to define beauty as in one sentence:Beauty is an overall expression of what starts in the genuine heart and is reflected on the outside.

I really believe that. So if I’ve said you’re beautiful before, I mean it. Inside, out. 

When I see your face, when I hear your voice, when I think of YOU as you, you’re beautiful.

People don’t like us because of how we look. They like us because of how we think.

I don’t care what your face looks like (even though I love your face LOL). 🙂

Even if I was blind, I’d know you were beautiful.

See you soon, lovelies. 

Love, Christie