Act beautiful!

So I'm going to share a video, and I apologize in advance because it had me blubbering like a baby, if you are a big softie like me, then break out your tissues. You've been warned.

 

I think the reason why I started crying is because how many times do we look in the mirror and we're unhappy with the way we look? And worse still, we equate it then with who we are as a person. So if we're unattractive by conventional standards, it means that we are somehow less than a great person. It bothers me to think that so many awesome women (and men for that matter!) look in the mirror each day and feel miserable because they believe how awesome they are is linked to a conception of beauty that isn't even real. It's manipulated with makeup and lighting and crazy diets and computers. Most importantly, it focuses on the outside of us, our shells.

Now I'm going to share a quote by the late, the great Maya Angelou.

"I've learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.”

If at the end of my life, all I've accomplished is this quote in a positive way, I'll consider myself an accomplished woman. And to make this happen, you don't have to be a certain size, have a certain hair or skin colour, you don't have to be rich or famous, all you have to do is be kind. Sure, inspirational, funny, brilliant, strong, but ultimately kind.

When I saw this video I looked at these women who looked at themselves and were so unkind when rating their appearance. Then after seeing the montage of their loved ones telling them what wonderful women they actually were, they felt like a million dollars, and none of what was said (at least in the video) had anything to do with how they look.

So the lesson is to me anyhow, beauty should not about how you look, it's about how you behave, how you think, how you share, how you live. Kindness is perhaps the biggest key of this and the first step is being kind to yourself, because chances are, if you were in this commercial for this band and you wanted to scroll to "looking like crap", you'd have a whole slew of people ready to tell you just how beautiful you are. Beauty is not appearance, it's action.