My daughter recently turned five years old and during the party a good friend of mine was snapping pictures of all of the festivities. At one point she asked me to kneel next to my child sitting on a chair about to blow out her birthday candles and I admit I hesitated. I thought about how I didn’t look as good as I used to in my youth, how I had more wrinkles on my face and more weight on my body. Then I looked at my daughter sitting there waiting for me, waiting for her mama to proudly sit by her side for a picture on her birthday. I rushed right over and smiled a wide smile waiting for the click of the shutter. Today I made it my cover for my personal Facebook profile page.
We age, every single day we age, every single moment we age. With age comes changes to our body. Would I be gifting my daughter by telling her that mama didn’t want to be in a picture because mama didn’t feel pretty anymore, or wasn’t pretty anymore? My husband thinks I’m pretty, he thinks I’m hot even! He tells me so all the time and I am grateful for that. My daughter tells me that I’m pretty. Why don’t I see that I am pretty myself?
Have you gone through this, judging your temple, your body; looking over all its flaws that you seem to notice and not seeing its beauty and shine?
Here is today’s challenge, take a photograph of yourself and print it out and write the words, “I am beautiful.” on it. Take a good look at that picture and at yourself and on another piece of paper write a list of your assets, your beauty, what makes you shine. If you feel that there is a flaw, examine that. Really break it down to the nitty-gritty and see if it truly is a flaw. I think in the end you will find that you are flawless. Even if you are not at the healthy weight you want to be right now since that is our main focus with this sadhana, it does not mean that you are not beautiful.
I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, achieving a healthy weight is a process, a journey and journeys take time, one step at a time. Each step that you take remember that you are a beautiful person, inside and out!
Really like this one today. It was particularly hard to read. In fact it’s making me cry.
You are so beautifulk, Doris Jean. On the outside as well as the inside.
I know the moment you mentioned, as I was watchng you as you went over to be beside Eowyn. Your whole family shines from the inside because of you.
I guess what’s making me cry is that for the first time I’m seeing how differently someone may feel about themself in a specific instant and instance where at precisely that exact same moment, EXACTLY THAT SECOND I was thinking to myself how wonderful you and Frankie are and how your love and beauty shine forth. That’s me pulling out exactly what in an instant went through my head in non-sentence form as you hesitated and then went over to Eowyn.
There’s an article I reposted on Facebook a bit back – or rather a blog post I guess – where a mom writes about calling herself beautiful because she realizes that she minimizes herself in front of her daughter and she doesnt want her daughter to learn the unintentional message she’s putting out. You and Eowyn, and Frank and Beren, are all beautiful.
Thank you so very much Jennifer for your kind words. You and your family shine bright with beauty inside and out as well and you and Joe are so inspiring to Frank and I. Thank you for sharing your thoughts and feelings and for reminding me that I am a beautiful woman and for helping others to remember that every single on of us is beautiful and not to forget that!
Thank you. This hits home today!
You are so very welcome.