The Survival of Beauty
On a daily basis, I have clients ponder the idea that having cosmetic injections or even a skin treatment will be interpreted as being self-centered. “Am I being vain?” they ask. The guilt sets in, particularly in the over 40 crowd.
I often reply with monologue about why it’s important for us (women more-so) to do things to increase our confidence because that helps us in all roles in life. We can be better moms, wives, friends, colleagues, leaders when we are taking care of ourselves. You know, the concept of putting your own oxygen mask on before helping those that dependant on you. If I have to miss my workouts, I get cranky. Htere are certain things I put first because I know that when I do, I’m more optimistic about generally everything.
As I explored this topic, I was fascinated to learn about the science of beauty, and the different types of beauty: internal vs. external, beauty distortion and thought patterns about beauty.
FIRST OF ALL, WHAT IS BEAUTY? ACCORDING TO WIKIPEDIA:
“Beauty is a characteristic of an animal, idea, object, person or place that provides a perceptual experience of pleasure or satisfaction. Beauty is studied as part of aesthetics, culture, social psychology, philosophy and sociology. An “ideal beauty” is an entity which is admired, or possesses features widely attributed to beauty in a particular culture, for perfection.”
For example, imagine a beautiful experience. A walk in the forest, a mind-blowing meditation class, a child being born. All are synchronized with nature. Everything between our mind and our soul feels connected to something bigger. We know it when it happens. We are often surrounded by beauty but get too caught up in foolish thoughts to truly appreciate it. When I walk my dog, I make a conscious effort to observe the landscape and take in the miracles of nature. Hear everything, see everything, smell everything, touch everything. I try to push out the distractive thoughts that might minimize the beauty in front of me. It’s a huge challenge.
Even more of a challenge is to see beauty in ourselves and others. We have become conditioned to see beauty as Hollywood depicts it complete with airbrushing, digital filters, lightning, and Photoshop. It’s not even real anymore. What have we done? We don’t even know what we are seeing anymore. And who decided that we should all look the same? That’s my biggest pet peeve in the cosmetic injection industry is the goal of everyone having the same lips and cheeks. It’s ridiculous. What happened to individuality?
It does actually drive me a little bonkers when someone who has a tiny lip and they show me a picture of a huge set of luscious lips on Instagram. They, say… “this is what I want”. And I say, “I’m not a freaking magician, we can only enhance what you were born with!” I wish we could start seeing authentic beauty and individuality on social media. We’re creating unrealistic expectations and body dysmorphic disorders with this technology! Check out the video below to see how crazy Photoshop really is:
