Do You Know You Are Beautiful?

Do you remember those Dove commercials? The ones promoting beauty in all forms. Or how about the one with the beauty bar and the ladies who avoid mirrors for seven days? They come back to their reflection and see whatever difference there is. There is much more to see in the meaning of that when you think about it.

There is meaning in how we look into the mirror and tend to break down the reflection into pieces to be fixed. We look to our wrinkles, scars, stretch-marks, the hair on our arms, how short or long our eyelashes are, and that pimple coming in, as things that must be wrong with us, this is our shame talking — that these parts of our body are something “wrong” that we need to change.

It’s okay to want to deal with that pimple, it sucks, but it’s in your life for the short term at the very least. The scar might be from a fall you took as a child, the chicken pox that you scratched. (I have one beside my eyebrow plus a few scars from my cat when she was around and still very feisty.)

The stretch marks may be from pregnancy, or if you’re like me, weight gain and loss and then stuck with me from my childhood years. You can even choose to shave the hair on your arms if you choose. Keeping it though isn’t a bad thing, that hair isn’t something that requires a fix to make you more anything, especially beautiful.

Do people like to hear the truth? The filthy and not-so-pretty parts? Sometimes they do, though, as a society, we do often like to sweep those truths under the rug.

We like our Photoshop. (Heck, I like it too for lots of things!) We love our reality TV and the people who are perceived as so very perfect. But there are many who actually prefer the not-so-pretty side of life as deemed by society. To know that they are not alone. That those scars and everything else I wrote above are the norm and not the exception!

As asked in the title: Do you know you are beautiful?

I don’t always, I will be frank. I’ve had many a man tell me that I am perfect just as I am and then some who might say I have a pretty face but that they could never love the body that goes with it. I’m curvy — I’m fat — I’m overweight (though overweight of what exactly? I do not know) I have a pretty smile and a nice butt.

What of those stretch marks though and that tummy that isn’t even nearly flat? Are these things I can smile or cry about? I’ve done both, usually in the company of myself. I sometimes believe I am ugly and hate every inch of myself, the parts I can see and the ones hidden from my view.

I will go back to it again.

Do. you. know. that. you. are. beautiful?

Because even with my down days I sure do now. I know that the things that make up my body and how it looks are amazing.

Every little bit of it tells my story — where I have come from and what my life has entailed. The colour of my eyes, the length of my lashes, the amount of hair on my arms — these things come from my parents and my grandparents and their parents and so on. They have been passed down in genes and moulded over time, they have possibly been dormant for years and I could be the first to have that in the last 5 generations.

These things that I may wish to hide are precious and they are me. I am so darn lucky to have them so that I may show the world the unique person that is me. Just as you are and can. Your natural curls or thin lips, these qualities of your body are yours to own.

I can write it a thousand times and you still might not believe it to be true but it is. I don’t want you to think of beauty as a perfect skin, silky hair thing.

Beauty is you. It is who you are when you wake up — It is who you are when you take your makeup off or put it on.

Beauty is you if you just believe it and trust in yourself. You are not stuck up to love yourself, you are powerful and amazing.

I hope that you can see that. That one day, maybe not today or tomorrow, but someday you can look in the mirror and not break down the imperfections to things that require fixing. That you can see them as they truly are, the story of you. The one you built over time, the one that is worth loving no matter what.

Because you know what? Darlin’ …I know you are beautiful even if you don’t realize it yet.