A misty sundown drifts into your senses on salt air. You ride on this soft breeze into another, gentler life. The wet firm sand of the ocean’s edge caresses your toes as you walk along the shore. You see a small flower; a wonder of nature; so beautiful. It grows between some rocks and it makes you happy just to see it.
You walk further through the cleansing ocean air. You see a beautiful woman, or a beautiful man. You are in awe of everything. Your heart swells and you say to yourself, “this moment is beauty; life is beauty; I am beauty.”
And it is true. You are beauty. There is no other way you can recognize and feel this, unless you have this beauty within you also.
Nature is like that. You cannot identify and appreciate anything outside of yourself that does not also exist within you. How can you possibly know what beauty is, unless you have this inner beauty as a reference?
The truth is inescapable.
You are beautiful
What a wonderful discovery this is, to know that you are beautiful.
But you might be thinking, “What the heck is this guy talking about?” “What does this have to do with my life?”
Well, it has everything to do with your life. I am talking about the best that is within you. And the best you have to offer will produce the best results in your life — but only if you choose it. Do you choose a beautiful life?
You could instead, choose to see your life through perverse senses. You could choose – without even knowing it was a choice — to exclude beauty from your vision. That walk along the ocean would then only sting your nostrils with the foul smell of kelp and rotting fish, punctuated with the annoying screech of scavenging seagulls.
Your vision can just as easily throw you into an ugly life, as it can render your life a thing of beauty.
It is up to you to determine how your life will look, and how it will feel to you. And it helps to know from the beginning — that you are beautiful.
Why do you deny your inner beauty?
Do you renounce your beauty as a human being because you are ashamed of owning it? Do you feel guilt over your ability to see and feel depravity, ugliness, and aggression? Do you feel this lessens your beauty?
But you cannot diminish or obliterate beauty. Beauty is intrinsic to the order of existence. When you move in accord with that order, you see beauty in everything because that is the nature of life. When you are at odds with yourself and with life, you see and live a lack of beauty and order. You are outside of nature’s loop.
Despite its pull on your mind, ugliness and depravity is not within you. Power is within you, and you will empower whatever you set before your mind’s eye. If you focus on the truth of life — the beauty and the order — you can work wonders and become a genuinely successful human being.
If you do not own this inner beauty of yours you will empower its lack, and you will move further away from your nature until only mind and impulse remains, devoid of true spirit.
Choose wisely then.
Acknowledge the beauty within you
If you do nothing else of significance today, please make room in your mind, and in your heart, for some beauty. It is all around you today and every day. Look with an open heart and you will find it.
Know that every time you see and feel beauty in the world, you are seeing and feeling a representation of the immense beauty that resides in your soul — a reflection of the beauty within you.
You are truly beautiful.
Over to you now…
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13 comments ↓
A ‘beautiful’ reminder.
What you say in your first section is very true and often misunderstood. Particularly by those who have not experienced ‘being beauty’.
But that is exactly the issue. It is not possible to rationally understand and appreciate that we and everything else are beauty. The grammatical structure of sentences even say it is incorrect.
However in order to experience beauty you have to lose the concept of even beauty itself. When all the thoughts and emotions have disappeared then and only then is it possible for beauty to shine forth naturally.
Then you experience being ‘beauty’.
I digg
John, this sounds a bit like the opening line from Carl Sagan in The Cosmos except for him it’s broadened to a cosmic proportion rather than from a human perception. Strange considering he was voted humanist of the year in 1981.
In this line of reasoning, what is the place of God? Where does He fit in?
I would suggest that the beauty we have, is a reflection only (and a marred one at that) of a creator that has created us to be beautiful.
A lovely post. And a good reminder. I too, believe beauty resides within. So does strength.
I wrote a post about ones inner strength not too long ago, and I think it would be highly relevant to the discussion:
It’s titled, “The True Origin of Inspiration.”
http://punintended.com/blog/its-inspiration/
Great post!
It fascinates me, how such a subtle change in perspective between seeing beauty versus seeing ugliness can make such a huge impact in the experience. It’s almost like you create the world. And in a sense, I guess you do. But it’s so easy to forget that. Thank you for the reminder!
Sometimes I think I’m choosing not to see the beauty. I somehow don’t want to, I shut it out. It’s almost like somehow I fear it would hurt to much. It’s strange, can’t understand it myself - does it make any sense?
Hey thanks guys. I enjoyed reading all of your comments.
Carl Sagan — gotta love him don’t you?
And Bamboo, I liked the post you linked to. I see what you mean about the relevance. So similar in thought.
I think I see it now: fear of pain makes you afraid of life, which means you’ll miss out on the beauty.
Hi David,
You’re not alone in those issues. Our minds are so cunning.
Here is another possibility to consider:
Sometimes we unconsciously hold on to our pain because it is familiar ground. So in that scenario, instead of fearing pain, we don’t allow ourselves to see and feel beauty because we fear moving out of the familiarity of pain.
And yes, sometimes we do fear moving forward because we fear the unknown, and there could be disappointment lurking in the distance.
But you know the old saying, “nothing ventured, nothing gained.”
Thank you John for this beautiful article.
It was soft, simple and peaceful to read.
I like how you said that when you are at odds with yourself, you see a lack of beauty. This is so true, because being in sync allows us to see even seemingly chaotic circumstances as beauty.
Beauty is an open heart, often found in vulnerability and surrender.
Thank you for this.
Monica,
You said,
What a lovely way to put it. That says it all.
Thank you,
John
How refreshing John, I love your words….It was as if you were speaking them right to me….seeing right through me, and so that is your inner beauty reflecting back for all to bask in.
Sunshine coming your way,
Erinita
Erin,
And so I was
Thanks for the sunshine,
John
Every person is a flawed human being, however, there is inner beauty within everyone. Develop our inner beauty, discard the ugliness, and lead a beautiful life. What a great message!
Great Post! Thank you for sharing such beauty…
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