From the Inside Out

I have been changing.  Healing.  Learning.  From the inside out.  Not only emotionally, but physically.  Yesterday, I was out with my girlfriends....including the junior ones which are our daughters....and I noticed how prevalent the beauty industry is.  I know, duh!

But truly, I had never really calculated how desperate we are as a nation to achieve beauty....no wrinkles, supple skin, skinny, toned, good skin color, the perfect look.  It's no wonder that I'm coming late to the game, but what stunned me yesterday was how I've CHANGED.  From the inside out.  I've been adhering to some things that my health nut friends do.  Strangely....my teeth are whiter, my skin is oh so soft, I'm losing weight and I simply feel better.  So much better, that I forget to take Tylenol with me when I go places anymore...that's amazing since I was on an every four hours regimen for a very long time.

So many people needing to feel beautiful.  FEEL it.  Not just be it.  It's a sad place for us as women.  Not that beauty is bad, but that we have gone so far from the basic things that we are looking everywhere outside of us to make it better.  I was appalled by the price of a mascara....$138!  Not a big one either.  Everywhere I looked, everyone had on makeup just right.  Perfection, right?  But I looked closer.

Some of the women were truly beautiful.  Like the woman who helped us at the estee lauder counter.  She was beautiful.  And very little of it had to do with the beautifully coiffed hair nor the impeccable job she had done on her makeup.  She was beautiful because she was kind and understanding.  She spent time with us and wrote things down for us and told us where we could get things for a better price....and she viewed herself as an artist.  She liked her job.  She smiled.

I am learning to be healthy in so many ways.  Not because they will make me skinny nor more attractive...but because I was created in His image.  Created to shine.  Created to fly.  Can't do that if I can't get up.  Can't do it if I'm constantly embarrassed.  Or constantly worried.  Or always feeling less than enough.
I am learning to relax.  To do good things for me.  Rest my mind.  Cry when I need to.  Drink lemon water....it's amazing how quickly things change in my body with this simple change that I LIKE.  Oil swish....my teeth are whiter, my gums are healing and my skin is pushing out all of those little bumps and getting smooth and soft.  Garlic tablets...energy is good.  Quiet time.  Sleep.  Not worrying.  Praying.  Lots and lots of praying.  Putting my feet up.  But not too much...also getting up and getting out.

So many things and so many people conspire to steal real beauty.  I want to learn beauty tips like other women do...and yet, not so much as well.  I want my truest beauty to become a heart that shines, a spirit that radiates...I want the hope and joy that spill out of me to so overshadow any put on shadows, blushes, coverups, foundations....

And the inside will seep to the outside.  Genuine happiness shows.  Real smiles are beautiful.  And rare.  When I looked around while I was at the mall, I saw a lot of people playing dress up to be beautiful and only a few that had that deep beauty....that emanated from the soul.  That's the one I want.  I want to embrace what I look like, what my body is shaped like, how  I sound, and then...forget about it and go on to just letting the outer reflect the inner...both physically and spiritually.  I want not only to be beautiful...I want to feel beautiful...because women who feel beautiful change their worlds
blessings.