Rain’s freedom is in falling
A single note is free to float into a listening ear
A tree is free to rise and dig
Which stirring sets you free?
I am shy. Innately. I used to like running just under the radar.
And then, on the other hand...I am outrageous, a wild ball of fire, unafraid to stand out, basking like it was Hi-Test for my engine.
(Hmmm…which is my truth, which is my cultural conditioning?)
Tell me about you…
In your opinion, where do you fall on the spectrum of avoiding attention to guzzling it?
Here is a quick test: If you were having a moment to yourself in a garden, and an admirer was actually viewing you from afar, enchanted – would you be devastated or secretly delighted?
There is only one true answer: delighted (both).
No matter how we cut it, how we resist or desist, the deep irrefutable truth of human nature persists, and even more so for the feminine.
Beauty is our nature. Attention is our fuel.
Interesting, isn’t it?
We fully expect a baby to coo back at us when we notice her and interact appreciatively. We actually worry if she doesn’t engage with us. Is she ok? Is something wrong?
And then, quite the opposite is true for grown-ups.
We are taught to shut it down, dial it down, turn it off, tone it down.
Don’t shine too bright, don’t delight too much in your own radiance. Keep a lid on it. Dump doubt on your magnificence so no one sees. Multiply this by ten for women.
We misunderstand and misconstrue beauty.
We think of beauty as a way to appear, rather than a way to live.
We think of inhabiting our beauty as vanity, rather than prayer.
But, darling.
There is a part of you that knows the truth about your lust for beauty, and wants to create beauty in as many ways as possible – the way you eat, the way you dress, the way you make art, the way you relate to your family and friends, the way you make love, the way you bathe by moonlight.
Our culture can disconnect us from our truth, sometimes. We can come to believe that our need for beauty is superficial. And selfish. There is a huge consequence to this erroneous belief. It disconnects us from our life force, our turn-on, our spiritual aliveness. Beauty – genuine beauty – flows from within. It is an expression of radiance, a love of life, deep gratitude, and palpable joy. Beauty is inclusive, celebratory, holy. Like nature, herself. Beauty is limitless, strange, quirky, awe inspiring, illogical, stirring, deeply accepting and endlessly diverse.
Beauty dares us to love what is.
To stand proudly in its manifestation through us.
Can you handle that?
For an hour, for a minute?
Every moment you tolerate your magnificence is a point for our team.
Can you give yourself permission to be as audacious and innocent as that six month-old baby, receiving and reflecting attention as fuel? There is so much benefit to each of us, living into the truth of our design. We are meant to dream of beauty and create beauty on both the inner and the outer. Beauty heals; it soothes the soul, inspires appreciation, love, and devotion. It balances the nervous system. This is not meaningless, trivial, or impractical. Beauty is the most obvious way in which God makes His magic felt.
A world without beauty would not be a world any of us would want to inhabit. So, just for today, how many ways can you choose to inhabit your beauty?
How many ways can you celebrate your magnificence?
Can you be as vulnerable and brave as that six month old – receiving, enjoying, and taking in the attention that your beauty generates in the world? Believing, first, that you ARE beautiful, just as you are (trust me, no matter how odd you feel you are, there are takers. Hell, probably everyone will reflect that love for you, if you first feel it for yourself).
Can you actually accept YOUR beauty? Reveal your heart - and let yourself be so loved for it.
Think of a time, recently, when you shrank or diminished yourself or ran from a situation in order to feel safe. When you made yourself invisible even though in your heart, you wanted to be seen, right where you are. We need to be seen and loved for who we are. When we make ourselves feel lesser than we are, when we limit our sense of possibility and potential to be loved as we are, we give up our crowns. This eventually damages our inner sense of self. It will cause us to mistrust ourselves.
Wearing a mask that’s too small creates conflict in your heart, between your essential self, which is expansive, loving and filled with creative possibility, and those internalized critical voices that attempt to keep you in a box. That overrides your heart’s inner direction.
How does your beauty want to offer itself to the world? Do that. Lift someone up. Sing. Dance. Kiss. Give joy a shape, a form. Serve it in a silver bowl. Choose over and over again that which makes your body and your incarnation a blaze of love, creative freedom and blessing.
Be conscious of your energetic impact on the world around you and take responsibility for it.
Be in right relationship with nature. If it’s blustery and raining today, be the sun. If it’s sunny today, be the wind, or a cloud, or a rainbow, or whatever you please. If the weather’s changing from hour to hour, play with movement, mutability — or be the ballast that steadies a fluctuating world.
Your desires are messengers from your soul, a driver of your incarnation. Receive them with respect, hospitality, gratitude and love. Dreams that you invite into your world become the path under your feet, the moon that lights your way.
Make friends with the questions knocking at the door of your heart. Embrace the beauty, depth, playfulness, complexity of the world it opens up for you.
Don’t dim your light. The world desperately needs it.
The writer is a Holistic Wellness Expert, Entrepreneur and PR Head at The/Nudge Institute. Views expressed are personal.