Natural Beauty Reflections
Photo by Ane Gleerup @GleerupStudio
Natural Beauty - Such a Drag
In the last few days, I’ve been creating and choosing a lot of the content for our Natural Beauty space. A part of me thinks it’s an absolutely boring topic, but another part of me feels this is a very important section for us to include and focus on. As with food I find the subject of beauty and the measures we take to ‘beautify ourselves’ in and of itself absolutely bland because it’s not something I spend my time desiccating, discovering, or exploring. It’s just there. But then again; the relationship we have with our appearance is also always there, and it affects so many aspects of our life; from how we speak to ourselves internally and how harsh we allow our inner critic to be, to the judgments and interactions we have with and around other women.
Natural Beauty - Why it Matters
I don’t really have much to preach on this topic, because how we embrace natural beauty and what it means to us is an individual matter. I do feel to encourage you to reflect, however, on the kind of future you wish for, for our little girls:
In the way we live, where Instagram models and photoshopped women are glorified, do you ever feel like you should be ‘more beautiful’ in looking like them? Would you want your daughter to look like them?
Do you ever think about having cosmetic work done - and how would you feel if you had a daughter that felt like she needed to do this to be beautiful?
How do you wish for women to feel about themselves and one another in the future? Acceptance, inclusion, love, compassion? Judgment?
I have a friend. Her little girl is 5, and when my friend noticed how her daughter stopped complimenting herself and instead looked in the mirror while asking if she looked fat, my friend took action. My friend said: “No babe, you don’t look fat. You’re beautiful and radiant and magnificent!” And knowing that she herself, as this little girl’s mother, is the role model for how this girl will embrace and love her body through life, my friend started a new routine: Each day she would go to the mirror and say things like “Damn, I look good today, I feel like I’m the most beautiful I’ve ever been!”, while her daughter would hear. I love this. Because children are the biggest mirror we have! I’m happy to report that my friend’s little girl has stopped questioning herself.
Sisterhood
As I said, for me natural beauty is a boring topic, but it’s an important one because it doesn’t just affect us and our generation. It affects the future of how humans are with one another. In my own experience, I’m a size 6 and I’m early 30ties. My body is healthy and I’ve received beautiful genes from my parents. And still, if I don’t actively put on my ‘amour’ or connect to my inner wise woman (she’s like my inner grandmother Willow), I still hear voices of doubt questioning my body shape from time to time. Mainly it’s my stomach that’s the issue, but sometimes my thighs take a hit too. How wrong is this picture? To think I should even be spending time or energy thinking about my appearance is foolish. This is where we’re at. But I believe so strongly that this needs to change.
Whenever I question myself I love myself. And when I can’t love on myself I ask a soul-sister for support. She will reflect my beauty and my light back to me and ease my self-doubt when I can’t do it for myself. Whenever a soul-sister questions herself; I’ll be there in a heartbeat doing the same thing for her. Not all of us are as lucky as me to have such a beautiful network of supporting sisters, that walk the same path here. And I also have friends who can’t do this for me, who in turn will make me question myself more as I experience them judging and making changes to themselves. I still love these women dearly, but all I want is for them to feel how magnificent and beautiful they are - naturally. We need to be open though, to change. And enforcing or pressuring or blaming never helps to inspire growth or openness. Only love, compassion, and leading by example does.
Responsibility
We have a choice as women of today. We can either accept it when we feel insecure or make alterations to our appearance to accommodate our self-doubts. Or we can embrace ourselves, work with what nature gave us, and teach our little girls that they are absolutely divine and magnificent the way they were created. I feel that it’s our responsibility to lead the way for our little girls this way. Because as in the story of my friend above: We are the models they shape to fit.
Just a little food for thought.
Much love,
Oh and ps.
If you’re wanting a little inspiration on the methods we have available to enhance the beauty nature gave us,
check out our natural beauty treatments section. ♥