When we think that we want to lose 10 pounds (or 5 or 15 or 500), often what we are really thinking is "If I lose weight, I will feel beautiful."
So here's my suggestion to you: If you want to feel beautiful, why don't you focus on feeling beautiful?
And not on feeling beautiful three weeks from now after your juice cleanse, or eight weeks from now after you've gone to boot camp classes and finally have defined arms, but feeling beautiful right now, today, this very second.
Let's cut to the chase.
Let's cut out the middleman.
Feeling beautiful is available to you today.
So get out your pen and paper, and spend five minutes answering this question: "What do I need to do to feel beautiful as possible today?"
When I really sit with that question, the answers that come up kind of shock me. Right now, to feel as beautiful as possible, I'd love to:
- Put on "real people clothes" that feel soft on my body, and that I think are fashionable (I may or may not be writing this post to you in my pajamas).
- Wash my face, brush my teeth, and put on some moisturizer and some lip gloss.
- Do something with my currently frizzy hair, so it feels smoother and softer and elegant.
- Get out of the house and buy a cappuccino and do some work in a coffee shop.
- Get a massage.
First, let's talk about how bizarrely easy most of this list is to accomplish. I need to...brush my teeth and stop wearing pajamas? Do my hair?
Those last two points, in particular, kind of blow my mind. To feel beautiful...I need to get a massage or leave the house and sit in a coffee shop? What do those things have to do with beauty at all?
Yet, it becomes clear to me that when I really ask the question, "beauty" is about feeling good and radiant.
That point is so powerful that I think it is worth repeating: feeling beautiful is about making myself feel good.
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I'd really love to hear what's on your beauty list. Is what you need to feel beautiful as surprising as mine? Let me know in the comments.
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