Your Inherent Strength 2 - Cultivating a Sense of true BEAUTY

Whatever your present personal sense of beauty may be, as a woman you can always improve on this. Because sense of true beauty is your natural birthright. For this lies deeply within your soul and enables you to be creative and exceptional.

Here are some powerful questions for you:
1. What is true beauty?
2. Do you have a personal sense of beauty?
3. If so, can you think of ways to improve it?
4. Do you feel at times that you radiate true beauty and at other times none?
5. If so, what is different?
6. Do you generally feel unanimous with other people or do you stand out from the crowd?
7. And what about your carriage, do you slouch or move with a gait of lightness and inner flexibility which attracts others?
8. What about your voice, is it high-pitched, whining or timid?
9. Do you gesticulate excessively with your hands?

Believe me, if you want to radiate true beauty, you will need to examine these questions consciously and honestly. At least, you owe it to yourself to become aware of your inner urge.

What is true Beauty?

Have you ever consider the word Beauty? My acronym for BEAUTY is "Being Authentic And Unique to Yourself". And I emphasize the self. Because true concept of Beauty resides in the natural love for and acceptance of oneself. Meaning, you love and accept yourself naturally for who you are. Without being vain. But how can we claim to be authentic or unique to ourself when a large number of us women are so bent on being carbon copies of a number of fashion images dictated by the society or more correctly, by the commercials?.

It is not only illusionary but downright insulting to every woman's natural ability to discern what enhances her beauty, when she is fed and trapped by false concepts of fashion and modern styles. This is detrimental to every woman's individual creativeness and can undermine the intuition and inner clarity.

Mind you, I am not saying that fashion hasn't got its merits. What alarms me is the way we easily let ourselves be dubbed and influenced by the fashion industries. We are often coerced into believing that true beauty and elegance can only be attained through outer imitations. We have stopped being critical and using our inborn natural sense of judgment which we were born with.

Here is a good example for this. When I was a teenager in the early sixties, the mini skirts made the fashion headlines. Immediately all girls and women worldwide systematically changed their wardrobes to rise to the call - because it was "in"! We all got brainwashed into dressing alike, trying to clad our bodies into this ridiculous apparel, completely forgetting to honour our different sizes, shapes and forms! And see what resulted from that. Women did not only open themselves to all kinds of molestation and assault, this fashionwave as usual was also shortlived. And now it is back. Women are once again being lured by the great fashion magnet and the frenzy continues.

But where do we portray our unique sense of beauty in our surroundings? How can we stand out and attract success and have a lightness of heart which imparts us with freshness, when everyone is so busy trying to look alike? This is simply unnatural and brings a short circuit into the natural law of movement and individuality. Our inner motion of alertness and vigilance cannot be tapped into. This renders us inflexible in our consciousness.

Criteria for true Sense of Beauty

I once read somewhere that "exuberance is beauty". This may be true. Still I believe above all, that true beauty comes from what is inside and choosing to live our lives with awareness without compromising our nature.

I am not about to give you a list of what to look for when determining what true beauty is. No, I would like to encourage you to observe yourself from the inside out. This means, become more aware of what naturally attracts you. Try not to worry about or be unduly concerned by what others might consider as not "fitting into" the set rules of dos and don'ts of society. For these are usually devoid of vitality and life. Instead, re-discover your own preferences and combination of colours to go with your moods and sensing.

Should you have to adapt to certain situations, you can still be true to your own sense of beauty by looking into the mirror and asking yourself honestly: Is this me, and am I pleased with what I see? Or do I remind myself of a second class image of a mannequin depicted in a fashion magazine? Take me for example, when I am getting dressed to go out, I never settle for anything less than what I truly believe to be me, and this imparts with me a great sense of uniqueness and vigour. Try it out you might surprise yourself.

Also observe women around you, who captivate their surroundings with their natural beauty. What is different about them? If you apply your intuition keenly, you'll discover that these women are authentic and simple. I have had the privilege of being around two wonderful women in my life. Both my grandmother and my own mother were role models of authenticity and uniqueness. They had their share amount of challenges and struggles in life. And yet, their true beauty never failed to shine through.

A very important aspect of true beauty which we often ignore is the way we carry ourselves. As a result of some excessive modern sports practised today by most young women, and a variety of many other not too favourable practices, a great number of women have lost their natural feelings for inner balance. And without a clear inner balance, a good carriage cannot be attained, much less maintained. Good posture and self worth goes hand in hand. It is our natural leverage for com-manding attention and respect from a silent observer.

Our actions can also portray our beauty to others. If we do things that may later harm people who trust us, we tarnish the beauty these people see in us and they demonstrate this by withdrawing from us. Admittedly this is a subtle example, but all actions, thoughts and words are energies. Once they are set in motion they follow their natural paths of reciprocity.

Health and Beauty

Do you know that your body builds up a lot of acidity during the night as a result of the metabolism? This is why the blood acidity level rises when you are asleep at night. The level of acidity in the organism can actually be determined via the urine in the early morning hours when you get up. A number of different researches have shown that among other things, the level of acidity in our body is responsible for the deterioration of numerous cells and tissues of the organism. Therefore accounting for rapid aging of cells and loss of tissues elasticity.

What can we do to slow down the tissues and cells degeneration? One great way of reducing our blood acidity level is by drinking warm water before going to bed at night and first thing in the morning. It is also very wise to make sure you drink plenty of clear still water during the day as your system gets dehydrated from a variety of bodily actions. Drinking up to 6 to 8 glasses of water will maintain the hydration of your entire body including your blood and brain cells.

Using abdominal breathing exercises is another way to consciously influence inner beauty for better balance and inner composure. You may also try fasting periodically, lasting for about 7-10 days at a time. Please do consider what is best for you.

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Here are things you could do to enhance your natural beauty and become more aware of your sense of true beauty:

o Aspire to noble thoughts, words and actions which uplift your spirit and your surroundings.

o Endeavour to let what you inwardly perceive manifest outwardly.

o Live from your core values, and try not to compromise these.

o Carry yourself with a dignity that reveals your vigour and vitality and imbues you with self esteem.

And Above all, enjoy discovering new hidden talents in yourself, and allow these to shine from within.