At your essence, you are beauty. You impart beauty to whatever you perceive, not the other way around.
As already discussed, yours is the power of perception, not what you perceive. As such, you impart reality to whatever you perceive, not the other way around. Most people go through life believing that they receive meaning from the external world. This drives the desire to do and have because they believe that something outside of themselves is going to give them meaning, value, happiness, and abundance. So people end up looking for meaning in this world of form and phenomena, believing that if they meet the right person, if they buy the right house, if they wear the right clothes, if they have the right job, if they have the right body, then their life with be filled with meaning, with peace, with joy, and with satisfaction.
There is the chronic tendency to think that external accomplishments and accolades create meaning, when in fact the opposite is true. As human beings, we subjectively endow everything with meaning. There is no reality external to the reality we create. There is no meaning external to the meaning we create. We assign meaning or lack thereof to everything in our life, not the other way around. This one realization has the power to radically transform your life; it will radically change your relationship to everything and everyone in your life.
In the same way that we search for meaning, we search for beauty. We believe that somehow something external to ourselves is going to make us beautiful, that somehow it will endow us with the beauty, the elegance, the glamour that we desire. There is the wide-spread, dare I say almost ubiquitous belief that beauty is something that we can achieve by doing something, becoming something, and appearing a certain way. It usually involves changing something about who we are so that we can appear some other way. Here is what I mean:
The seemingly infinite supply of cosmetic companies, make-up lines, and rejuvenating lotions all send the same message: “buy this lotion, wear this make-up, wax this, or reduce that, and you will be considered beautiful. You and others will perceive that you are attractive.” Or consider the advertisements for gyms and fitness equipment: “Tone your abs, tighten your butt, strengthen your arms, lose the fat, and get the man or woman of your dreams.” The subtle belief is that there is some external standard of beauty that can and should be achieved.
Inherent in these messages about beauty is the concurrent belief that if you look a certain way, then someone else will perceive that you are beautiful. If you buy the cosmetics, go to the gym, get the new clothes, then other people will think you are attractive as well. Unfortunately, this is also a fallacy. You have no control over how other people perceive you – none whatsoever.
The key to understanding this is realizing that you do not exist as a separate, objective entity. When someone else looks at you – you are occurring in his or her mind, subject to the unique filters and conditions of his or her particular nervous system. In the same way that you assign beauty and meaning to everything you perceive, so the other person assigns meaning and beauty to what they perceive. Whether someone else perceives you or anyone or anything else as beautiful is completely outside of your control.
The truth is that you assign meaning; you create meaning. You determine what is beautiful and what is not. There is no beauty outside to be achieved; you alone have the power and the ability to recognize, determine, and experience beauty. You have this power no matter what you weigh, no matter how you look, no matter what anyone else says. You alone have the power to determine what is beautiful and what is not. You have the ultimate power to decide how you will feel about your body and yourself. Remember, you are the Source of all beauty. You need not become what you already are; you need not chase after that which is already within you.
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About the Author
Sarah Maria is the author of Love Your Body, Love Your Life. The book outlines her 5-step process for helping you feel great in and about your body and yourself. Her work embraces the physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual, so that true and lasting healing can occur. Click here to purchase your copy and begin to love your body today! To learn more about Sarah Maria and her work, you can visit her websites at www.sarahmaria.com and www.breakfreebeauty.com
Good abstract.
Great post Sarah Maria, congratulations on your book!!
Noreen/