It’s Wednesday! With Wednesday comes the continuation of our series “Exploring Beauty”! Woot! Woot! Today I want to introduce you to an awesome writer and editor, Megan. She is going to explore beauty and the act of worshipping yourself via small beauty rituals. So without further ado….
Rituals
You splash water on your face after using your favorite face wash, you rub the moisturizer into your face in cute little semicircles all over your cheeks and neck, and when you look at yourself in the mirror, you feel cleansed. This isn’t because you just washed your face. No,it’s because you took care of yourself.
Worshipping Yourself
The phenomenon of beauty is that despite our inherent recognition for beauty, we have been subject to the ideal that it is extrinsic. Even the way we interpret beauty is extrinsic: in magazines and on television, and even while you’re window shopping. It is all a process of being “told” what is beautiful. In response to this concept companies have been inspired to start campaigns like Dove’s #RealBeauty. But we need more than a hashtag.
We are constantly trying to filter the way we understand beauty. We have industries, communities, and even families telling us “how” and “why” we are beautiful. But what if it was different? What if we didn’t need to be told anything about beauty? What if the concept was so intrinsic that we didn’t even think about it?
In some way we have all been imprinted on. We’ve been told and shown different types of beauty, and we categorize ourselves based what we’ve been told.
Loud and Lovin’ It Girl
On one end of the spectrum, we have the “Loud and Lovin’It” girl: This girl doesn’t care who knows that she invests in her beauty. She buys the expensive make-up, the stuff that works. When this girl walks into a room, she commands attention. When her friends see her, they think to themselves, “I wish I could pull off that shade of lipstick.” This is the girl who teaches you how to do a fishtail braid and knows how to apply polish on the fingernails of her right hand. This girl gives herself facials, and takes long bubble baths. And this girl is beautiful.
Under-Cover Girl
On the other end we have the “Under-Cover” girl. This girl doesn’t care what she looks like. The Under-Cover girl leaves the house wearing sweats, no makeup, and doesn’t think twice. And she pulls it off, too. This girl doesn’t give a flying crap about anything other than maybe combing her hair. In fact, she scoffs at other girls when they enter a room all decked out. This girl sees the way the media influences our body images and she hates it. This girl throws her hair in a bun, pulls up her yoga pants, and gets it done. And this girl is beautiful.
Do you recognize yourself in either of these girls? Do you know anyone like them? Whether you do or not, here is the goal: Find a comfortable place for yourself in-between.
The key to beauty is to remember that it need only exist as a force of empowerment. Like exercise, it is good for you. But unfortunately, many of us have forgotten what it truly means to love ourselves. By caring too much, or not caring at all, you are letting others define what beauty means to you. You must ask yourself, “What makes me beautiful?” Whether it be your naturally curly hair, the space between your front teeth, or your freckled elbows, you are beautiful because YOU decide you are. That’s it. That’s the secret.
When you take the time to apply your lipstick, add coconut oil to your hair, or get a facial, you aren’t just putting on a face, you are putting on your face: the face you wear when you see the person you love, kick ass at the office, or clean house despite three screaming children. When we invest in ourselves, we no longer become manipulated by anything extrinsic. We are empowering ourselves. We are loving and nourishing ourselves..
After we decide what makes us beautiful, we must emulate beauty for those around us. We set the example for our children that no one defines our beauty except us. So let’s reclaim beauty! Not in order to define it, but to embrace it as a part who we are, inside and out.
Let’s embrace the process of worshipping ourselves.
~Megan Olsen
Bio:
Megan Olsen is a writer and mother in Ogden, Utah. She is currently working as Editor-in-Chief of Metaphor Weber State University’s Undergraduate Literary Journal and has had multiple publications. Megan is a true believer in spoiling yourself which is what inspired her to work as an independent consultant for spa grade pampering products through Perfectly Posh.
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Comments (23)
I agree that we should take care of our so yeah it is fun to wear makeup and use products to help us look better however it isn’t good to worship ourselves we should be worshipping their Creator God but thank you so much for your encouragement for people not to worry about others think about how they look naturally and the comparing ourselves to others is not right
I agree! I also think we should worship God first and foremost but I do love having the unique perspective of others 🙂 Thank you for reading!
love this post. I especially love the quote about admiring others beauty without compromising your own. The two spectrums are interesting. I tend to fall in the middle of the two!
I do too! I loved that quote and had to add it to the guest post because it was just so perfect with what she was saying! 🙂 Thanks for reading 🙂
Though I’m not a proponent of self-worship, I do agree that when you take care of yourself, you feel good because you *are* taking care of yourself! Heavenly Father gave us our bodies, and I’m sure he loves it when we feel good about our appearance and how we feel. ?
Totally my thought, I loved the unique perspective from someone else 🙂 and it helped remind me that my body is a temple, that not only do I need to care for it in the healthy way but that loving oneself is a good thing because we are his children. I definitely want my kids to love themselves too! 🙂 Thanks so much for reading!
What a great concept. Thanks for sharing!
Thank you for reading! 🙂 It’s always fun to get someone else’s perspective.
I find that the older I get the more I appreciate myself. I wish I felt as comfortable being me when I was younger though.
I feel the same way! Like a letter to my younger self would definitely include just appreciating myself as I was. 🙂 Thanks for reading!
Okay. I love this. I love the concept of identifying things that center us and make us reflect on our worth. However, and this is a big. However, I think it is treacherous ground to get into self- “worship.” I believe that self-worship has resulted in many a catastrophic situation both on the big scale (Selfishness in global interactions resulting in all sorts of horrible outcomes) and on the individual scale (damaging relationships because we think too much of ourselves and not enough of others.) So, I like the idea of spending some time drawing in and taking care of us, but I am not sure that is self- “worship” as much as it is self- “care”. Just my little thoughts. Thank you for a thought-provoking post. I will continue to ponder.
Heather- love your comment! That’s definitely what I take it to mean, although I can’t be sure since I didn’t write this piece. But I did love that it got my mind thinking and made me even clarify how I feel about it all. I tend to gravitate towards feeling guilty these days for indulging myself in things I did regularly before hubby and kids- but this makes me think again about that pedicure 😉
Admiring someone else’s beauty without questioning your own. WOW! I have never heard that before. So powerful and amazing!! This was a great post. Thanks girl!
Have a beautiful + kind day!
Taylor Layne
I loved it too! Thanks for reading Taylor!
I love this concept- that beauty should be empowerment and not discouragement! Thank you for the reminder to worship myself!
I like that concept, everything we do is to empower ourselves. Everything I do from taking care of myself to what I think and feel is all in hopes of living the best life I can. It’s about making life happen for me, rather than letting it happen to me, which is where the beauty lies.
Love that philosophy!
I love that quote: “admire someone else’s beauty without questioning your own.” That is huge for me. Always looking at others and seeing how beautiful or unique they look and then I feel bad about myself. But I shouldn’t. I’m beautiful and unique too and I shouldn’t diminish it when I admire someone else.
What a delightfully beautiful post! Thank you for sharing. 🙂
Thanks for shining a light on how incredibly important self care is. You can’t pour from an empty cup!
I love this! Admiring this concept!
I love this. Such a simple but important concept.
Judging by the descriptions above I would have to say I am more of an undercover girl.