From the first moment I saw Gabourney Sidibe, I’ve thought she was beautiful. I found her captivating. And interesting. Despite knowing nothing about her. And despite the fact that she defies our society’s standard of beauty.
So when I saw this quote, it all made sense to me. She finds herself beautiful and that shines outward from her soul, emanating her beauty from within. Shining her light outward on those of us who look at her and feel her confidence and her beauty, filling her aura with golden light.
But what about the rest of us? Do you see your own beauty? Or are you hung up on society’s definition of beauty, as pictured on screen or in fashion mags? I sure hope not, because while actors and actresses and models are indeed beautiful, they are helped along with makeup artists and stylists and photoshopping and trainers and chefs and who knows what else. So let’s not let them be our guide to real beauty. Let’s start with ourselves.
Recently a friend and I were talking about attractiveness and she said something along the lines of, “Aren’t we all average?” I quickly corrected her and told her that there’s nothing average about us!
And I believe that. I’m not willing to relegate myself to being average in any area of my life. Not for one single moment. Because there’s nothing average about me. Or about you. Neither about beauty nor anything else. We are each such unique and gorgeous human beings with our quirks and talents and individualnesses.
But what about beauty? So many of us were raised to think that we shouldn’t relish in our own beauty, because it’s conceited or narcissistic. Or arrogant. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again here. If you don’t appreciate your own beauty – both inner and outer – who will? Accept your own awesomeness – and this includes seeing your own physical beauty.
And don’t even bother trying to tell me that you’re unattractive. Because there’s something attractive about just about everyone. And often times it’s more about their inner beauty shining through than it is about their outer beauty anyway. Haven’t you ever met someone who is so very attractive, yet it’s not because their physical beauty is overwhelming? Or conversely, someone who is amazingly physically beautiful, but their beauty fades for you after you get to know them and find that they’re not a very kind person? That’s all about their inner beauty, or unfortunately, a lack thereof.
So once again we come back to our own inner awesomeness and confidence. It’s important to find and believe in your own inner beauty as well as looking yourself in the mirror and believing in your outer beauty.
Bottom line…we need to believe in ourselves. Believe that we are wonderful. Believe that there is something awesome and amazing and unique that makes us each our gorgeous, individual selves. Believe that we are beautiful. And then we need to go look in the mirror and say it to ourselves. And believe it. Then that’s the face and the spirit that we need to show the world.
If we do that, I guarantee that the world will begin to respond to us in a very different way. The world will see our beauty.
Now go get ’em, gorgeous!
Lacking self confidence I started my first job; Lane Bryant. I WAS the swarthy dark haired girl. I was fortunate enough to have an amazing boss that did plus sized modeling who told me it’s not about how you look it’s about how you carry yourself. It was a game changer, it changes you from within. .So for me Sabourney’s words echo that for me . What you exude does make a difference.
Love this story, Diane! Thanks so much for sharing!
I love this! I think in addition to building our own confidence, a huge take away from this is to show that we should recognize other’s confidence and applaud them for it.
It’s that constant push and pull with women. We aren’t leaders, we’re bossy. We aren’t confident, we’re conceited. We get a negative reaction to positive attributes, and often times from other women! We need to always have this reaction to confidence. And if someone doesn’t respond to our confidence, always remember, haters gonna hate!
So true, Nina! We need to keep reminding ourselves to not only be confident, but to accept others’ confidence!