When you hear someone speaking about beauty, most of our minds will jump to having the perfect body, a symmetrical face, a great fashion sense and a good hair day every day. But beauty is so much more than that, and while we have been fixated on looking a certain way for hundreds of years, believe it or not – there was a time when we didn’t think about beauty in the sense of modifying ourselves, but rather embracing what is naturally there. So if you want to ditch the societal standards and embrace the true, natural you in all of your beauty, here are some tips to get there:
Make peace with yourself
We value ourselves and create images of ourselves based largely on how other people see us. Whether it’s counting the likes on our selfies or how many compliments we get on a night out, we rely on other people for their approval. But the natural way to go is to just accept yourself. Make a pact with yourself to believe in your beauty and accept it as it comes no matter what other people might think or say. That is when you can really start feeling beautiful.
Take care of yourself
A big part of being beautiful is taking good care of your body. And that doesn’t mean doing juice cleanses and starving yourself to look a certain way. That means truly taking care of it. Eating delicious, nutritious food that gives your body energy. Drinking enough water to keep you hydrated. Staying active so that your metabolism works normally and you keep your muscles strong. Putting body milk all over yourself after a shower to show your skin some love. Putting on face and hair masks to really make a difference. It’s those things that will not only make you look more beautiful, but feel more beautiful. As long as you are taking good care of yourself and doing your best – whatever your best might be that day, you will never have a reason not to feel beautiful. And don’t forget that your mental health deserves just as much attention as your physical health. Get rid of stress, do little self-care rituals and always check in with yourself to make sure you’re feeling alright, especially in situations that are new or stressful. It’s okay to take a moment for yourself, to step away from a negative situation or person and recalibrate.
Unlearn what you thought of as natural
We’ve been seeing commercials with actresses shaving already hairless legs, removing fake pimples and putting creams on faces full of makeup for far too long. We have a distorted view of what is natural, and it’s important to set things straight, or else we will all feel bad for what our bodies naturally look like. You don’t have to have the blindingly white Hollywood teeth, just find a dentist who will make sure your teeth are healthy and strong. You don’t have to have extensions and dye your hair when it starts going gray; it happens to everyone and the sooner you accept it and rock it, the sooner you’ll realize that the natural gray highlights look better than anything a salon could ever do. Your body hair is perfectly normal, everybody has it, and you really shouldn’t feel any less beautiful because you have it. You can choose to remove it or keep it, but make sure you’re doing what you want, not what you’ve been taught looks beautiful. We all make our own beautiful and if we want our beautiful to be natural, then we have to embrace the real natural.
Do the things that make you happy
Happiness is beautiful. And more often happiness comes from the things we do, not the way we look. When you are doing something you love, your eyes light up, you smile, you have a glow all around you, and you look simply beautiful. When you’re out and about, the best way to look beautiful is to do the things that make you happy and let them show. Are you listening to a song that brings a smile to your face? Don’t try to hide it! Are you riding your bike and enjoying the wind in your hair? You look beautiful. When you go through life doing the things you love, surrounding yourself with the people you love, and seeing the beauty in others when they are joyful, you will realize that is when you also look most beautiful.
Looking beautiful naturally isn’t all in the avocado masks and bare faces. Feeling beautiful will always come from within, and if you really want to feel liberated and feel your natural self come through, these are the first steps to get you there. It might be a long road, and there will be times when you will feel like nothing in the world could make you feel beautiful right then, but that’s when you got to remember these steps and take a true look in the mirror.