[Recently, I asked for some questions or concerns from friends and readers. I have taken the opportunity to see what words might come regarding these inquiries and the results are what follows... Your thoughts and comments are invited. ]
How does one accept their own beauty and not get sucked into the notion that a thin body is the only form that's beautiful?
We can be hard on ourselves at times... non-accepting of the way things are... But the short answer resides in being one with the essence of Being... with the essence of Love... with the acceptance of what is...in this present moment.
Modern society is constantly bombarding us with advertisements that try to define beauty and what what we need. Beauty is often regarded by the ego in comparative terms. "How does my body compare to his or her body." It seems that real beauty must emanate for within and release into the world. As we drop our false identities of being "fat" or "not beautiful enough" and move to the present moment of finding that stillness within, we realize that we are not the thoughts in our head. We begin to notice what our thoughts tell us about our body and we become the pure awareness that notices the thoughts and feeling. We are not those thoughts and feelings, but often fall unconsciously into believing the words and beliefs we have heard from others and have replayed in our thinking or egoic mind...
In other cultures and times there are different ideas of beauty and what constitutes a beautiful body. We can see examples in the art and photos from various times and cultures. There are many concepts of beauty that reside in our collective and personal unconscious... there are conditions were we ruin our health due to obsessions about what we think is beautiful or 'ugly'...and, by contrast, there is the energy of 'Beauty' that is beyond the egoic attachments...
Within the stillness, we see 'what is'... We may see we have more weight on our body that may be slowing us down in some way...or perhaps unhealthy for the vehicle of the physical form to carry all the time... But this is just 'what is'... it is not negative or positive... and has nothing to do with real beauty.
Inner Beauty emerges from pure awareness and the acceptance of what is... it emerges from the still-point within that is pure BEING...pure awareness in this moment... If we are to put words to the energy of 'beauty,' it might be considered a gentle and harmonious light energy that dances with LIFE energy... aligning with the ground of BEING... One with Life and Love...
How does one accept their own beauty and not get sucked into the notion that a thin body is the only form that's beautiful?
We can be hard on ourselves at times... non-accepting of the way things are... But the short answer resides in being one with the essence of Being... with the essence of Love... with the acceptance of what is...in this present moment.
Modern society is constantly bombarding us with advertisements that try to define beauty and what what we need. Beauty is often regarded by the ego in comparative terms. "How does my body compare to his or her body." It seems that real beauty must emanate for within and release into the world. As we drop our false identities of being "fat" or "not beautiful enough" and move to the present moment of finding that stillness within, we realize that we are not the thoughts in our head. We begin to notice what our thoughts tell us about our body and we become the pure awareness that notices the thoughts and feeling. We are not those thoughts and feelings, but often fall unconsciously into believing the words and beliefs we have heard from others and have replayed in our thinking or egoic mind...
In other cultures and times there are different ideas of beauty and what constitutes a beautiful body. We can see examples in the art and photos from various times and cultures. There are many concepts of beauty that reside in our collective and personal unconscious... there are conditions were we ruin our health due to obsessions about what we think is beautiful or 'ugly'...and, by contrast, there is the energy of 'Beauty' that is beyond the egoic attachments...
Within the stillness, we see 'what is'... We may see we have more weight on our body that may be slowing us down in some way...or perhaps unhealthy for the vehicle of the physical form to carry all the time... But this is just 'what is'... it is not negative or positive... and has nothing to do with real beauty.
Inner Beauty emerges from pure awareness and the acceptance of what is... it emerges from the still-point within that is pure BEING...pure awareness in this moment... If we are to put words to the energy of 'beauty,' it might be considered a gentle and harmonious light energy that dances with LIFE energy... aligning with the ground of BEING... One with Life and Love...
The body is our vehicle for moving around in our current home...Planet Earth... Each form is unique... It is what it is. We can always choose consciously what we use for fuel and maintenance for our bodiy's needs.
So we can find the space of stillness... we can watch our thoughts and feelings about 'Beauty' and we can decide to move beyond the words and emotions and into the state of BEING which is pure Beauty, Peace, Love... the Joy of Being... Now
[Note: I have lost and gained weight over many years. Self-image and self-esteem are 2 psychological terms relating to how we think and feel about ourselves in conventional ways. Our identity is beyond what the scale tells us... and our ego likes to get us lost in comparing body image to others or in negative thoughts and feelings. That is always a losing exercise... the comparison one... it seems it is best to make choices based on what we choose for ourselves and our way of being in the world rather based upon how we compare to those around us or what others may think. jh]
September 13, 2010 - JH
