We live in a culture that is obsessed with beauty. Movies, shows, influencers, and other media constantly push the idea that we should look good and that we should look for beauty in our partners.
But what is beauty? How do you define it? What do you find beautiful?
The idea of external beauty tends to be very shallow. A person we know to be cruel and harsh might be attractive, but we would not describe them or see them as beautiful.
Even with the best make-up or Photoshop filters, external looks are not enough to make someone truly beautiful.
True beauty is not about looks, eye color, hair, skin, clothes, accessories, makeup, weight, and all those things society teaches us to value and pursue.
Beauty is something internal.
A person who is there for you when you are down, someone who is kind, someone who is intelligent and virtuous and giving is a lot more beautiful, and that type of beauty will last for a long time, their whole life.
No matter how well we care for our looks, they will fade and change with time. They might be affected by sickness or an accident or simply age. They are not lasting or deeply purposeful. However, what’s inside is.
Beauty is based on empathy, understanding others, and being good to them. It’s about being good to ourselves too and practicing compassion.
Beauty is having self-awareness and being willing to admit when we are wrong. It’s about being generous and giving, emotionally as well as in the material sense.
We live in a culture that constantly associates being good-looking and being beautiful. But the two are not the same.
Caring about your looks is not bad, in itself. The problem comes when we care about our looks and those of others at the expense of everything else – kindness, worthiness, and more.
Looks are shallow and tell us little about the person.
It’s the internal beauty that matters, however, and what allows us to live truly good lives.
