Your Own Kind of Beautiful

Many days I finish a market feeling sad because I hear so many women say that they loathe their bodies. They don’t feel beautiful because society has drilled it into us that unless we look like 20-year-old models, we’re not beautiful. To that I say: be your own kind of beautiful.

If I do nothing else at Scented Balance, I want to make you think. My goal and mission at Scented Balance is to help help each woman I meet to know and accept her own beauty – and it always lies within. I want to help you love yourself from the inside out.

Beauty has nothing to do with looks.

I feel so strongly about this issue that I have the Beautiful You Manifesto as a separate page on my website. (Please read it!) When I make presentations, I have a laminated copy that I give away to one woman each time.

You are not your butt, or your breasts or your legs. You’re a beautiful soul making your very own special brand of magic that no one else in the world can offer.

We’re bombarded (under siege, really) with airbrushed images and anonymous online bullies who grind us to a pulp based solely on looks. They want us to think that we’re only as good as our body and outer looks and nothing else.

BUT.

You are so much more than your body.

You have a beautiful soul, a quirky smile, a wacky sense of humor, an interesting personality and a talent that is all your own.

“Always be a first rate version of yourself and not a second rate version of someone else.” 
― Judy Garland

I’m really not sure how we – women in particular – got to the point of being so abusive about our bodies. How did we get so brainwashed into believing that beauty is only skin-deep?

Maybe it’s all the fashion magazines with the emaciated models held up as the perfect woman. It could be that we’re bombarded with images of celebrities who have perfect makeup and super slim figures.

What if it’s Madison Avenue who’s convinced us that we’re not as happy as the people in all the beer commercials? Could it be constant access to the lives of “beautiful” people so that now we’re convinced we need to have the perfect outfit, perfect body – perfect life?

Sheesh…I’m exhausted just thinking about it. A few years back, I made a conscious decision to love me AND my body and work with the assets that I have. So I quit watching so much TV and got up off the couch. I decided it was far more important to love myself – quirks and all – than to be something that I’m not.

I won’t let a magazine or TV show tell me that I need to be tall and rail-thin because of some elusive, unreachable “ideal”. I want to be as emotionally and physically healthy as possible when I’m an old lady because happiness comes from accepting who I am – warts, foibles and all.

Worrying about a few extra pounds and laugh lines is not on my radar. My goal is to be the best Melissa I can be at 106 while being as independent and upright as possible.

The biggest challenge has been for me to accept my strengths, my virtues (yes, I do have a few), my flaws and my weaknesses because I know that I’m a beautiful soul. Self confidence comes from loving and accepting yourself and I’ve never been very good at that. Each day, I’m grateful for another chance to be the amazing soul that I am.

Part of my mission – and gift – is to help other women know that they’re absolutely beautiful just as they are. Beautiful women come in all shapes and sizes – and ages. Love and acceptance of all you have to offer is the real beauty and it shines through.

Please, please, please – love yourself. Love your body. Learn to love the assets you have instead of bemoaning the ones you don’t. I want to see your beaming smile – the smile that comes from self-acceptance and loving who you are. Be quirky – be unique – that’s who you are!

Much love and many blessings!

Melissa

P.S. Please take a moment to share this post with someone who struggles with their body image.