A lifelong strategy for powering your authentic self
As the world becomes increasingly diverse, many believe beauty standards are becoming more wide-ranging, mutable, and inclusive. Beauty today comes in all colors, shapes, and sizes, or so the experts say. Yet the media still bombards us with clichéd beauty trends and excessive care routines that mutate by the moment. This year alone we’ve been subject to bold brows, blurry lips, country house chic, anything Peach Fuzz (Pantone’s 2024 Color of the Year), K-Beauty, skin streaming, messy space buns, rucking, and soft hiking. Fashion, beauty, and fitness trends like ballet core, wall Pilates, Hyrox, lush lips, and wet look lashes may already be on the way out!
But are we considered beautiful only when we’re wearing makeup, fashionably clothed, and relatively fit? What happened to those age-old adages that “beauty comes from within” and is “more than skin deep?”
My mother, and likely yours, always touted yet another saying: “Beauty is as beauty does.” Or bluntly put, a person’s character is much more important than their appearance. Our intellectual, mental, emotional, and spiritual qualities count. So do our behaviors, actions, values, and ideals. Beauty comes from these characteristics as much as—or even more than—what we present on the outside.
By this reckoning, external or physical beauty is worthless without the kind of internal qualities that nurture your psyche, fuel your thoughts, form your personality, and power your actions. Without these attributes, you don’t have much to give others—yet these are the features that make us authentically beautiful. I believe beauty is holistic and requires us to nurture all aspects of our character every single day.
While most of us have our external routines down, my personal vision of what beauty means is more expansive and inclusive. Today many think of this as holistic self-care, but in truth, it stems from the ancient traditions of yoga. As a writer, self-care advocate and yoga therapist, I value the importance of reprioritizing, exploring, and cultivating our innermost “musts” to not only be healthy, happy, balanced, and beautiful from the inside out, but to also develop and adapt these aspects of ourselves in all life stages. Here is how to do it.
A Lifelong Strategy to Power Authentic Beauty
To maintain and maximize our inner and outer beauty, it is essential to take care of ourselves holistically. These six principles, based on ancient strategies and mind-body medicine, offer a timeless foundation to creating a self-care practice that can enhance lifelong beauty.
1: Hone Your Self-Awareness
Beauty starts with knowing who you are. Self- reflection and conscious awareness can help you align your inner values with your outer appearance and project a true and powerful presence.
2: Grow Your Mind-Body Connection
By consciously nurturing both body and mind, you can choose to cultivate a balanced and vibrant expression of who you are. This whole system relationship gives you control over your beauty that will extend far beyond appearance.
3: Understand Your Emotional Engagement
Your emotions influence every cell in your body; engaging with them can deepen your inner strength and help you to acknowledge and connect with others. Recognizing how this process works empowers you to use it to enhance both beauty and health.
4: Practice Silence and Rest
Productivity thrives on rejuvenation and rest. There’s a direct link: the more energy you expend, the more you must renew and regenerate your body and mind. Replenishing and nurturing your energy is the most powerful form of self-care.
5: Personalize, Repeat, and Tweak When Necessary
Following and finessing your self-care routine to fit your unique needs ensures your beauty will be a true reflection of you. This personal approach fosters authenticity and makes this a strategy that will always serve your needs.
6: Target Transformation Through Practice
Daily rituals of renewal and growth elevate your sense of self from within, but it takes consistent, mindful practices to shape, enhance, and sustain your inner and outer beauty over time.
To paraphrase my mentor, Deepak Chopra, be flexible, tolerant, and open to change. This will enable you to be loving, kind, optimistic, and happy—a state of being that engenders true beauty inside and out
