Hold up a mirror to yourself. What do you see? Who are you? I won’t get too existential, but really, who are you? For this post, I’m going to drop the complex sentences and formal grammar because this is now a conversation I want to have with you. So, please, if you're on your couch, in your bed, or at your desk, I encourage you to find a mirror.
Look at yourself. Look at each and every pore, every hair, every centimeter of skin that covers your face. Naturally, you’ve probably already built up a perception of yourself and your external flaws. "I haven’t tweezed my brows in a while," or "my skin is so dry," or even "my lips are too small." All these overwhelming details that you wouldn't have thought of until I told you to pick up your mirror—sorry, by the way—confront you, taunt you, and nag at your thoughts. It's natural to be critical, but it's unhealthy to hyper-focus on it. Now, let’s look deeper at the self you see in your mirror.
People say that the eyes are the window to the soul. They show fear and determination in a millisecond, and people who know you best can recognize exactly what you feel just by looking into your eyes. The soft wrinkles underneath and at the outside corners of your eyes tell the story of your joy. The deep darkness underneath your eyes tells the story of your exhaustion and journey. The heavy lid that overshadows the color and light suggests that you're tired, maybe sad, maybe empty. Sometimes people hyper-focus on the color of their eyes—blue, brown, green, hazel, or whatever other colors are out there—but we tend to forget that the pupils in every eye are the same. They both dilate when you see someone you love, and they both shrink in moments of fear and anxiety. Everyone is more connected than you think, which makes it hard to understand how so much hate exists in the world.
Your nose—big or small, straight or crooked, wide or narrow—serves a clear purpose: to help you breathe, but also to offer a glimpse into your ancestry. It tells the story of the people you come from and who they were. With the recent resurgence of nose job popularity, it may be difficult to appreciate your nose for what it is. You might think the curve isn’t enough, or it’s too small, too big, or any of those vanity-driven thoughts. It’s become so clear in our time that beauty is seen as more valuable than anything else, which leads people to change even the most permanent parts of themselves. If we look back in time and consider beauty trends and the standards people, especially women, had to live up to to afford to be seen as anything less than flawless, we’ll notice that vanity has always been a priority—but the standards change with time and culture. It's what an animal at this level of evolution cares about. It’s no longer just about functionality, and maybe it shouldn't be, at least not all of it. We, as humans, look at each other and see variety, like a field of wildflowers. We pick and choose the most beautiful flower, even if it's not the best at pollinating. Beauty standards have always mattered and always will, but we must see this as a good thing. Because if beauty standards lose importance, it would mean we’ve all become too alike, too artificial. We are all connected, but we are not the same. That’s the real beauty of humanity.
I could go on and connect each part of your face to something about the real world, but to keep this clear, I’ll be brief. This post is not meant to poke fun at your face, but to reshape the way you perceive yourself and the actions you take because of those perceptions. I’ll say this again and again until my lungs run out of air: happiness will never be found in superficial meadows or ego-centric cities. Happiness can be found exactly where you are right now.
No comments:
Post a Comment