I want to throw some light on how
society has conditioned us in believing beauty is all about physical appearance.
I want to stress on the fact, how inner beauty is far more important than outer
beauty and share some ways of how you can enhance your own inner beauty.
As an example, I recall a story I read some time back. There was a notorious gangster living in a society. Obviously people thought he had a bad influence on the kids and they were fed up with the violence. So they set up a meeting and put a plan in place to drive him out of the community. One morning the gangster was going on his casual walk. Somebody came and stopped and said "Good Morning! What happened? Your face looks so dull". The gangster continued to move ahead thinking "Why do I look dull today?" now the second man joined him and he said "Oh! What happened, you look so sick and tired? You also seem to have lost some weight, you look very weak. Haven't you seen the doctor yet?" now the gangster is already feeling tired and his body temperature has slightly gone up. In his 1 mile walk, ten more people joined him and said the same things. And by the time he gets home, he has high temperature fever and he feels really sick. These people didn't stop at that. Every 30 mins, without fail visit him and tell all the things to him. Believe it or not, in the short period of 5 days, the gangster died.
Now, all that it is a simple story that may or may not have happened. But this has a very strong psychological lesson in it. It clearly depicts the power of a message that is repeatedly bombarded on us. Regardless of the message that is true or not, it has the same effect. Now, let's draw some parallels about the society has done to us in the context of beauty. Over decades, the society thru television commercials, magazine ads, thru celebrities, models, they portray the image of beauty to us. An image that says "beauty means falling under a certain height and weight, beauty means having a six pack body, beauty means following latest fashions and trends" and it goes on. Especially woman, they are under enormous pressure to look young and beautiful. It makes me wonder just like the plan that the community put together against the gangster, is the plan that the society has put together to keep a woman worrying about her hair and makeup. In that way they don't strive to achieve bigger and better things in life.
While the external beauty goes
with age, inner beauty grows with age. To grow old and die one day is the law
of nature. There is not one single product or procedure to stop that. For my
question "Why fight a battle, if we
cannot win?"
Say if you are investing in
something, what do you think? You think about return on investment right? If I
put this much of time and money, what am I getting back in return? If I ask you
"I have a great project, invest
Rs.10000 in it today, and 5 yrs later, I'll come back and give you Rs.100,
would you invest in it?" We should be smart enough not to invest
something that is not going to appreciate in value with time.
We all think the same way, then why this foolishness? Why make investments in external beauty that we all know for sure will fade away with time, and not in inner beauty that is going to increase with time.
Now what are the some of the ways
that we can enhance our inner beauty? I
want to share four important points
- Try to understand yourself, constantly develop qualities like compassion, kindness, generosity, patience, honesty and other noble qualities.
- Surround yourself with amazing people who inspire you and let you own inner beauty shine thru.
- Read excellent books that enrich and expand you thinking.
- Avoid negative thought and focus on the positive things.
I am sure there are lots of
things that you can do. But, if you can focus and daily practice and working on
these four things, I am sure you are well on your way to let your inner beauty
blossom.
To summarize, remember outer
beauty goes with age while inner beauty grows with age. I urge you to be smart
in the investment that you make from today onwards and don't fall for the
spooky tricks that the society and the media plays on you.
"For beautiful eyes, look for the
good in others. For beautiful lips, speak only words of kindness. For beautiful
figure, share you food with the hungry and for poise, always walk with the
knowledge that you are never alone."-
Audrey Hepburn
