What is Beauty? How much are you willing to risk sustaining it?

According to recent studies, ‘believing that beauty is attainable leads to negative feelings’.

There are many people, men and women alike, who believe that changing their looks is self-fulfilling. Researchers at Oklahoma State University, however, found that people (women particularly) with malleable beliefs about beauty – believing that they could become more attractive with effort and the use of current technology – had higher risk

for appearance related anxiety and also are more likely to base their self-worth on their looks. The main influencer of such belief is the beauty ideals typically presented in media images and also by society created messages that push themselves upon all of us daily.

This gives rise to two fundamental questions: 1. What is beauty? 2. What drives human self-worth?

Beauty, according to the dictionary is ‘a combination of qualities, such as shape, colour, or form that pleases the aesthetic senses, especially the sight’. Do you agree with such definition? I believe putting boundaries around beauty is seriously wrong. By defining a concept, such as beauty we do limit its meaning, even though we very well know that beauty is unconstrained and indefinite. The simple reason for this is the fact that what pleases one may not pleases another. Some people may find a snake beautiful, while others are disgusted by it. Hence our subjective perception is the determining factor what we find beautiful. In addition to this, the boundaries that put forward by the above definition should not be limited to our eyes, nor our five senses, rather should be extended to our heart and emotions. I do believe that beauty is simply what ignites our positive emotions. Stereotyping what beauty is and judging the ones that do not fit in the box, is not only cruel and disrespectful, but also highly unnecessary.

Self-worth is a very interesting concept and we all know that it is about our own personal belief of a value we create about ourselves. Our emotions ignited by what we think we are worth are solely driven by the way we view ourselves compared to the world we live in. Hence we cannot put a value on ourselves by ignoring our

environment, which means that the value of what we are worth is not an isolated factor. Value is always compared to another value based on importance, worth, and usefulness. When we have the feeling of low self-worth, we certainly compare ourselves to someone in our environment. If we would just consciously stop comparing ourselves to others and cease to assess the differences, and make an effort to accept of who we are the way we are we would break away from the bad feelings caused by the effects of low self-worth.

Unfortunately, we have been thought from an early age to put a value on ourselves and demonstrate such in order to advance in life and achieve success. However, success is not about how much artificial self-worth we are able to convey, it is about self-love and self-respect. Love and respect is what generates our internal balance, the foundation of high achievements. I believe that one with an inner balance is unstoppable to reach the stars while also help others to do the same.

Opinions may vary, but let’s not be shallow, and walk by the beauty that is everywhere around us. There is only one thing we need to do, and that is to open our eyes and listen to our hearts, and stop seeking for others’ acceptance. It is an impossible battle to win and it simply isn’t worth our energy.