What is 'BEAUTIFUL'?

Beautiful. A word I’m positive that all of us are very much familiar with, we use it every single day. “Oh, that’s a beautiful flower”, “She is so beautiful”, “That’s a beautiful sunset!”.

Here’s a question for all of you, what is the first thing comes to your mind when you hear this word? A colourful landscape? A sunset? Perhaps a flower? 

Most probably not. I can go ahead and guess that it was a person.

Today, society or ‘the internet’ has put forth a standard of beauty; a mould in which one should fit in, in order to be labelled ‘beautiful’. We are being told that we need to look a certain type of way to be pretty or attractive or desirable. A certain skin tone, certain types of features, a certain body type. 

The ones that don’t fit in this mould, which in fact includes most people, are called ‘ugly’, undesirable, unattractive. They are made to feel that no one would want them because they are not what society calls ‘beautiful’. 

This issue is not restricted to a certain gender or race, in fact,- almost everyone will admit that at one point or another in their lives, they have thought of their bodies as ‘ugly’ or not beautiful. We look at the people society has labelled beautiful and then inevitably compare our bodies with theirs. This leads to what is now called ‘body-image issues’.

This belief that one needs to look a certain type of way to be accepted and appreciated is now so deep-rooted in all of us that we cannot think any different. 

But in reality, beauty is a term that cannot be defined. The idea that the essence of beauty can be encompassed into one mould or stereotype is absolutely absurd. Beauty comes in different shapes and sizes, it isn’t restricted to a particular skin tone.

This point cannot be stressed enough, EVERY body type, colour, feature, and build is uniquely BEAUTIFUL. 

Trying to change yourself for society’s ridiculous expectations, you will lose yourself, which is, in fact, the most beautiful part of you. In today’s world, being authentic and staying true to yourself is the most attractive trait one can find. 

As they very rightly say, beauty is what is within. It is our inner selves that will be constant, as physical beauty very quickly fades and we are left with only ourselves. Beauty is not constant and changing ourselves to conform to society’s -absurd standards is absolutely not worth it.

Beauty is in the eye of the beholder, and the only beholder who’s opinion matters is you. You need to realise that you are beautiful, no matter what, and thus you will realise that you deserve so much more than the hate you were giving your body. 

Everybody is beautiful in their unique way, and the best thing we can do for ourselves is to accept our bodies exactly the way they are.