5 ways to become beautiful

“I am beautiful.” Those words were hard to say at first, until I learned to love myself. If I said the words “I am beautiful” out loud or before a mirror I cringed. I did not believe others when they told me I was beautiful, and if given a compliment, I would find many reasons to discount the compliment.

Becoming beautiful was done, not by losing tons of weight or wearing tons of makeup, but by just loving myself for who I am. I did not need to “fit in”, or compromise my authenticity to be beautiful. There was no plastic surgery, no physical changes were made at all for, me to become beautiful. It was all in my mind. I simply needed to accept myself, and love myself unconditionally. It meant accepting flaws or imperfections, my personality, and my body. I had to encompass mind, body and soul, rejoicing in myself, celebrating my uniqueness as well as my gifts, my defects and my assets. Below are some steps to take to help yourself be beautiful.

!. Realize that beauty comes from within, its not physical. There is no need to change your physical appearance, what is needed is a good, close up, personal inventory of all the awesome things about you. Think about all the wonderful qualities that make you special.

2. While doing that personal inventory, realize that you are going to find things you do not like about yourself, self perceived flaws. Accept those flaws and understand that no one is perfect, those flaws are what makes us unique.

3. Appreciate, everywhere you have been in life, your journey that has taken you to where you are now. By appreciating your journey you accept the things you cannot change about the past. Your journey has made you into the person you are today. That person has a lot of experience, strength and hope to share with the world.

4. Practice, practice practice. Learn to say to yourself while looking in the mirror. “I love you”

5. Lastly, monitor all your self talk. Every time you hear yourself criticizing yourself, stop those thoughts immediately, and replace with the thoughts of “I am beautiful” Take all negative self talk and kick it out of your head, replace with good thoughts of your beauty.

The steps above take a little practice, but its easy to do. Tape a sticky note around your home, in different spots, to remind yourself, to think of the positive traits that make you beautiful. Take a few moments and write down 5 sentences that reinforce that beauty. Sentences like, “I am a kind, compassionate person who readily offers a helping hand up to others”. Write, write, write, those sentences. Follow up with… “I am beautiful.”  Say it out loud, say it in your car while looking into your mirror, say it at home, say it at work. When you hear yourself say those words smile and believe that you are BEAUTIFUL. Most of all from now on when someone gives you a compliment, smile and say “thank you” because YOU ARE BEAUTIFUL