‘We delight in the beauty of the butterfly, but rarely admit the changes it has gone through to achieve that beauty.’
We often believe that happiness depends on how our body looks, especially when we are young. As we grow older, the loss of youth and the natural beauty of the young, causes concern and anxiety, and many try to use artificial means to try to recapture beauty, youth, and vigour. We can hear people making casual statements like ‘I am not happy about how I look’, ‘I am too fat… I am dark… I am weak’ in a lament of the loss of beauty. All this sends a powerful negative message to the mind and the body of rejection of the self.
Self-criticism and rejection do great harm to the soul. The truth is that how we look does not make us happy or increase our self-worth, but inner happiness glows from within and that happiness is not only attractive, but also contagious.
Inner beauty is far more valuable than physical appearance. No amount of make-up will increase the inner beauty of the soul. The inner beauty of what is within, lights up the face and streams through the eyes, the windows of the soul. It is the development of character, the acquiring of spiritual values, and the absorbing of real virtues that make a soul beautiful. It all depends on the thoughts we have. If we spend time elevating our thoughts, our minds will become ever more beautiful, and this will be reflected on our faces, and our actions will reveal our true character. We can take care of our attitude, our feelings, behaviour, and habits to increase our inner beauty.
Meditation each morning and evening and the study of spiritual knowledge each day go towards creating a powerful and pure consciousness. We need to also take care of the health of our bodies, and make sure to maintain a healthy weight. In the same way that increased body weight makes us heavy and unable to move with agility and grace, heavy thought processes also inhibit our ability to feel light and easy. We can check throughout the day if our thoughts are becoming heavy, in the same way that we check how much we are snacking and putting on weight. If we see that we are becoming too heavy, we can exercise our minds with elevated thoughts and take some moments for meditation, and begin to feel light again.
A person’s inner beauty is far more valuable than their physical appearance. Inner natural beauty is the light that radiates from your heart, mind, and soul, and is reflected outward through your eyes, touch, smile, and loving personality. It is about kindness, compassion, gentleness, humility, loving and being non-judgemental about others’ appearance. Our facial expressions, eyes, smile, gestures, and body language, are indicators of who we are inside – beautiful, pure, and powerful. When feeding ourselves with positive energy and embracing our true selves, we radiate a natural beauty. Let our hearts shine brightly, and be like a burst of sunshine in someone’s day. We can make a firm endeavour to inspire everyone we meet, to look for the positive in anything that appears negative, and to make sure that anyone who comes to us always leaves us feeling that much more uplifted.
All of this not only makes the world a better place, but it will also return to us in unexpected ways because life is an echo; whatever we give out, always comes back to us.
Chirya Risely is a Rajyoga meditation teacher, based at the Brahma Kumaris Peace Village Retreat Center, USA.
