This week I was doing a meditation that recommended that we look in the mirror every day and say our qualities and how beautiful we were, inside and out, how grateful we were and how beautiful our day was going to be.
I found a CD with photos that I made as a gift for my boyfriend, on the eve of the end of 2 years of coexistence and I saw all the difference. Not physical, because I haven’t changed much, but how much safer, stronger, more peaceful and more enlightened I’ve become, inside and out.
- I studied in a private school where I was one of the few black women.
- And despite many friends.
- We didn’t talk about it.
- He didn’t have that schoolmate thing.
- I felt like the ugly duckling.
- But fun.
- Humor became my outlet.
- I felt like I was not in my world.
I didn’t talk about it at home, or with friends (not even outside of school). I remember when I went to the beach, I wore bikinis, shorts, pareo, even swimming in the sea. Today, my college friends talk about how far I’ve strayed from photos and videos, I didn’t like seeing myself. I once had a nervous breakdown when I had to spend a journalistic history for television in college.
And wasn’t it until I was an adult that I began to see the world beyond imposed beauty, since childhood, by friends, television, magazines? I began to see that beauty went far beyond physical beauty , everything is from within. Cellulite, stretch marks, big nose, wide hips, big eyes? Yes, intelligent, loving, open to new things, happy, dedicated, professional, spiritual, loving, friendly, faithful and much more. After the first five minutes of the “stereotypical presentation”? come in, what’s left? What you are inside
You just have to remember that. Every day. If you need backup, go back to the mirror as many times as necessary, accept and you will be accepted. Love yourself and you will be loved, respect yourself and you will be respected. Do you think you’re beautiful and you’ll be beautiful? None of this depends on the others. It’s you.