Showing posts with label beauty. Show all posts
Showing posts with label beauty. Show all posts

Monday, May 16, 2011

beauty II

















Photo: Nina, my niece.


Beauty: A Culturally Misconceived Idea?
Who Wants to be a superstar?

What's with this idea of "cultivating" your image? Is, by any
chance, your body, a plant? Ha, ha! Seriously, we all know how
important image is. The thing is, how important? injecting an 8- year
old- girl with botox
important? I'm not going to start a rant against
botox, I've covered my thoughts on that before.

What I also said before and which I insist upon is that there is a strong link
between the affairs of the mind and those that regard our bodies. The reason is
simple, you don't need a degree in Psychology to get it.

It is the mind that makes the body do the weirdest things! specially if
we let ourselves get over -influenced by fashion magazines, if our ideals are
too high, or if our partner has too many expectations.

When it comes to beauty then, the question is: How far are we willing to go in
order to be liked and accepted by others? how about loving ourselves first?

Who was the fool that said that you need to get others to like you in the
first place? lets go back to that controversial mom for a second: wouldn't her
daughter be much better off IF instead of botox her mother told her how
beautiful and special she is? would it not do her good to feel loved for what
she is and not for what she looks like? to replace an injection of botox for one
of confidence and love? she'd do great in those beauty contests!

There is a new, O.B. Tampons TV add in Buenos Aires these days
where a girls tells a friend she can't go somewhere because she has
her period and she's afraid that her pads will not work well or look bad.
Her friend asks: "why don't you use a tampon?" She replies that a
friend has told her it's not good to wear tampons all the time, so the
other friend asks who she got that information from. Off they go trying
to figure out the source of the information. She was told by another
friend that was told by the lady that did her bikini line who was told
by a friend that was a guy, ha, ha, ha! The add ends saying:
"DESMISTIFICATE" (demystify).

Was it Elle Woods in "Legally Blond" that came up with the idea that
you have to work very hard for others to like you? Was it Emily in "The Devil
Wears Prada?" Isn't it the other way around? Don't we have to feel good with
ourselves first? How many diets do we have to start? How many hours do we have
to spend at the gym for others? how about doing things for ourselves? When
do we start a biomolecular treatment as an attempt to deny our age? and
most importantly, when do we realize that we are all beautiful?

My Psychoanalysis teachers taught me that if we only focus on our image
(remember the Witch in Snow White?) we put ourselves in a very poor place.
Why? because the image of our own selves appears very early in our own
development and in order to keep evolving, we need to keep adding content
to our mind structure, we need to absorb things that matter from our environment,
to play and love, to nurture our souls, that is how our mind starts improving;
that's what makes us love ourselves, our lives, and that's what makes us beautiful.

Come on! Our best and perhaps hardest "exercise" is to feel good with and
about ourselves. It is to let ourselves shine with our own light, this
is what makes you a superstar! It is from the inside that one becomes
beautiful. It is by filling our lives with great memories, our minds with
meaningful content and our hearts with love.

Enjoy the rest of your week!


Post by Valeria Mendez Cañás and Michelle Cameron


Wednesday, March 10, 2010

Cause beauty is a state of mind

















The other day I was watching someone interview a famous make-up artist here in Buenos Aires. She provided some really great advice regarding all the new trends in make-up and skin care. I was very interested in listening to everything she had to say, as I'm pretty bad with make-up. In fact, I hardly ever wear anything except lip gloss and sometimes, eyeliner. Ok, maybe some concealer too.

But what I really liked is that when she was asked about the best tips she could provide in a few words for great looking make-up, Regina K. said something like "no matter how much make-up we put on, or how well the colors we use match our skin, the only way to look truly beautiful is to feel good!" pretty obvious, don't you think? to be well with ourselves, happy, healthy. She said: "no make-up can cover-up your state of mind". I loved this! cause I often think about those ladies that look like a cake with so much stuff on their faces, or women who go out and get Botox like there's no tomorrow!! studies have found that it can become an addiction. Same with operations. And, you know what? some of them look great, but not the ones that do it as a remedy for sadness, emptiness, or lack of affection, whatever. The ones that look fabulous, I think, are women who feel great!! women who eat well, do sports, drink water, have good skin care habits, it reflects like crazy, it's a special light one has, that makes us look beautiful.

To feel good is to look good! So maybe next time we plaster make-up on our faces, or think about getting yet another shot of Botox (something I still haven't done) notice how I said still!!? maybe think about it... do I really need this?

No one said that getting Botox and operations is a bad thing, on the contrary, thanks scientists and surgeons for helping us look gorgeous!! as long as we don't forget that true beauty comes from within.