By Kristen Donia

Beauty is not in the face; beauty is a light in the heart. -Kahlil Gibran

How do you define beauty?

Close your eyes.

Think of something beautiful.

What comes to mind? Be honest. An object like a flower? Perhaps an experience you had that you didn’t want to end? Or maybe it was a person you saw on social media.

Often when we talk about beauty, one type of beauty comes up. The physical attractiveness scale that society has taught us. This concept that only certain things are beautiful. When did our idea of beauty become so limited? An idea that limits what we truly see and also disregards the inherent beauty that lies in all things. It also varies widely by person. Afterall we are all unique individuals whose experiences shape how we feel about what we see and how it makes us feel.

Example: the morning dew on a flower, the warmth of a friend’s smile, the view from the top of a mountain, your favorite color, the happiness you feel when spending special moments with family and friends you love.

When you think of it this way, beauty is all around us, every single day. We are never without beauty. We are wrapped in blankets of beautiful goodness. How special is that?

What if today, you redefined your own concept of beauty? Allowing your eyes to widen to the true possibility that beauty is found many places, not simply faces and bodies on the internet, many of which have undergone plastic surgery to get to what they feel their own space of beauty and worthiness is.

The internet can show us many things. We can learn about anything we wish there. It can also tear us down. Scrolling can lead to tons of images that are filtered and modified that send messages to our brain that in order to be beautiful we must be that, do this, wear that.

Scroll if you choose to, though be sure to remember your own ideas of beauty instead of adopting someone else’s during your scroll. Don’t bring them into your own life and let them muck up what you see and feel around you. In the mirror, in your home, the light in your friends eyes. There is so much beauty, we simply have to open our eyes to see it.

What if you reimagined your idea of beauty? What would you see?

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Kristen Donia is a freelance writer living in a tiny house she built in sunny Southern Oregon. She has a Bachelors Degree in Education and has dedicated her life to studying and writing about empathy, vulnerability and enriching the human experience.