WHAT IS BEAUTY ANYWAY: Ageing From the Heart
I love this photo! Every line and fold is a story of her life, I am quite sure of it. I do not know who this is nor who to give credit too, they offered it and asked for anonymity. Thank you dear souls!
I have been thinking about this for years and years. Beauty as a force, as in a force to behold. Beauty as medicine, as in how can beauty impact our experiences and our health. Beauty as a product, as in a commodity, something bought or sold. Beauty has many meanings, I think….
I listened to a lovely person with flawless skin instruct that it is very important to be aware of your facial gestures and expressions to avoid things like the “11” lines (the double lines between your brow ). It kind of stopped me in my tracks for a minute (well actually its been a few days now). As a lesbian, as a woman in this world and having raised two kids, mostly solo (with the help of my parents), I cannot even begin to document how many times I have adjusted my brow and/or squished or clinched my face, just in the every day.
Later, she went on to explain an important tenet in Ayurveda: your body is a temple. And, taking care of the outside is taking care of the inside as well. I couldn’t agree more except…
When I look at my face these days and I see her lines and folds, I remember. I remember the photo of my mom with the same marks. I remember the hards and holds of days that felt(feel) like there was/is no solution in sight, the worry and furry all around, my face the ever present documentarian of it all. My face the outer mirror of my heart sharing all that needs expression. I remember my human-ness in its messy and complicated ways too-the joys and the sorrows that will always be. And never once in any or all of that have I stopped to adjust my brow or think about my frown lines.
And I think that is it for me. That is where outer beauty suggestions can go sour, where they jump off the page as something to honor, to be in a sacred relationship with and arrive at the door of a place I do not want to visit.
It’s very easy to jump to the notion of beauty as something to be bought or obtained, given our modern culture. And when I glance at social media, slick magazine covers and content and projected numbers of how much we spend on “beauty” products here each year, it’s easy to understand it.
But Yoga & Ayurveda have taught me something deeper, more intimate:
Where the mind goes, prana flows
Wisdom teachings from all over the world have a variation of this understanding which means where our mind is placed, our energy, our life force follows. I think it also suggests that these things are an inside job. And while I do believe it is important to take care of our outer expressions, serving it at all costs might be part of the problem that has arrived us here, as we are, talking about how we might edit how we show and share ourselves as humans for the sake of love and life lines. Do you have thoughts about this?
Here’s a short prompt. Grab a pencil and paper and ask yourself:
Do you have lines and folds? Where do they come from and what are you reminded of? What are your lines wanting to tell you?
In heart & health,
Danielle