A Collaborative Message To All Women: What Makes You Feel Beautiful? - #feelbeautiful Challenge #1

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An Introduction to #feelbeautiful

This past weekend @hopehuggs posted a lovely blog on what makes her feel beautiful. I found it so intriguing because it was something as simple as wearing matching underwear. I found her writing profound and @hopehuggs had a great sense of humor. If you would like a great read check out her post(s). You will not be disappointed. From her blog I thought of what makes me #feelbeautiful and it was contagious!

I suggested this challenge and she thought it was brilliant. I think that's the UK term for let's do it. Today, life can get in the way if we allow it, and we miss seeing how beautiful we truly are. Maybe this is a good time to reflect on what makes us #feelbeautiful.

Our challenge will be promoted and I am not sure what we may get out of the participation, if anything we will walk away with being positive about our-Self and contributing to the Steemit community. So how about it, we want to hear from you on what makes you #feelbeautiful. I will be the first to share what makes me #feelbeautiful.

What Makes Me Feel Beautiful by @eaglespirit

What is beautiful exactly? From a very early age I remember being called beautiful or that I would grow up to be beautiful. I am not sure I really understood what that word meant until I was mature. All genders spend a lot of money on beauty.

From the time we are pre-teens we may or may not be allowed to wear makeup and we run to the store to purchase beauty products, clothes, shoes, etc., to aid us on our beauty quest. From childhood my mother would always say, "beauty is on the inside and we all grow old in the world, and beauty fades with time."

I was not allowed to wear makeup until I was 16 years old and I was mostly a tomboy. That was good only in that my skin did not incur the damage of foundation or makeup and I remained apart from the frenzy of having to apply beauty products. The main issue I have always had to overcome was weight. I was a chubby baby and that carried on throughout my life.

I have to be honest and say that there have only been moments in my life that I truly felt beautiful. If I truly think about it, I know I am a good person, I always try to do the right thing in my life, and according to how I was raised that should be enough. In today's world we are manipulated by top models, reality television, and celebrities telling us what beautiful means.

I have been vulnerable to what I see too and it is a constant fight not to want to look like the women that have multiple surgeries from the time they are a teenager.

That said, what makes me feel beautiful is taking care of me. If that means taking time to do what I love, then I make the time. If I want to splurge on a mani/pedi, get a massage, or facial - I do it! I spend quite a bit of time taking care of my hair because for me, that helps me feel beautiful on a daily basis. I do what makes my soul happy.

My beauty regiment also includes meditation, spirituality, traveling, spending time in nature, and reading a book. It does not stop there. I have a career that I feel has purpose. I volunteer to help others in my community, educate people regarding energy work, and I am studying to be a Birth Doula. If I did not do any of the above, I start to feel unbalanced in some way and that effects how beautiful I feel. Some may find this strange, but hey this is my story. Now I would love to hear from you. What makes you feel beautiful?

"Seek your path and you shall find it." - @eaglespirit.

Little does @eaglespirit know, it is her beauty that drew me to her in Steemit. I first met her through the comments in a post where I was writing about depression and her answer stood out, as it was full of care and compassion and I think that these things are important in recognizing true beauty. She has an amazingly beautiful smile too.

What Makes Me Feel Beautiful by @hopehuggs

I have a similar story, I was never phased my the make up and doing hair part of teenage life, I was geeky and the teacher's pet, no need for make up. I am blessed with naturally red lips, so never really thought about lipstick. I have to admit I did want surgery to get bigger boobs, but becoming a mother solved the gnat bites problem!

It is only now that I am experimenting with make up to feel more beautiful as I have come to an age (nearly 40), where perhaps a little warpaint here and there wouldn't go amiss. And it's something I have never really done. I see it as part of taking care of myself. I have never put me first, so I need to move forward, to mend, to feel beautiful inside and out, hold my head up high and proud.

(need to update my photo, I'm back to brown hair now, next week when my make up order comes, I'll have to do an update to the #feelbeautiful challenge)

To look in the mirror and say "hello awesome" to myself and mean it, that's my aim. I feel like I am in a cocoon, and I'm almost ready to emerge as a butterfly. The years up to now I have been a caterpillar. It is almost my time to shine.

But there does need to be balance, feeling beautiful is also in the way that you act, how you come across to other people. You could be the most beautiful looking woman in the world, but if you are perpetually mean spirited or unkind, then that beauty is null and void.

I try to treat everyone I meet with kindness and an open mind. After all, you do not know everyone's story so I really try hard not to judge at face value, but listen with empathy.

And nothing brings me more pleasure than helping people. I like to see, hear or imagine what joy or hope the little things I do help in some way. I now realize that I can also get this pleasure by doing things for myself too. I do deserve it and the feeling of helping others will be quadrupled if I am feeling and looking on top of the world too.

So looking after me and helping out others is what feels beautiful to me. Seeking out those moments of happiness are what make me #feelbeautiful.

And this past year, there have been more and more of these moments, so I know that although the decision to become a single mum was hard, but it was the right one, as I am becoming the more beautiful version of me again, not a lost soul ambling blindly in the night.

There is only one life, so why not be beautiful and feel beautiful and make the world a little better, because you are in it.

And if you settle for a life partner, make sure that you support each other, and do not drown each other's best bits by your actions towards one another. Be honest from the offset about who you are and what to expect from one another and there will be something else that is beautiful in your life too.

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Now it's your turn....

What makes you feel beautiful?