What does beauty mean to you?  It is a powerful question, a question that one of my teachers asked me recently.  I had to really think about this one, and I am still thinking about it.

I realized that my conception and standard of beauty was quite narrow, narrow in the sense that it fit into a box or standards that I have fed into by society.  Because in reality, beauty is not narrow at all, beauty does not fit nor come in a box.

However, this is what we have been told our entire lives.  Starting with pink is pretty and pink is for girls.  But I like blue too, and black and almost every color out there.

In ancient times, women were taught from a young age about how to have a beautiful soul.  Our inner world and inner development was what was placed most importance on. It was understood that beauty, could not be found anywhere else but within oneself.

In ancient India, young girls were brought up with the images and devotion to goddesses.  You may know about the pantheon of Indian Goddesses, all unique and beautiful in her own right.  Beautiful in their example of qualities and energies a woman could develop within herself. For example, love, power, sensuality, abundance, wisdom, poetry, creativity, devotion and so many more.

Beauty was something to be found within and through this constant inner journey of self-love and development, it poured forth through a woman’s being.  Despite all the messages and products we are fed today to “be beautiful,” this ancient wisdom still holds.

In our lower belly, sits an energetic center that is the seed of our power as women, it is connected to our womb and is the flower of our life.  Beauty is an energy contained within, waiting for us to awaken to.  This awakening happens as we come into greater self-love.  On my journey this self-love starts with the body, the place from which most women stop believing in their beauty.

That beauty is something outside of us, is not true.  It’s simply an old system of belief that was sold to us so we would buy things.  We have all we need within ourselves.  It is one of the greatest truths, so simple and ready for us to unfold to!