Today I stand here as a beauty-full woman. I look at myself and am blown away with who I see before me: a strong, confident, powerful and truly beautiful woman.
Not something I pictured for myself when I was a teenager. Riddled with insecurities and self-doubt, all I had to go by was how I looked on the outside.
Did I fit the picture of beauty everyone was looking for? Often not. But worse, I didn’t fit my own picture.
I felt miserable on the inside. Lost and unsure of who I was. There was a time I would look in the mirror and all I saw was pain and confusion. And often, an ugliness that I didn’t know the source of… who was that looking at me?
Today, I glow and radiate an inner confidence and inner strength of knowing exactly who I am – a truly beautiful woman. And more than that, I live the loveliness of that every day.
Recently I read an article that said only 4% of women feel they are beautiful… how truly sad. How is it that this kind of miserable statistic can exist when we are all truly beautiful… what happens?
You only have to look into the face of a child to know we are all truly divine and precious. How then is it possible for some of us to be able to look into a mirror and see nothing but ugliness and criticism?
So what changed for me?
Thanks to the work of Universal Medicine and Serge Benhayon I heard about the simple yet sometimes not so easy steps to self-care and self-love – both very foreign concepts to me at the time – however, they made sense, so I was willing to give them a try.
What I learned was I was being driven by a world telling me how to be, look, act and think. Thanks to being more self-loving and caring I was given the space to feel for myself what was true for me or not. So today I stand free of most of those impositions and as a result no longer feel ugly from living what is not me.
Today I stand as me… in the beauty and joy of that… and now show a different way, not ashamed or afraid to say I am truly beautiful.
As I have been inspired by Serge Benhayon and Universal Medicine to love and care for myself and claim my own beauty, today I inspire others to also claim their beauty as they too will inspire another… and so on it goes, ‘til one day we all know how truly amazing and truly beautiful we are!
By Caroline Raphael, Goonellabah, NSW
766 Comments
Thank you Caroline for reveling that true beauty comes from within; therefore we only have to let out what is naturally within us all, equally so, to truly see that everyone is beauty-full. It’s the ideals and beliefs, we gather and wear that prevents everyone from witnessing this.
Thank you for this beautiful blog Caroline. When I was younger I quickly worked out who I needed to be to get love/approval and I completely lost myself in this. With the help of Serge Benhayon and Universal Medicine i’m now re-connecting back to the beauty and joyfulness that I always was.
Thanks Caroline. I felt how we can fill up with expectations and ideals from media and things outside ourself and can forget to leave room for our inner self to feel what beauty lies within.
A gorgeous blog Caroline – it is amazing when we start to nurture and care for ourselves that beauty becomes a natural way of life – and we realise it is all around us. I also found it amazing when this beauty started to reflect back to me in the mirror and then outwardly to those around me. We are all equally divine, and living who we truly are is the most beautiful reflection imaginable.
It is certainly true in most people’s experience that they don’t just think they don’t fit the picture of whatever ideal we adopt, be it beauty, success, body build etc, but worse is that we end up not fitting our own picture and we then become our own worst critic, relentless, ever judgmental, tyrannical and self-abusive. Thank you for living the fact that there is another way.
Inspiring writing, like in this article, presents an opportunity to pause and consider how we see and care for ourselves, whilst also understanding that this first relationship affects every other one and every aspect of our lives. Thank you, Caroline, for openly sharing the beauty you are.
Gorgeous Caroline- it is that simple! True Beauty- connecting to our inner true selves and letting that out. You are very inspiring. With Love,
It’s so lovely to read this, a woman simply claiming her true beauty. That statistics is very alarming, “only 4% of women feel they are beautiful”. But the word “beautiful” can be very pressuring. I wonder if the same group of women were asked “Do you feel you are beautiful in your own way?” Would the result be different?
You remind me of a time when I was challenged to think and feel in terms of self-care and self-love. It was something so far removed from my daily life. I actually shudder now to think of how I was living or more accurately existing. Blessings to you.
Hi Jennifer, I can so relate, the first time it was suggested to me to self-care I thought the idea was nuts. I was so tough and strong, my way of protecting myself from the world, so the thought of letting that protection go by being self-caring terrified me. Today I love how I live today, my care to self is always growing with me, how I was one year ago seems uncaring to me today, but each step has been a joy-full unfolding and something I appreciate each step of the way. Blessings not necessary – appreciation however is most welcome!
Yes you are truly beautiful Caroline and feel AMAZING. What a reflection for us all, thank you.
How wonderful it must feel to now “stand free of most of those impositions and as a result no longer feel ugly from living what is not me.” This resonated so deeply within me, Caroline for it feels very true that only that which is imposed upon us could create such a false feeling of ugliness when all that we are is naturally golden and divine. Your true beauty that I have felt and seen for myself is an inspiration to continue practising to be more self-caring and self-loving in all that I do, say and even think. Thank you.
So beautifully expressed and very inspiring to read. Feeling how claimed you are in what you feel within yourself jumps off the page and you can feel it. These steps of self care and self love equally were a foreign concept to me in my life, but also having been inspired by the work of Universal Medicine, these have moved from being concepts to applying them into my life. Thank you for the reminder to feel each and every day how truly beautiful I am.
Thank you Caroline for showing me that there truly can be simplicity in expression when talking to people about making more loving choices for yourself. You highlight and therefore expose the unseen impositions the world puts on each of us and talk about a way of living that frees us up to be who we truly are and shine. You are an inspiration to me and my continuing unfolding as the lovely and gentle woman I am.
I simply LOVE THIS BLOG! It has such power, from the beauty truly claimed from with you Caroline.
I have shared it with other women, and not a single one has gone into judging herself from reading this – all have been nothing but INSPIRED to say ‘YES, this is me too’, or, if not feeling that they can just now say that ‘I am beautiful’, there is still a resounding ‘YES’ to the inspiration that speaks from your photo and every word here: that this IS where I am heading as a woman – & why the hell did I ever let myself feel otherwise.
I feel beautiful reading this blog! Thanks for sharing how it feels feeling beautiful and it totally resonates with my inner self. Finding funny side of life and laughing and feeling the joy is timeless!
Caroline wow! Your true beauty shines though the words you have shared, I can feel you and you feel gorgeous! So inspiring to read knowing I am on the same path back to embodying who I truly am as well..thank you x
So clear and lovingly expressed Caroline, your blog is inspiring for me to to read and to reflect on the beauty within myself too, thank you.
Such gorgeousness expressed and felt from you Caroline, that is such a beautiful and simple reflection to allow me to feel the same within myself, thank you!
Woao Caroline! I love the simplicity you brought to this subject. We tend to complicate things around what beauty is and all the things we need to do and be to become beautiful. What an inspiration!
It’s true .. you certainly have inspired me through this article, I relate to a similar way of living and speaking to myself that was not at all loving or in appreciation of my beauty. Yet here I am today, with thanks to the support of Universal Medicine and its practitioners who also live with a celebration and acceptance of who they truly are and what it means for them to be truly beautiful – and with this, they too have inspired me to feel, to know, to remember that equally I am this beautiful woman too. Thank you Caroline.
I love the way you write/talk about yourself very inspiring, it feels very loving and strong at the same time.
Thank you Caroline for such a gorgeous, inspiring blog. I too know what it feels like to look in the mirror and cringe at my reflection. It is something that still pops up for me from time to time, however, thanks to the support of Universal Medicine and Esoteric Women’s Health, I have come a long (long) way with it. I feel truly, deeply, beautiful and I know my own strength and power as a woman. Who we are as women comes from within.
4% of women think they are beautiful…This is shocking. We only have to look into the eyes of someone or hear someones voice to know how beautiful someone is. Beauty is much more that we see and most of us have disconnected from the depth of beauty that we all are. Thank you Caroline for your reminder and constant reflection of true beauty and playfulness in one.
4% of women think they are beautiful – that is an appalling figure. Women in their essence are absolutely exquisite so the fact that they cannot feel that and consider themselves not beautiful is a serious health issue.
Lovely to read your blog again, Caroline – it feels full of the love and beauty that you are – and we all are. When you stated that ‘I didn’t fit my own picture’ I could really relate to that feeling, as it haunted and tortured me for many years. Slowly, with the support of Universal Medicine and many beautiful women I have begun to appreciate my true beauty – as you say self love and self care really are the way that allows us to nourish and nurture ourselves back to the fullness of who we innately are.
This is an appeal for every woman and man to connect deeper to their inner beauty and simpy shine from there.
What is really pretty to me, is the playfulness that shines through here Caroline. I can’t help wondering how many of us Men consider ourselves beautiful – because as you say we are all born naturally this way.
I enjoyed how in the bio you wrote:
“most of all I love nothing more than observing others care for each other, it melts me and there simply is nothing more beautiful.”
I feel it too when I hear someone else cherishing themselves – as you are here.
i am blessed where I work as a midwife, I care for and interact with babies all the time- they are definately my reminder and confirmation that we are all born equally beauty- full !
“I loved this blog Caroline. I too, having introduced and now starting to live, more than at any time before in my adult life, to feel my true beauty. I say this with far too many self-imposed judgments and beat-ups in my wake. I have gone so far as not even being able to walk out the front door because no matter what clothes I pulled-on, it couldn’t change the self harassment I had built-up. I feel I look at myself now and see what I’m choosing to connect to; I too am beautiful.”
Caroline
What a truly beautiful and simple sharing of what is true beauty. I too have discovered through self-care and self-love the beautiful woman I am and now can feel this same beauty in others. Now that’s truly beautiful and all thanks Serge Benhayon and Universal Medicine.
Since I wrote a comment on this truly inspiring blog about two months ago I have loved having everyone’s comments arriving in my phone regularly through the day. No matter how short or long they have all been, they have a constant reminder of our inner and outer beauty and how far we have all come from the self-critics we have been. They have especially been supportive over the last five weeks as I have slowly progressed through the healing from an illness, as there were days when I looked in the mirror and struggled to love the face that looked back at me, and then of course I would feel guilty for that thought. I was horrified that my self-critic had returned – and at this vulnerable time. And then my phone would gently let me know that there was a message from this blog. The reading of it would instantly bring me back to me; a timely reminder that my beauty was still there, and all that I was seeing was the old devastation that my body was releasing through this illness. Slowly I was able to see past what I was seeing when I looked in the mirror, and day by my beauty started to shine through again. This blog and all the amazing comments have certainly been the best medicine ever!
Wow, that is pretty powerful Ingrid (pun not intended, but appreciated). Seeing though the old energy that your body was releasing, seeing through to the beauty, brings a whole new level to ‘seeing your beauty’. Thanks for sharing your experience.
I know what I will be doing this morning as I sit at my dressing table and get myself ready for the day, taking a lovely long look at myself, soaking all of me up and feeling the beauty I hold within. This is something I would have found excruciating before Universal Medicine and Serge Benhayon and exquisite woman like Caroline.
I have often struggled to see how truly beautiful I am and will catch my self looking and thinking about a certain part of my body and then realise that this harsh judgment cannot be right and that their has to be something wrong with a 15 year old girl who constantly thinks that she is fat just because she doesn’t have a flat stomach. I started to realise that there is more to me then just my waist, in fact their is much more. So after developing my self-care and self-awareness I too started to close the door on the negative thoughts about myself and open the door to the feeling that I am so beautiful just by the way I walk, pick up an apple, express to people and most of all, I am beautiful because I am myself. I too Caroline couldn’t of come to this myself if it wasn’t for Universal Medicine and Serge Benhayon.
Gorgeous Caroline! and I know you today and admire how you do stand in your beauty, power, grace and love. You walk your talk for sure.
Always inspiring me just by seeing you, then you start to talk, share or laugh and wow, that’s super extraordinary! You got it girl, and your also saying we’ve all got it!
Wow Stevie I love what you write “… the massive level of distress, disease, trauma, destruction and disaster that humanity is experiencing. Is it possible that this could all stem from our lack of self-love as a populace? This brings a whole new meaning to self- responsibility, and why self-love is so important and not selfish as it is often painted. If we are not responsible for our own choices we are adding to the dire straights of the world we all live in.
Caroline, I will never thank you enough for inspiring me and many many others in being and living the true beauty and joy that I am, and that we all are. Every time I meet your eyes I see the love and the absolute appreciation of yourself shining in your eyes, your smile and the whole of you. An immense thank you for your expression. You are a testimony of the many living miracles inspired by the love and dedication of Universal Medicine and Serge Benhayon’s teachings.
Amazing!
I loved reading this article and am reminded how important it is to tell the people around me what I find beautiful about them. There is just never too many times we can tell others what we love about them and be reminded of the loveliness of us.
I find myself pondering that if only 4% of women consider themselves beautiful – how many men do so too. For me it is further confounded by the fact that beauty is generally defined by one’s looks. Thanks to the inspiration of Serge Benhayon and Universal Medicine I am opening up to the true beauty I am inside – a deep love for myself and all of humanity equally so.
Thank you Caroline, what an amazing example of the teachings of Universal Medicine
It’s funny isn’t it – if you were to stand up in a room full of people and say “hey I’m beautiful” most people would think you have tickets on yourself. Why is that? Is it because we are not used to expressing the beauty we feel within or telling another they are beautiful. Is it because we are not supposed to say how we feel and shine incase we upset someone or make them feel less.
Beauty is a feeling – a feeling we get when we cherish who we are and connect to our delicate essence, an essence that we all hold equally so. Perhaps seeing and feeling that beauty in another is a reminder that we are not choosing to connect and live that beauty for ourselves and that is why we react??
Bravo Caroline for claiming and expressing the beauty that you feel – we need more of that in the world so that as you say others can claim their beautifullness too.
Really inspiring to know that it is possible for us all to come from a place of little self appreciation and into our full realised beauty.
How true, Caroline. Amazing, beautiful women we all are and it’s time we claimed this for ourselves, letting the world see us how we are – truly divine.
And. How great it is to look at you Caroline and listen to you….. It is pure joy in my heart doing so.
So thank you for being so much of you here between us all.
Caroline I loved reading what you shared the first time and equally if not more so again now. From my first reading I want to say YES it’s true you are a wonderful beacon of living true claimed beauty from with-in and it is always inspiring and supportive to be in your company. Today when I re-read what you share, I felt the part of me that also can claim an inner confidence and strength developing. Thanks to the beacons that shine the way – letting us feel that with-in is all beauty-fully, strong and confident without the external world directing how we should look, feel and think.
The beauty that comes out of Caroline, the love and care she holds for herself. Inspires me and snaps me out of the poor me mentality that at times I walk around in. Simply by seeing her and being in her presence. Truly a beautiful women and an inspiration.
Only 4% of women feel they are beautiful… this IS truly sad. It is interesting then to ponder on the possible correlation between this statistic and the state of the world that we currently live in – the massive level of distress, disease, trauma, destruction and disaster that humanity is experiencing. Is it possible that this could all stem from our lack of self-love as a populace? For me this highlights how important and powerful it is for each and every one of us to reacquaint ourselves with the true beauty that we are within. ‘The simple yet sometimes not so easy steps to self-care and self-love’ presented by Universal Medicine that you write of Caroline, have totally transformed my relationship with myself and with everyone around me – my family, my work colleagues and community. And the best part is that this love affair with myself and with others, deepens and reveals more and more beauty each and every day.
Oh Caroline – I loved reading what you shared here! There’s so much love and power and cuteness and self love coming out of your words. It’s really inspiring to change the look in the mirror going WOW instead of a doubtful hm.!
Caroline, I can not only see your beauty in the above picture but can also feel it radiating out from every word. How truly amazing it is to feel this and be inspired by it.
I love your last paragraph, so powerful. you have become such a role model for others. I can relate to feeling the ugliness you spoke of. Not liking the reflection I saw in the mirror, any photo taken of me I would want deleted. Now it is different for me having also been inspired by Universal Medicine and by you Caroline. Living proof we don’t have to accept this ugliness. When we are all in truth Beautiful. And we all have something beautiful to bring to the world and to everyone we meet. It’s a shame to ever ignore such beauty.
Thank you Caroline, yes you are a truly beautiful woman . I very much love the end of this where you say “……today I inspire others to also claim their beauty as they too will inspire another… ” I can feel how the simple act of claiming our own beauty is so powerful and not selfish or vain in the slightest.
It was lovely to re-read your blog this morning Caroline, and your photo reflects all the playfulness and confidence you have shared about yourself in your article. As you have shown, our beauty shines out from within!
Truly beautiful, truly gorgeous Caroline. Reading your article was a joy this morning — to read of a woman who has connected and claimed her inner beauty and let go of listening to everything the world tells her she has to be like and look like in order to get the ‘ticket’. Your words and your photo itself radiate the immense beauty that is you, and as you say what this does is inspire another woman to look within herself and rediscover her own innate beauty as well. I have like you, inspired by the teachings of Universal Medicine and Serge Benhayon, re-discovered the amazing beauty that I am from the inside through the simple consistant act of self-nurturing and self-care. And it is this inner beauty that emanates outwards — it’s in our eyes, in our smile, in the way we walk, in all that we do. This is true beauty and every woman has access to it when she choose to say yes to herself.
What I have noticed is the more I connect to my own beauty, the more I self care, the greater the children around me just beam with their own gorgeousness ❤️
I agree Laura and its not only children that will beam with their gorgeousness but the more we connect to our own beauty the more other women will be inspired to see, feel and express that same beauty that is equally within themselves – then we can all beam in our gorgeousness together.
Thank you for your honest look at how things were for you. I love your post at the end making reference to your humour. Humour is indeed something that comes easily to you and something I find most uplifting when in your company. Your laugh is truly delightful.. I haven’t heard it in awhile but I would know your laugh immediately in a crowded room. Thank you for the joy.
Thank you for writing this blog Caroline. You really are beautiful and it is a beauty that allows another to feel that they are beautiful too, as each time I read it I fall in Love with myself all over again and remember how absolutely beautiful we ALL are. Priceless!
Re-reading the blog today one line stood out ‘ I no longer feel ugly from living what is not me.’ this stood out because that’s it in a nutshell – the discomfort in my body comes from not living truth, whether its an action, a thought or something I have said it all comes from disharmony and untruth. Love can only speak and live truth. Thanks Caroline.
A truly beautiful and inspiring blog thank you
“Did I fit the picture of beauty everyone was looking for? Often not. But worse, I didn’t fit my own picture.” – this is interesting Caroline, as it asks the question: where did our own pictures of beauty come from?
Caroline,
I felt it was interesting how you shared your teenage experience of beauty as “the picture” …something that is only considered outside ourselves and how easily and readily we all subscribed to this belief…and yes until 5 years ago I was still supporting the 96% of woman that found beauty a word that was seen but not truly felt. By taking time to stop and consider how I really felt about myself I began to recognise how damaging my own self talk was in contributing to “the picture” of beauty that I had subsricbed to for so long….and no wonder I felt the way i did.
Women have so much to offer and inspire in each other and have for too long been caught in a deep trap of comparison fed so insidiously by the images and words from each other, ourselves, and an array of social media forums….
I love that we are opening up these conversations that offer all of us the chance to reflect our true beauty. A beauty that can only ever be developed from within. Thank you for sharing your awesome evolvement and contributing to the growing number of inspiring and supportive role models in our communities.
“Today I stand as me… in the beauty and joy of that… and now show a different way, not ashamed or afraid to say I am truly beautiful.” This is gorgeous Caroline you have come full circle back to the loveliness you knew yourself to be as a young girl. It reminds me of an article I read on the Women in Livingness site, where the writer talks about confirming to our young girls how amazing they are for simply being them.
Thank you Caroline reading this I can feel the true beauty both in myself and in every woman. Inspirational 🙂
‘4% of women feel they are beautiful’ – I agree how sad, how much beauty we are missing that is not expressed and lived.
For me the word ‘beautiful’ bring up all sorts of images and external benchmarks, but ‘beauty-filled’ reminds me of the amazingness that is inside me…even if it’s only all the stunning processes that my body fulfills without any intervention from me.
I would never have believed (after many years of feeling ashamed) I would be able to honestly look in a full length mirror at my body and accept the lovely me.
Similar to you Caroline, I have been inspired by the teachings of Universal Medicine, and Women in Livingness groups.
It’s time to tell and show the world how freeing it is to “claim our own beauty”
Caroline, thank you for the inspiration that you are and bring to others, like myself ; true role models are an awesome support when claiming our way back out of the 96% bracket – and anyway, what is this madness we have all bought into? Does the colour green say of itself it is not beautiful, not good enough because it wants to look, act and feel like the colour red? Does a blue wren think it better be and look like a pelican? Looked at it that way it seems that not knowing and claiming one’s innate beauty is surely the ultimate form of enslavement with virtually no way out because the slave and the master are one and the same person.
The insanity of the perpetual trap of comparison, beautifully expressed, Gabriele, thank you.
I like this Gabrielle. Thank you. An awesome way to look at it. 🙂
Wise words Gabriele.
I love the way you have brought it back to nature Gabrielle, the animal kingdom does not compare with each other it just gets on with it’s own life under a set of universal laws it does not stray from. Maybe we could learn a thing or two from them because comparison has been around for a long long time and it makes us so much less than the grandness and beauty we all are.
Beautifully put Gabriele. There is no sense in comparison. We are unique in our own beauty and can allow ourselves to shine.
I wonder what the statistics say about men feeling beautiful. How many men dare to acknowledge, let alone say, that they are beautiful? I can nowadays, say I feel beautiful every single day. Thanks to the work of Serge Benhayon and Universal Medicine. I took a while because self-love and self-care were also very foreign concepts for me as well. I feel beautiful every single day, first because I have accepted that is what I am. And still work to be done in deepening that inner knowing so I stay there not only every single day but also most of the time throughout the day.
I love your examples Gabriele, it shows beauty can’t be captured in a definition that tells you how you have to look or what you have to do to be beautiful. We are all beautiful and we simply have to accept it and learn to deeply appreciate ourselves for who we are and what we bring.
This blog is so empowering, i can feel the passion and strength in Caroline’s words.
It is so simple and so true that if we bring our focus to within and develop a loving relationship with ourselves then the foundation that this creates cannot be rocked by any outer imposts.
I know when I first begun to build a ritual of self care into my day – what shocked me was how truly difficult and unnatural it felt – I had lost touch with my tenderness, indeed lost touch with my own inner beauty.
I love your comment Lucinda. I too found it very difficult to get started with a ritual of self care in my day, always finding other things to do first and squeezing that ‘me’ time out. I can now feel how much taking care of myself supports me in every aspect of my life
Yes likewise for me as well. I thought taking care of me was just doing the basics – eating, sleeping, exercising, showering etc.. But when I started to take more care of myself, I realised that there are a myriad of ways that I can do the ‘basics’ with much more love and with much more care. For example, I am now practising putting myself to bed with as much love as possible- like I would put a young child to bed – is there anything else you need, do you have water by your bed, are you warm/cool enough?? – is quite delightful and it fills me with love.
This is a deeply inspiring blog, in this time reading it I sit here and appreciate that I am starting to say to myself ‘Yes, I am equally this amazing’ to what I am reading. I feel even more inspired to keep holding these feelings that I am worth being love, because I am love underneath all of my acts and masks.
So true Caroline, we all love to see true beauty in life and it is even more glorious when we can see and feel ourselves as beautiful. It then radiates as you say and brings joy to all who you meet. Thank you Caroline for sharing your beauty with us.
Nico I love the way you have said this, the depth of beauty we see in life grows the more we feel the beauty within.
I recently read the following statistic – “comparison with others ranks as the most negative influence on girls’ body image”. Can we blame the media for this also, or is there something deeper going on? I am not saying media does not play a part in feeding the ideals and beliefs of how a woman should be but where does it start, they only can report and feed what is already out there. My experience has been the more I am not caring and cherishing myself the more I look outside of myself and end up comparing myself to others – and I always come of secound best. I grew up as a little girl comparing myself with others – I never felt good enough, so I looked outside to see what would make me good enough – I don’t blame anyone for this but we currently live in times where the focus is more about what we do and not for who we are -our achievements are celebrated and we are not. I often tell strangers how beautiful their smile is, or how sweet they are (including men) and although they love hearing it you can see the uncomfortableness of them not knowing how to accept or take it – this can only change when we start to celebrate ourselves and hence naturally be able to celebrate another.
““Comparison with others ranks as the most negative influence on girls’ body image”. Can we blame the media for this also, or is there something deeper going on?” – a great question Caroline
Thank you for this wonderful blog, it shows the importance of being ourselves and feeling how beautiful we all are. it is indeed sad that only 4 % of the women actually feel beautiful. I feel the media has a big influence on this and how we are bombarded with ideals and beliefs on how we have to look but also on what beauty is. The focus is very much on the outside and the need to be perfect. As if there is always something wrong with us and we need to change. We as women are so beautiful, all of us, and that should be the main focus, always.
I love what you share Caroline. More and more i can feel that how i feel about myself, how i care for myself and how much i love myself, that is what i send out into the world. Whether i wear make up or a skirt, the true beauty and how i feel, is what really emanates.
Caroline. Beautifully written blog. Just keep being you, and doing what you think is so right for you. There is too much of being dictated to by the media. Follow your own path in life.
“Only 4% of women feel they are beautiful…”
This is very sad to hear, but I can believe it as I see so many beautiful women who do not see themselves as so, and commonly compare themselves to others or bring a focus to their ‘bad points’, especially if you compliment them.
I have begun to see and appreciate myself as beautiful, and in doing so I see the beauty shine out in others too, and rarely go into comparison. Developing self care, self love, self appreciation and self worth is incredibly valuable and worth while. We are all precious and beautiful, the more we except this the more we all get to enjoy this expression.
I love your blog Caroline: your first sentence “Today I stand here as a beauty-full woman”, is so simple, yet I haven’t heard many women speak about beauty when talking about themselves, unless it is in a negative way. I love the difference to the norm, as the norm seems to be disliking our bodies – I know I did for a long time – and I am still only young.
I agree Jessica, I also love the difference to the norm, as you point out the norm is usually self criticism, self judgement, self loathing and so many women have huge body issues (I did too in the past), even women who have lovely figures, they still complain about their bodies. It is so refreshing to hear a women state her beauty in a claimed way.
Well said – what we need to ask is why then is “self criticism, self judgement, self loathing” the norm?
It is odd isn’t it that it is the norm for women to spend time looking at (usually unreal) photos of other women in magazines, and putting beauty on such a pedestal, yet when it comes to real women, the focus seems to be on judgement, and not on seeing or celebrating the beauty in women. For a women to risk knowing and claiming her beauty in most walks of life is to risk judgment for being ‘big headed’. How much better would life be if we allowed ourselves to see the beauty in ourselves and others, as we are more willing and able to do with babies, before the comparison and criticism kicks in.
The ease you have for yourself and confidence and love oozes off the page and the picture. Great stuff!
Gorgeous photo followed by a truly inspiring piece of writing. Thank you Caroline.
This blog and all the comments are so full of absolute beauty. Very inspiring and confirming of the love that we know ourselves to be.
“So today I stand free of most of those impositions and as a result no longer feel ugly from living what is not me.” This is fantastic Caroline. Yesterday I noticed whilst looking in the mirror I was a bit critical and judgemental of myself, it occurred to me that it shows quite clearly how we can be influenced by what society sees as beautiful and other people’s perceptions. When I clocked this, I was able to see that I was not looking with my own eyes but through the eyes of someone who had taken on these imposed projections. With this realisation I was then able to come back to what was true and feel the true warmth and beauty that was there all along.
Great comment Samantha – what it reminds me of is when I hear women who are naturally gorgeous telling me about how they dislike this part of their body, or they think that they are ‘fat’ – I go “WHAT?!?, but you’re beautiful!”. But what I don’t stop to consider is how I have said the same thing to others – I don’t stop to consider that I, myself, am beautiful, and am just comparing myself to the other woman or to the image I have in my head of what beauty looks like
Caroline. Your blog is pure magic. You are what you are, an inspirational person, for all to see, true self loving.
Well said Mike – the photo and words all show the deeply inspiring person that Caroline is.
I love re-reading your words Caroline, particularly, ‘Today I stand here as a beauty-full woman. I look at myself and am blown away with who I see before me: a strong, confident, powerful and truly beautiful woman.’ I find it very confirming of my beauty and power to read this article, a great reminder of our natural way of being as women, thank you.
Go Caroline! So Inspirational
That is an inspiring blog, Caroline, and I have come back to it again as I discovered something for myself yesterday. After clearing out my wardrobe and all the old stuff in it I had been hanging onto, — I felt so clear and empowered and beautiful, by taking charge and letting things go that were not allowing me to express the woman I am. I then realised that I was feeling differently about the world, and that difference was that I felt so full of the beautiful me that I no longer felt the need of those things to fulfill me, I was enough in myself. That felt very joyful and freeing.
Before you get out of bed in the morning, eyes gently closed, just say to your self I AM LOVE, and appreciate who you really are, and what you have to offer in this life to mankind.
Fiona I can completely relate to what you share. I too have been inspired by Universal Medicine and Serge Benyahon to become aware of what true self care is about which has allow me to be me and live and evolve from there.
You are living proof of how it can be for every man woman and child on this planet through connecting to true love and self care, I have to thank you once again Caroline as I am one who still have the self doubting moments from time to time and find the love and support of your blog and ones like it a real inspiration.
Today I stand as me… in the beauty and joy of that… and now show a different way, not ashamed or afraid to say I am truly beautiful.
This is an amazing statement said with such feeling and knowing of yourself and a true inspiration for all of us to claim lovingly who we are also.
Appreciation is the key to living this Thank you Caroline.
You have literally busted through all the layers of insecurities and judgement we lay on ourselves, and stand now as an inspiration for others…the power of appreciating, claiming and living the true beauty you are. Thank you, Caroline.
I am starting to realise the power of appreciating myself Matilda. It’s through appreciating myself and allowing myself to be, that I have come to appreciate and allow others to be.
Thank you Carmel for your honesty, you made me smile 🙂 and yes Michelle, I am with you lets make Loving ourselves the new norm and inspire others to know they do not have to change.
Awesome blog Caroline and wow you look beauty-full!
Hi Caroline,
Beautiful picture and great blog! When I grew up, especially the women were mostly dependent on what the men said about them. Who was popular and beautiful and who was not? Even though we would not always talk about it, comparison was always going on between women and basically we could not appreciate each other’s beauty! When I think back of that time, I can remember the tension I felt in my body and when looking in the mirror it was never good enough. I used to hate if someone took a picture of me, the only thing I could see was how ugly I was!
I only started to understand self-love and self-care when I started to come to courses and presentations of Serge Benhayon. I’ve come a long way and now I can, most of the time, truly appreciate and enjoy myself and all other women and men. So thanks for bringing up the subject, Caroline.
I had this experience too Simone, ‘the women were mostly dependent on what the men said about them’, rather than feeling and seeing our own unique beauty and each other’s beauty.
I keep returning to this blog and asked why….I feel that it is the joy and true self appreciation which keeps pulling me back to it to inspire me to bring more of it into my life. Thanks Caroline.
This is so true Caroline, ‘You only have to look into the face of a child to know we are all truly divine and precious. How then is it possible for some of us to be able to look into a mirror and see nothing but ugliness and criticism?’.
I also agree, Rebecca. It makes me wonder just exactly what happens between our young tender age when we know we are simply gorgeous to our older age when we are so hard on ourselves. It seems to happen so early and gradually without awareness.
“What I learned was I was being driven by a world telling me how to be, look, act and think. ” Sadly this is the case for most people. It is inspiring to hear stories such as yours, people who are creating the ‘new norm’.
When I read the beginning of your article Caroline, I felt uncomfortable, and a trace of judgment crept in, and then I realised this is my standard reaction to people who are living in their fullness, because it reflects back to me everything I am not living myself. As I read further, I saw that you were presenting how simple steps of self care led to you feeling and enjoying your natural, innate beauty, and I felt inspired. I too have felt ‘miserable on the inside. Lost and unsure of who I was.’ because like you I was trying to fit the picture society had provided me with of what it thought beauty should look like. Slowly, as I appreciate myself more and more for simply being who I am, and gently allow my own full expression to be present in everything I do, a feeling of tender beauty is unfolding, there is an inner warmth, a spaciousness, a freeing up that I don’t really have the words to explain, but it makes me smile whenever I feel it.
Beautiful Carmel, your honesty and self awareness is very refreshing.
‘Thanks to being more self-loving and caring I was given the space to feel for myself what was true for me or not.’ So beautiful to read this and a great reminder of the power of taking time to nurture ourselves.
I love this blog Caroline, for a start it’s short and to the point but it is a great reminder of the importance of self-care and self-love especially if like me you let it slip for a while.
A beautiful short blog but very much to the point and ready to deal with any jealousy that may come. Once we know we are beautiful and walk around accordingly, others notice and may admire us or not. Once we are able to handle the ‘or not’ life becomes much simpler – we are just ourselves and don’t constantly adjust.
This is simply beautiful Caroline to feel your appreciation for your self and others and to claim this with such tenderness and strength. It is really amazing and lovely to re-read, in fact to read it everyday would be great.
Often when I see myself in photographs I feel that there is a gap between the person I see in the picture and the person I know myself to be. For the first time today I had my photograph taken and it reflected my true beauty, it was amazing.
“You only have to look into the face of a child to know we are all truly divine and precious. How then is it possible for some of us to be able to look into a mirror and see nothing but ugliness and criticism?” I find this such a powerful statement. and your inspirational example of self-care and self-love is equally powerful.
Hi Caroline. Your opening statement stopped me in my tracks. I have never heard any woman claim their beauty with such confidence. It made me realise how sad it is that we don’t claim the beautiful women that we are and are more likely to talk about what we don’t like about ourselves. Thanks for being one of the 4% who is fully claiming their beauty inside and out.
That opening line stopped me too Debra, so lovely to read and hear women who so openly and confidently claim their beauty. Very sexy.
This is so true, ‘we don’t claim the beautiful women that we are and are more likely to talk about what we don’t like about ourselves.’ Most of the comments I hear women say about themselves are derogatory, for work I take photographs of people and most of the women make comments like, ‘I look awful today’, ‘I haven’t got any make-up on’, ‘just photograph my child I don’t want to be in the photo’, there is a real feeling of dislike for themselves and how they look and I look at them and see these gorgeous women.
“Thanks to the work of Universal Medicine and Serge Benhayon I heard about the simple yet sometimes not so easy steps to self-care and self-love – both very foreign concepts to me at the time – however, they made sense, so I was willing to give them a try.” I love this quote, really connected with how it feels to be offered these simple techniques through Universal Medicine, that with a bit of commitment can change so much. I was also willing to give it a try and I am learning to love the woman that I am.
Self-care and self-love will change the world when applied like you have done Caroline.
It has taken me a long time to look in a mirror and see me reflected back as the beautiful woman I am. Letting go of the inhibitions, comparisons and self-judgement is wonderfully liberating. I am like a 4 year old feeling who I am. A growing number of women and men are reconnecting to their inner beauty and expressing with confidence which encourages others to do the same. Thank you Caroline.