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
I love this; by choosing to not live what is not-you, you are able to live the loveliness that IS you Caroline. There is a Divinity at play in your smile that is true beauty and true inspiration. Thankyou x
Thank you Caroline – It is awesome to feel the beauty, power and loveliness in you and your blog. I too can thank Universal Medicine for its teachings, guidance and inspiration in reclaiming me as a beautiful woman.
Lovely sharing Caroline, I see what you mean when we see a child just being in their natural beauty. How can we go from that to self doubt about how we look and feel to only end up not loving who we truly are. You are a living inspiration to the world Caroline by not holding back you innermost beauty of who you truly are.
Truly beautiful and shining so bright.
It is all about letting go of the images and ideals we have of ourselves, what beauty is and what society tells us. Wonderful how you let your own made-up picture go of yourself and just fell in love with the beautiful you, just who you are.
Each time I read this or even just see your photo Caroline, i can feel your true beauty and find it very inspiring indeed.
I love reading this blog again and again as it makes me appreciate the real beauty I bring with my actions and words each day. Thanks Caroline.
Thank you Caroline for you powerful and beautyful blog. The focus back to self-love and care is the only way. Your beauty and self-care is a reflection for all the beauty in us.
Hello truly beautiful Caroline! Thank you for your simple, yet extremely profound blog about how self-care and self-love is what really matters in life. All else will follow. Truly inspirational.
Absolutely gorgeous Caroline and so beautifully expressed
I loved the following words from you, very inspirational.
“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”
Thank you Caroline.
What a superb role model you are Caroline for people of all ages. Showing that there is another way.
Caroline I loved feeling how in your opening paragraph you didn’t hold back claiming that you are a strong, confident, powerful and beautiful women. As soon as I read that I could feel you and it was such a beautiful reflection of me and all women.
It’s amazing how we can look at a flower, baby, mountain range, another human being, or the shining stars at night and say ‘wow look at how beautiful, sweet, gorgeous and delicate that is’. However we forget that what we see from these things is actually inside us all. We have a beautiful flower, sweet and innocent baby, gorgeous mountain range and a delicate human being and a shiny light just waiting to come out. Its like we are sitting on gold and yet we would never know it was gold because there’s a sheet covering our gold and where just not considering that all we need to do it lift the sheet off to see all the beauty we have.
This picture captures the exactness of the blog you are writing about. I look at that picture and see the beautiful confident woman that you describe. You can not deny that fact and there is many woman, only 4% as you say in your blog, that too find themselves beautiful. That is an alarmingly low number …
I wish every young girl would read your blog Caroline and never lose sight of the beauty that they are, and always have been. You certainly do inspire others to claim their beauty … I am one of those people.
Our choices and lifestyle quality is reflected in our bodies and in our mirror. In the past I could only see what was wrong about me when I looked in the mirror. Like you have shared Caroline the more that we are willing to care and love ourselves that too is reflected back at us. As my lifestyle and choices have changed in quality so too has my relationship with my reflection, ultimately a reflection of my relationship with myself. It all goes in a circle – make more loving choices – feel I am worth more – make more loving choices.
Beautifully said Leigh. As we nurture and care for ourselves this builds self-love and the deeper the self-love the deeper we appreciate the innate beauty within which shines back to us in the mirror and in the eyes of those we meet.
Well said Doug. We are all beautiful,and we all knew it before we separated from god. It was that compulsory school system that introduced us to competition that made us not good enough.
Thank you Serge Benhayon for showing us those particles and the love that we are that allow us to express the joy we want that makes the particles trill in harmony.
Oh yes, you are, Caroline! Thank you for sharing your claimed beauty with all of us.
I love this whole blog, especially the ending:
“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!”
And so we all return, together.
How Beautiful this is Anne – “And so we all return, together.” The only way forth – as one.
This is a returning blog for me. It reminds me in times of self doubt, that I am truly beautiful and I can connect back to it. And as you say, the steps of self love are simple but not always easy. Breaking though what is not me, can be tough.
I love this claiming statement “Today I stand as me, in the beauty and joy of that and show a different way, not ashamed or afraid to say I am truly beautiful”.
I just have to say it again – what a beautiful and powerful statement: “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 am also much more in appreciation of the woman I am and am starting to feel much more what you have stated Caroline. It’s a great reminder for me to allow more and more of that in, thank you.
You nailed it Caroline – we are all beautiful! And like you, as I have come to see this in my self, through gentle and loving steps, one at a time, I have come to see just how affected I was by outside influences telling me otherwise. I look around today and still see so many women and men unaware of the beauty within them and so shining back to them my beauty from within I know is an inspirational gift to all. I also thank Universal Medicine for the support to know and live the beauty within me and love that it doesn’t stop with me either…
You shine out as a reflection for all women (and men) to feel that beauty you are, and the confidence you walk in.
I found the following statistic about women saddening:
“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?”
But not surprising given the rubbish we are fed growing up and the images we are told we have to live up to.
I love this blog Caroline. It speaks to many of us who have attended workshops with Universal Medicine and Serge Benhayon. We have gone from self doubt, insecurity and lack of confidence and, aided by self care and self love can now proclaim out loud how beautiful and amazing we are.
And inspire you do Caroline!
Gorgeous, Caroline. Thank you for this super awesome expression, the beauty, the strength, the power, the confidence of one amazing woman – it’s all there to be felt. I love it.
I love rereading this blog often Caroline as it reminds me of how beautiful I really am. Yesterday morning I was making my bed and caught a glimpse of my shoulder in the wardrobe mirror. I had a moment to stop and appreciate how gorgeous I looked and felt in the dress I chose to wear to work that day. This moment was precious and appreciated just like this blog. Thanks heaps
Gorgeous nb – the greatest love affair we will ever have, is the one with ourselves. Very precious and thank you for sharing.
Love this comment nb. Also quite new for me: to look in the mirror, and to be able to say to myself in full: you look great ! What a beautiful man !
Wonderful blog. To all women of the world, appreciate all the beauty you are, and everything you present in this world, as you all bring so much joy and harmony to all those whose lives you touch.
Caroline thank you so much for your truly beautiful blog and also for highlighting the fact that only 4% of women feel that they are beautiful, that is horrific. Here we come world women in their beauty, it’s well overdue to raise that statistic. Also thank you Caroline for leading the way.
Fantastic question Caroline one that I think we all need to ask “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?”
Thank you Caroline for your inspiration, and yes lets inspire each other and all and deepen our self-love until one day every woman (and man) will feel and say they are beautiful.
What a sad statistic: 4% of the women feel beautiful. And what about the man? I realized once again through your inspirational blog that we should be feeling beautiful all of the time, as it our natural state. And where am I? To be honest, I don’t feel beautiful 24/7, there are days where I am just ‘off’. I realized that I should self-love and self care much more than I am doing now.
I found reading this blog very interesting because as I was reading about fitting the picture of beauty, ours and the worlds, I realised that this breeds comparison, and comparison is about being the same so there is no differences to compare with, therefore ending the cycle of comparison. Wow, this feels so time consuming in the absolute wrong direction and limiting by way of crushing our individual expression of our inner beauty to fit a certain type of mould, and the moulds change and rotate at different times – keeping us on our toes and in the vicious cycle of comparison, never getting to the end, never coming to a completion.
Phew… I love that you have claimed not being in this cycle anymore, Caroline, it is an absolutely inspiring way to be as each and every one of our expressions is needed, as we all bring something different to the table of life. Thank you for being an example of this and sharing your story.
“A woman who has claimed her beauty holds a stillness that allows a man to feel where he is at, and the true beauty that lies within him.”
Wow Paul Moses, now that is a revelation. Thank you for sharing that when women do not live their true beauty they are also missing out on the true beauty of a man and all that he can bring. Amazing, thank you!
Yes, agreed Robyn when we try and fit the mold we are guaranteed failure as each of us have our own very unique and distinct expression, comparison with another is therefore futile as we are not the same. Whilst we do not celebrate and appreciate our own uniqueness we will always be swayed into thinking we need to be this or that at our own expense and that of others who miss out on the uniqueness and beauty we each have to bring.
So true Caroline, we are unique and distinct in how we express, rendering comparison such a destructive exercise. But I do so love feeling the exquisite equalness and sameness of our inner essence of stillness.
” What I learned was I was being driven by a world telling me how to be, look, act and think.” Awesome point Caroline, this is what the whole world is being driven by – no wonder humanity is now so stressed and so far from connecting to who they truly are, that today we need app’s with back ground noice because we cannot handle the stillness and the silence of simply being. Crazy.
As you say Caroline it is truly sad that that divine preciousness we see in the face of young children becomes the statistic you reference. You, and countless others, are living examples of the inspiring and empowering work of Serge Benhayon, Universal Medicine and all that it and those associated with it, are changing that statistic.
Caroline, you are a beauty-full reflection for us all. Thank you .
Totally agree with this Karen. So Beautiful 🙂
Reading your blog Caroline, I feel your absolute claimed beauty all the way to my toes – what a joy for me to read such loveliness. Your statistic that only 4% of women think they are beautiful is staggering.
For a woman to claim her beauty is a natural sexy playfulness. A man feels that as freedom from imposition, and the hooks he often feels from a woman who does not feel beautiful, and seeks to attract attention to gain recognition of beauty outside of herself.
A woman who has claimed her beauty holds a stillness that allows a man to feel where he is at, and the true beauty that lies within him.
So beautifully expressed Paul.
“A woman who has claimed her beauty holds a stillness that allows a man to feel where he is at, and the true beauty that lies within him.” WoW! Paul that is beautiful thank you.
Beautiful and gorgeous indeed Caroline- looking at your photo makes me smile from ear to ear and I can see your playfulness.
I can remember when I was under 8 loving my body, feeling beautiful as I walked and played and just having fun. I didn’t feel any pressure on my body to look a certain way. But I can definitely relate to this all changing and the awful feeling of scrutiny on how I looked, both from my self and from others.
This has also changed for me overtime with understanding what Im feeling and how dealing with my stuff allows my beauty to shine out. I am blown away with the many many moments I now have when I see that beauty.
A beautiful blog Caroline, and a joy to read and to connect to your beauty. Thank you for the inspiration to connect within and to begin to unfold.
To feel our own beauty is so precious as it is not the way we are brought up generally. It is so refreshing to have someone claim their own beauty in full.
Boom! Feel that gorgeousness and beauty Caroline. You’re shining bright and the reflection to the 96% is truly astounding. Amazing to see.
Just so gorgeous to read Caroline.
I love you sharing “.. 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!”
Reading your blog and the changes you have made to who you are today is amazing. When ever I have come in encounter with you I have felt just joy to be in your presence. You allow your loveliness, gorgeousness and playfulness out for all to see and feel and I love your laughter.. you are truly beautiful inside and out. You radiate that beauty to others to feel the same beauty in them too (if they choose to & that’s how I’ve felt).
You surely are an inspiration to me. With that I am inspired to choose to make self-loving and caring choices for me which then have inspired others and so it does go on..
“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.”
So beautiful to read Caroline and it is my experience too since i allow myself to be me, not to put mask or roles on my life becomes more joyful and i can appreciate and confirm my own beauty to a deeper level.
Caroline,
We have only exchanged hellos but I am always drawn to the quality of you – the openness and love that radiates from you. Thank you for walking this in your everyday life.
Francene this is the sweetest comment, so lovely and rightly so.
This blog and quote is a real wake up call “Recently I read an article that said only 4% of women feel they are beautiful…” My experience of beauty and how I feel, is that my looks in no way have an impact on how beautiful I feel as a woman. The feelings I have of beauty comes from the inside and are expressed outward in my eyes and the way I move. The clothes and everything else supports and celebrates this, nothing can make you feel beautiful if you do not feel it within.
You are so so beautiful Caroline, thank you for the deep inspiration that you are x
Absolutely gorgeous blog Caroline and one that everyone on this planet I’m sure can relate to. We start off as these divine little people coming out into the world and knowing for the first few years that we are that, to then giving up or shutting down and doubting that we are that because of what we see, hear, feel and experience from the world along the way. It is so very lovely now to have chosen to honour, appreciate and celebrate the real me now more and more and allow out all that I naturally was from the very start. When true beauty shines out, its an absolute sight to behold.
These threads of expression are so powerful. They are testament to all that you are, that we are, as individuals and also show the immense healing power of our own self loving choices.
So simple and beautiful Caroline. I am not quite there yet but i am starting to feel the beauty that I am thanks also to the work of Serge Benhayon and Universal Medicine.
WOW Caroline, Yes beautiful you are and yes inspiring you are. Thank you for being you. As I read your blog I can feel your playfulness and hear your giggle and it makes me smile on the inside.
Thank you Caroline for brining this question tot he table “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?” It is crazy that we all have this beauty inside us yet somewhere down the line it is common place to forget this and look through eyes of disappear and frustration of not looking a certain way. To me it shows how bombarded we get from young different pictures of what it means to be beautiful. I absolutely love that you have claimed back the truth of what beauty is for you, and by doing so Caroline you inspire others to also reclaim there true beauty.
Not just beautiful but powerfully beautiful. Caroline, I love this article’s expression of who you are – and it rings so true for me because I have experienced all the dimensions of you that you outline. And in particular your joy – it comes from such a wellspring of innocence that it cannot but heal and replenish.
I can recall looking in the mirror and being saddened and confused by what I saw, it wasn’t about how attractive I was to others, it was a deep darkness that was written allover my face. It still shows up, rarely, but it was consistently there not that long ago. Learning about self love and self care has come up against resistance, it’s great to say that the resistance is on it’s last legs and more and more of me is coming through. That too is written allover my face!
So beautiful Mark – your resistance to your own love is on its last legs – yeah to that. You are deeply beautiful and it is so very touching for a man to express as you have… that to me is true strength and true beauty.
I can only agree with Caroline, beautifully expressed Mark – very touching indeed.
Absolutely gorgeous Caroline, a beautiful inspiration! And so true, we are all so tender and precious, gorgeous and beautiful when we are young girls, in the freedom of just being ourselves, yet we take on so much from the outside world and we think that all of what is so naturally there has disappeared into oblivion…and we miss this terribly. The fact is, all of that that is there when we are young never goes anywhere. We simply hide it away and convince ourselves that we are something that we are most certainly not…and we become very good at that! So thank you for being the inspiration that you are to show everyone you meet that we don’t need to hide and that shining our beauty for all to see is the most natural thing in the world.
Thank you Caroline for writing, ‘Did I fit the picture of beauty everyone was looking for? Often not. But worse, I didn’t fit my own picture.’
I’ve realised I’ve ignored how I’ve put myself down for not fitting the picture in my head of what it is for me to be beautiful (like wanting bigger eyes, smaller nose etc). I’ve managed to do this by telling myself what I look like doesn’t matter when actually looking into a mirror and seeing my beauty shining out is important to me.
Now I know feeling less than for not fitting a picture in my head (yes crazy stuff) I can accept my features and really start to love me for me. I often feel my beauty within and can let it be, unencumbered by unattainable ideals of looking a certain way.
This blog reminded me of an article I read recently about the beauty pageants in South Korea. This article exposed how participants of the pageant were permitted to undergo unlimited plastic surgery to alter their faces. They showed before and after photos and it was like the women had a new faces grafted on. But even more shocking, they showed the winners over the last 5 or so years, and they all looked EXACTLY the same! It was as if they all used the same surgeon and he had the winning face moulded in plastic and if you paid enough money you could have it! This also exposed how exact their standards of beauty has become where there is pretty much one face that is considered to be ‘beautiful’. Now you can imagine what percentage of women in South Korea feel that they are beautiful…
Thanks Caroline. I too know what it is like to look in the mirror and see an ugliness ,
But the source of that being unknown. Then adding the self-love and care and having that change around by saying no to those thoughts. Thank you to Universal Medicine and Serge Benhayon. What they present is super life changing.
You are beauti-full Woman Caroline, thank you for sharing as your words are as inspiring as your reflection.
The more people that are inspired to claim their beauty and inspire others to do the same and it goes on and on, how can it not grow and change how we all are duped into thinking there is something wrong in self love and care.
I so love that Kevin that we have been duped into thinking something is wrong with self-care, to such an extent that we think self-care is selfish. Here is an example; someone is selfish because they want to go to bed when they are tired, lets say at 9pm. Then someone says but you are being selfish, I want you to stay up with me, I am not tired yet, my coffee is keeping me awake” I ask who is the selfish one? There are so many more examples, but for the sake of brevity here I will stop at one.
I totally relate to being duped into thinking self-care was not only being selfish but unproductive. Just reading your blog Caroline and feeling your beauty just radiating out from the photo more than sells me on the value of self-care and self-love. Bring it on I say!
Dear Caroline, Your photo sums up all that your words say. You are 100% voltage woman. I find you supportive and uplifting just looking at you. Love and blessings to you too Caroline.
It is so true what you write Caroline – a baby clearly accepts that it is a beautiful divine being, there is no other way, they just live in this…yet as we grow we are imposed on by the society we live in to the point of what you describe feeling ugly, confused and sad. It is lovely to read how you worked through this falsity with the help of Universal medicine and Serge Benhayon.
Yes Caroline, you are truly beautiful and full of beauty. You have definitely been an inspiration to me and many, many others.
As a child, I was amazed by nature, by life and saw everything and everyone as just perfect.
After starting school, I soon lost this innocence and wonder of life and spent the next 35 years trying to be who I felt everyone wanted me to be. It became a challenge just to get through each day and, apart from my infrequent connections to nature, I seldom felt the beauty in life.
I too have been inspired by Serge Benhayon and Universal Medicine to truly care for myself and to re-connect to the divine nature of life once again.
I have returned in many ways to that little child and, rather than seeing just the chaos and suffering around me, I see bees working harmoniously together, amazing clouds delivering trillions of litres of pure water around the world for free and beautiful people everywhere. My gift for being me!!!
Your blog is so simple Caroline, just like true beauty. All we need to do is be. I can feel how you have simplified your life to just let yourself be and your natural radiance can simply shine. It strikes me that complications and tensions in life pull us away from this true beauty but we can always come back to it, as you have inspiring shown.
Caroline you have definitely claimed the beauty and joy that is truly you, and inspire others in claiming their true beauty, and their claiming will inspire others and on and on until it becomes commonplace for us all to live the strong, beautiful, amazing women we are.
Your joy and playfulness as well as your beauty emanates from your great blog. The power of self-care and then self-love is simply amazing. What a deep and gorgeous joy it is to connect with and get to know our true selves so we can let go of all those impositions and just be who we are. Simple! Thank you, Caroline
There is nothing more beautiful than a women claimed for who she is, she stands out in the crowd. Just simply for being comfortable with who she is and how she looks. Universal medicine certainly shows the true path and tools to release the ideals and beliefs , that limit and hold us back from the power, love and care that we bring to the world as women.
So true Gail, nothing more beautiful – but equally beautiful is a man who knows his divinity and expresses that as tenderness to all he meets. Without any reservation.
So often we cut ourselves down for not matching the image we have of the perfect woman, we knock our own confidence by being self critical, and need reassurance from others that we are ok but, in truth, relying on outside images or outside reflections serves no-one, it is deep inside where the truth of our beauty lies. When we look at the many beautiful women who are students of Universal Medicine, we can feel that their beauty shines out from within. These are no glamour-conscious models, just ordinary, everyday women who are discovering for themselves how beautiful they are, and who are willing to share that beauty with the world – we can see it in their eyes and feel inspired – simply by being and appreciating ourselves we too can discover our own inner beauty.
So true Carmel it is so easy to cut ourselves down because we don’t match the image we have of what the perfect woman is. Another disturbing statistic I recently read on the health and well-being site Unimed Living stated “The body type portrayed in advertising as the ideal is possessed naturally by only 5% of American females.” Makes me think of images we have all grown up with Barbi, Ariel the mermaid and more. Characters with bodies that are not even humanly possible unless you remove a rib or two. Which by the way is an acceptable plastic surgery procedure. My question, why are we not content with how we look and always trying to be something else. Are we so use to not looking within and questioning what is going on inside first, that in avoidance of this we continual strive for so called perfection outside of ourselves.
These are no glamour-conscious models, just ordinary, everyday women who are discovering for themselves how beautiful they are, and who are willing to share that beauty with the world – we can see it in their eyes and feel inspired – simply by being and appreciating ourselves we too can discover our own inner beauty. Spot on Carmel.
I can feel the depth and substance of beauty in your words. There is not an inch of doubt in there, I love it and it truly inspires me to nurture the delicate sense of my inner beauty even more, so it may grow and shine over the fragments of self doubt that still lurk in the dark corners.
Caroline your words have truly inspired me today. Ever since I was quite little I always had a strong sense of who I was but I was always scared of being seen as odd or not fitting in. But today I am truly proud of the woman I am today and stand in all of my beauty fully.
That is beautiful Kelly and now you too inspire others who have felt odd or have not fitted in, to equally claim their beauty. As the famous Pantene ad said “it won’t happen over night, but it will happen”. Each one of us inspiring the other that they too can be their unique selves.
This article is so touching Caroline. And yes, we are all so beautiful, so powerful in our quirky ways. It is such a shame there is so much false pressure out there to be a certain way, especially formed when we are young – I fell for it hook line and sinker. True beauty is just being ourselves and Universal Medicine present this in such a down to earth way that it has been impossible for me not to let go of all of the false beliefs around being ‘beautiful’.
Caroline I love how you have shared how could we not feel how precious and divine we are when we see that in any child. I often watch people’s faces light up around children and it is at that moment that I get to witness their beauty as well. Such a gorgeous sight to see and feel in others.
Natasha that is so true, you watch even the hardest of people crack around children, without even realizing it, we drop all the guards and shields we hold onto in an attempt at protecting ourselves and in that space, free of all that protection, our true beauty can be seen.
Gorgeous blog thank you Caroline. Developing a deeply caring and loving relationship with yourself is very healing not only because you get to feel how truly beautiful you are but also because once you know this about yourself you know that everyone is truly beautiful too. Knowing we are all naturally beautiful is such a powerful way to stop comparison and jealousy and this stop is so needed for women.
Thank you Sonja I love the analogy “How can something not flourish if you take deep and lovely care of it?” makes so much sense. We all know food cooked with love tastes so much better, there have even been movies made about it. My mum was famous for her food, people would come from everywhere to have a meal with us because of how amazing her food was. And then something changed, her food lost its appeal – I was puzzled and wondered what was going on – and one day it hit me, Mum had lost the love of cooking, so I asked her do you enjoy cooking anymore? No she said I have had enough – the care and precision she used to put into food had stopped and it was obvious. Just like when we don’t put that same care and precision into ourselves we can not flourish and it is felt. And so true Bianca, when we are full of ourselves there is no room for comparison only appreciation for another.
What a gorgeous reflection you are…
Thank you Caroline,
Exactly, this daily check-in of self-love and self-care on a practical level, can change so much. Little things like how I cream my hands, brush my teeth, put my make-up on and choose my clothes. How can something not flourish if you take deep and lovely care of it? How can I not flourish and let my true beauty shine then?
“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.”
Wow Caroline, I can feel in that comment your power and strength and that you have really claimed every bit of what you have said in you statement. Your photo confirms it too. Beautiful I love it.
Such a wonderful confidence and simple truth. I hope one day to also be able to look in the mirror and feel that truth you speak of Caroline. Universal Medicine does indeed give one the tools to make it happen. It is very clear that you made the choice to put those tools into action and you are gaining the benefits. Your pictures glows with all that you speak of. You are truly beautiful! You are an inspiration to me. Thank you!
Thanks Caroline for sharing. Your honesty and laughter are always inspiring.
That’s an arresting and somewhat disturbing statistic that only 4% of we women consider ourselves to be beautiful. How do we end up that way with 96% of us feeling the sense of ugliness you describe here, Caroline. I, too, have found that self love and self care provide the route to reconnect with my innate beauty, and it’s a route well worth the travelling. So beautiful what you express about, ” 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!”
True Beauty if I ever heard it! Thank you.
So true Colleen, how did we end up with 96% of women believing they are ugly?
As a young girl I had a huge problem with the way I looked. The way I felt depended on my judgment to the reflection in the mirror. I never lived up to my own expectations. Every day I start to accept myself more, love myself more, love others more and express myself more. In the mirror I am starting to see this beautiful feminine, amazing woman. Thanks to Serge Benhayon, his family and all the students of Universal Medicine.
Truly beautiful blog. Thank you Caroline. Your loveliness shines through in every word. We are all truly beautiful and I thank God for Universal Medicine and myself for feeling that there is another way to true beauty rather than the impositions and criticisms that we had taken on from an early age.
Caroline as you say the not so easy steps to self care and self love – and yet our bodies thrive
so beautifully and gracefully with all these loving steps.
We suffer from the capping of the expectations we place on ourselves – at least that is what I learnt from your awesome blog Caroline. What if we are actually ALL truly beautiful and the only thing stopping us seeing that is ourselves from our own expectations?
Thank you Caroline for your beautiful sharing in this blog, as a child I appreciated and valued my natural power and felt my beauty, then something shifted over time to feeling I didn’t measure up to societal and my own expectations. Thanks to Universal Medicine, Serge Benhayon, Natalie Benhayon and Esoteric Women’s Health I now live each day with a deep appreciation of my beauty and who I naturally am as a woman, mother, wife, friend and practitioner.
Caroline, the loveliness I connect to within myself, just reading your words of absolute knowing that you are a beautiful full woman and not afraid to say so feels delicious and feels like it is supportive of me at the same time. You are sharing for us all. So sad that we are often actively discouraged from liking ourselves or saying lovely things about ourselves simply because it could be seen as big headed or selfish or perhaps arrogant, when to look into your shining face we can see it is so plainly none of those things. A simple declaration of truth that is offered for the benefit of us all. Thank you so much.
I can see the beauty in your eyes and the eyes never lie.
I agree Dean, when another is met with those eyes, they can’t help but feel more.
This is such a light clear blog! I can see and feel your Beauty radiating Caroline and it is inspiring! Nothing like all the media images we get bombarded with which may look ‘picture perfect’ (accoding to some ideal) but there is nothing there!
You carry a fullness that is palpable through this blog and a fullness that is totally achievable for All Women regardless of their physical appearance! All we have to do is connect to our inner-most essence, and Universal Medicine has shown us how!
Yay! For Normalizing Self-Love and Self-Appreciation!!
It s lovely to read how you claimed your beauty / YOU back. It is actually so simple and though quite hard in todays society – thank you for inspiring through your words.
Dear Caroline
Thank you very much for this very inspiring and truth reflecting article. What would happen when everybody feels that we are so much more beautiful on the inside, every single one of us, that words can’t describe and make-up could never ever reveal? Amazing!
How true Caroline as I commit to care for me and make loving choices for myself, the more with myself I am. In this process I am discovering the woman I am and am turning into a beautiful, beautiful women!!!
Absolutely beautiful Caroline – your true beauty shines through every word your write as does your inner joy. You are an inspiration to all women – a reflection that we are all beautiful, it is a matter of making the choices to self-nurture and self-care so that we can all feel this.
Yes, Caroline a celebration of true beauty and womanliness. Thank you. Your joy and play-full-ness radiates from your words beckoning us to join you in your joy.
Truly beautiful, thank you Caroline. I love how you say “no longer feel ugly from living what is not me”. That nails true ugliness and puts a whole new marker to true beauty.
Beautiful Caroline, reading your blog reminded me of how simple and fun I felt was when I was a child, just feeling so content, loving and at ease with myself. Self care really is the way to reconnect to the gorgeousness that is within
This is so true Caroline. Thank you. There is nothing more beautiful than being the real you – inside and out.
Now that I read it it is so obvious but I was not aware of that aspect before, that self-love and self-care allow for the space to feel for oneself what is true and what is not. We need to detach at least a bit from all the things that tell us who and how to be before we can get a sense of ourselves in distinction to the impositions of the world. Actually it is shocking to realize how much we are engulfed by the outer and how difficult it is at times to free ourselves from it. For every piece of falseness we let go of we regain back a piece of ourselves, thus true beauty starts to shine out again.
Thank you Caroline for sharing your beauty for us all to feel and honour our own . Self care and self love is an important part of our lives so often overlooked and misinterpreted. Truly Inspirational and beautiful.
To know how it was for you as a teenager gives me an understanding because if I look at you today, it is hard to imagine you any other way than the beautiful woman that you are. You are such an inspiration and role model Caroline. Thank you.
It’s wonderful to read how by chosing for self care and self love you have found the beauty which resides within you. What a great reflection you will be for women and girls around you that there is another way, away from ideals and beliefs to a way of true beauty.
What a beautiful blog Caroline. It is great to feel how beautiful you see yourself and it is contagious, can’t help but feel my beauty whilst reading this!
Yes Lieke, Caroline’s blog is contagious. When I get ready today I’ll look at myself with different eyes, and I already feel lovely all over.
I very much recognize the thing you say about complying to my own picture of how I should be. This is changing a lot since I can see how beautiful I am.
You are beautiful Caroline – I love how you have claimed it for yourself and shared this with everyone. You are an inspiration and this true beauty needs to be passed onto every women & start to change the way women feel they have to live up to complete false ideas of what it is to be beautiful.