The Only New Year’s Beauty Resolution Worth Making

January 5, 2015. Day 5 of 365. We’re in the heady days of New Year’s resolutions. Everyone’s making a list, creating a vision board, and planning new ways to become better people in the next 360 days. It’s an exciting time. A time of promise. A time of self flagellation. A time of personal critique, frequently accompanied by blame and shame. I’m seeing so many of my friends post poignant Facebook statuses, lamenting the carbs consumed over Christmas and questioning their own abilities and choices before planning to dive headfirst into a regimen of change.

I keep seeing posts and articles about beauty resolutions. These are usually about trying some kind of new product or mastering a new look, improving your skincare regimen or haircare routine. There’s a lot of focus on the external, in these resolution suggestions. I would like to suggest that we look a little deeper, for 2015. In my humble opinion, there’s just one beauty resolution that is truly worth making – not just for this year, but for every year to come. Ready for it? Here it goes:

Love yourself more. Love yourself better. Just love yourself. Inside and out, from the top of your head to the soles of your feet. Love your whole self.

That’s it, but that’s not all. I’m not just talking about a general sense of self-love that isn’t reflected in action. Get to the heart of the matter. What does loving yourself MEAN? What does loving yourself LOOK like? HOW do you love yourself?

There are books and blogs on the topic and everyone’s going to have their own takeaway. But here’s my opinion. This has been my experience:

You love yourself by being gentle and kind with yourself, and by thinking and speaking about yourself in positive terms.

You love yourself by doing things to make yourself feel happy and beautiful.

You love yourself by taking care of yourself. From health care checkups to personal hygiene to proper nutrition to beautification rituals, it’s all part of self care.

You love yourself by not comparing yourself to others, but instead celebrating your unique beauty. It’s only natural and human nature to look at someone else and notice their body or facial differences, and entirely another to then wish you looked more like that person, or to try to make yourself look like someone else to the detriment of what makes you uniquely beautiful. You need to be able to look in the mirror and be happy with the you that’s looking back at you. It’s SO fundamentally important.

Self love will radiate through you, it will lift your esteem, it will shine from your eyes. And that’s what confident looks like. That’s what beautiful looks like. It’s kind of like this Roald Dahl quote about thinking good thoughts.

 

 

Think those good thoughts and say those positive affirmations to yourself and they will “shine out of your face like sunbeams.”

While you may be making beauty resolutions, or other resolutions that aren’t beautycentric – maybe to improve your fitness or to improve your financial situation or write your book already, consider starting at the root. So much of self improvement begins with self love. Holistic, practical self love. It’s the cornerstone. It’s something I’m working on myself, so I figure that I can’t be alone here. I think we all need to love ourselves a little more and a little better, from head to toe.

I’m wishing you all a beautiful, bright and prosperous new year! What resolutions did you make (besides this one)?