Beauty. A term that is overly used and quite frankly, falsely defined.

The formal definition: a combination of qualities, such as shape, color, or form, that pleases the aesthetic senses, especially the sight.

The “Google Images” definition: images of aesthetically appealing women lathered with makeup, flawless skin and plastic surgery. (Type “beauty” on the search bar and you’ll see what I mean.)

My personal definition? Quite a bit different.

I find beauty in a person who glimmers in the output of their own light as they speak of the their deepest interests.

It is beautiful to me when I see someone who is entirely self-assured and in control of their own life.

Someone who goes against the conventional way of living and finds bravery in their ability to go against the crowd.

Someone who sulks in the bath of utter freedom each day.

And someone who is captivated with enthusiasm by the littlest things. Who loves to learn. To master their craft. And who loves to surpass the person they were the day before.

What else it beautiful to me? An appreciation of the planet. The well-being of the world and the creatures in it. An intimate connection with nature.

The list is endless.

But what this list isn’t? A list solely consisting of aesthetically pleasing qualities.

Why is it that we define beauty as a vision of sight? An aesthetically pleasing person or thing?

Sure, those things are certainly beautiful as well. But there is so much more to the definition of this word.

Not long ago I was listening to a podcast when this all hit me. It was an interview with a man named Wim Hof. He teaches people to alter their happiness and strength through the powerful capacity of the human mind. Through meditation, breathing and yoga he is able to alter his health and guide others to do the same. What he is doing is impeccably beautiful.

So why had I never heard of him? Why is it that alluring celebrities and models are known by the majority of the world but someone who is doing reaching such formidable feats is hardly heard of?

Part of me felt angry.

I felt a call to change the way we view beauty in today’s modern world. I wanted to scream. To shout my realization to the world. To convince people they were wrong and teach them how they could alter the way they were accepting society’s calls.

Unfortunately, this was not possible. So I dabbled in strategies about how to use my writing to change the societal norm.

But what I realized was this:

The answer to redefining beauty as we know it is to take responsibility for your own self.

Shine your light. Express the intrinsic nature of whatever is you find most purposeful in life. Use your divine human power to refine the lives of others. Commit to self-improvement. Learn something new every day. Get uncomfortable. Be sure of yourself. Defy the odds of society. Dare to live a life of freedom. Go against the trail of the herd. Stand up for whatever you feel needs change. Stay curious. Doubt what you are told. Connect to your spiritual being.

And don’t ever settle. 

As you glow in the exploration of who you are at your inner core, people will begin to notice the rawness of what beauty really is.

And one by one, as people begin to notice this beauty in it’s purest form, society will follow along.

No longer will beauty be viewed with tunnel vision. A vision of aesthetics, and  aesthetics only. But rather the variation of genuineness of humans and nature in their purest form.

“Redefining beauty. It is not about how a woman looks. it is about how a woman lives in the knowledge of who she is.” ~ Rafaella Eufrazia Merry Astria

Author: Natalie Lucci

Editor: Sara Kärpänen

Photo: Daryn Bartlett / Unsplash