Years ago I planned a book about the beneficial, even therapeutic, effects of beauty in our surroundings. I still haven’t written it, because there has been little or no study of this phenomenon. I remain convinced but it must only be a personal opinion.
George Santayana, the modern Spanish philosopher wrote convincingly about the same thing (The Sense of Beauty, 1896).
One thing came to me very vividly, early in my medical career: that a woman’s beauty is a state of mind, not physical form.
I say that because one day, long ago, I was in theatre scrubbed for an elective on a very beautiful woman. She was gorgeous! Yet, as soon as the anesthetic hit, she transformed into a sack of jelly. Her face slumped and went plop! All the beauty was gone.
I realized in that instant that beauty is how a woman holds herself. If she thinks she is beautiful, or should be, then her musculature responds and holds her face and bearing in a certain assured way. But take away the conscious aspect of beauty, I realized, and it vanishes.
I even wrote a powerful poem about this. But it was in a briefcase that was stolen and I cannot, for the life of me, re-create that poem. Hah well!
But I dug up a similar idea from an old self-development writer Orison Swett Marden. In his classic best-seller “Every Man A King” (1906) he penned these words:
It is perfectly possible for the girl with the homeliest face, with the ugliest expression, if she has a an honest heart to make herself beautiful to everyone who knows her by the perpetual habit of holding in her mind the beauty thought; not the thought of mere superficial beauty, but that of heart beauty, soul beauty. The basis of all real beauty is a kindly, helpful heart, and a desire to scatter sunshine and good cheer everywhere, and this, shining through the face, makes it beautiful. The longing and the effort to to be beautiful in character cannot fail to make the life beautiful, and since the outward is but an expression of the inward, and mere outpicturing on the body of the habitual thought and dominating motives, the face, the manners, the bearing, must follow the thought, and become sweet and attractive. If you hold the beauty thought, the love thought, persistently in the mind, you will make such an impression of harmony, of sweetness, and soul beauty wherever you go that known one will notice any plainness of deformity you may possess.
I have known a girl whose extreme plainness of features and awkwardness of manner so pained her as she approached womanhood that she almost despaired of ever making anything of herself, and even contemplated suicide. She was so convinced that she was a target for cruel remarks, and became so impressed with the conviction that she was not wanted anywhere, and that she was constantly being insulted, that she resolved to make one supreme effort to redeem herself from her handicap. She resolved that she would make people love her, that she would attract them instead of repelling them; that she would take such an unselfish interest in them that they could not help loving her.
She determined to develop those beautiful heart qualities which would more than compensate for mere physical beauty. She began to sympathise with people and to take thought of their welfare. Wherever she went, if she saw anyone who was ill at ease or looked troubled or friendless, she immediately took such a deep interest in him that she won his friendship at once.
She began to cultivate her mind in every possible way in order to make herself interesting, bright, cheerful, and hopeful. She cultivated optimism, and she was soon surprised to see how the young people who formerly shunned her flocked around her and began to love her; and she not only succeeded in compensating for her physical deformity, which she thought was fatal to her pleasure and her usefulness, but she also developed a soul beauty that did not pass with years, and which was infinitely superior to that beauty, which comes from regularity of features and beauty of form. So popular did she become that the so-called pretty girls envied her.
So there you are girls: a free tip for a good complexion!
And need I say it guys? No, of course not…
Dr. Keith,
Beauty, internal and external, is a direct reflection of the energy one radiates. Hence the term, “radiant beauty.”
In turn, the power of the energy one radiates is a direct reflection of one’s beliefs, thoughts, and feelings about one’s self (the inner world) and the external world.
When I started practicing as a plastic surgeon, I had a quotation by George Santayana inside one of my brochures:
“Beauty as we feel it is something indescribable; what it is or what it means can never be said.”
— George Santayana
We feel energy, we don’t think it. And, most of the time, we don’t see it, at least not consciously.
These days, I no longer practice plastic surgery; I’m making my mark on the world by helping conscious entrepreneurs to live their lives with greater freedom, so they contribute to others and the world with greater impact, and ultimately, enjoy a richness of prosperity that they can’t help but share with others. However, my experience in medicine has served me well in providing a foundation for appreciating the inner beauty in others, as well as in myself.
The inner beauty we sense emanates from unconditional love, the greatest love of all.
Say we’re at a social gathering, and a stranger walks into a room. A common reaction upon sensing the movement of that person entering the room, is to glance at that person. In that instant, uncontrollably, we make a myriad of judgments and assessments about that person…
…do we like how the person is dressed? Is the person attractive to us? How does the person walk? Is the person physically fit or grossly out of shape? Is this a person we’d like to speak with, or stay away from?
Our rational, intellectual minds take us down a road of sensing that person’s physical presentation, our intuitive, inner guidance system picks up on that person’s energetic presence.
In my experience and observation, the power of one’s energetic presence influences and alters their external physical beauty. And, it impacts the longevity of that beauty.
I’ve seen unhappy women with attractive physical features age prematurely, beyond the help of cosmetic surgery. And, I’ve seen optimistic, self-confident, and yes, radiant, women with attractive physical features maintain their physical beauty beyond what one might expect for their chronological years.
And, have you ever seen a physically attractive person, then gotten to know that person and realized that this person has a toxic personality? And, with that realization, didn’t that person become less beautiful, less physically attractive to you?
Conversely, have you ever gotten to know someone with plain physical features who becomes beautiful in your eyes, because the true nature of their being shine through in who they are being and in their acts of love and kindness?
One more thing: Is physical beauty impacted by diet and exercise? Of course. What one eats, one becomes… Put in good fuel, and the body responds correspondingly.
But diet, and what happens after one eats that food, is affected by….
.. you guessed it: One’s beliefs, thoughts, and feelings.
It’s an inescapable law of the Universe.
As Ernest Holmes said, “Change your thinking, change your life.”
Okay, I’m off topic here, as I usually write about conscious entrepreneurship, but I couldn’t resist.
I hope I’ve given you something to chew on; now go write your book!
George