Yesterday I was sat on the bus.
Not quite as 'Ab-Fab' as some may think I am! And there's nothing wrong with that; I love the bus! We should all of course share transport more often and help cut our carbon footprint.
But here's what I want to talk about.
A young girl, all of 17 got on the bus. Very pretty young girl, gorgeous lovely long wavy, waist length hair.
But something caught my eye.
You see she was wearing a lot, and I mean a LOT of makeup.
So much makeup there was a very clear change in tone between where her foundation ended and her real, fresh pale skin began by her ear.
And it made me a little sad. It made me sad because she clearly felt she needed to look a particular way. It shouldn't have made me sad - but it did.
And it got me thinking.
It got me thinking about how shouldn't we all just embrace the way we look. Embrace our age (whatever it may be). Embrace our flaws, stop looking to 'fit in'?
To which MY answer is … YES! … YES! … YES! … YES!
But here’s the thing.
Things aren’t quite that simple.
To a very large extent people feel inside at age 40, age 50, age 60, age 70, age 80, age 90 and beyond how they did at age 20!
Our inner self doesn’t age quite in the same way as our outer self.
And sometimes, for SOME people when we look in the mirror the reflection doesn’t match how we feel inside. For the young girl on the bus, her reflection without makeup didn't match how she felt inside.
Now logic tells us that we shouldn’t worry about it.
How we look isn’t very important. The person we are is MUCH more important.
And you know it is ... as do I. That’s not up for debate here.
There is however a little hiccup in this logic ...
Our emotions don’t respond very well to logic!
We’ve all had the experience where logically something wasn’t a good idea. It wasn’t a good idea to go out with this man (or lady); it was a logically good idea to buy this car, or house.
BUT, what wins?
Our emotions or logic?
Look back and I think you’ll see and I’m sure know you.
EMOTIONS RULE US.
So how do we solve this?
The fact that we know we should embrace all our flaws. We should accept ourselves for what we are, love ourselves, be happy no matter what?
When, logic tells us to do that BUT our emotions tell us ‘your hair needs colouring’, ‘you need new shoes’, ‘your laughter lines are looking deeper’ etc, etc?
My take?
If you are really going to accept YOU for YOURSELF then YOU should embrace what makes YOU the happiest. What makes YOU the most confident in yourself. What means YOU can give your best self to the word …
And go with the flow.
If you need a new pair of shoes to help you ‘walk a little taller’ – go for it!
If you need to wear lipstick to help you feel more ‘feminine’ – go for it!
If you want to get a giant tattoo of Mickey Mouse on your back – go for it!
If you want to look after your skin and help keep it supple and youthful – go for it!
Life is way to short to tie yourself up with what you should and shouldn’t do. What you should and shouldn’t wear. What you shouldn't or shouldn't enjoy.
Or even to start worrying about whether the media is or isn’t making us all feel like we should conform to a certain look.
Live your life on your terms, love yourself however you feel best and enjoy every single moment.
And if fancy a big cream cake today ... perhaps you should have one ;-). I know I would!
Have an amazing day,
Tracey xx