When making a decision, ANY decision: whatever makes you feel most beautiful - like a beautiful PERSON --- DO THAT. So whether practicing yoga makes you feel beautiful or if giving vinyasa the middle finger today makes you feel like a beautiful badass.... if going to the gym makes you feel beautiful, if savouring a delicious cupcake once in a while makes you feel beautiful & mischievious, if giving a homeless man money even though he might spend it on drugs makes you feel beautiful, if stopping to help someone or listen to someone makes you feel beautiful, if actually saying NO to something makes you feel beautiful.....if actually saying YES FULLY makes you feel beautiful...what I'm saying is if it makes you truly feeel more beautiful in your heart YOU ARE ON THE RIGHT TRACK. Listen to your heart, what makes you shine, what makes you feel amazing and you will be on the right track and have all the reasons to smile, enjoy life and you will NATURALLY align with your unique purpose!
I discovered this magical pose (mermaid, a heart-opener) in Bali during a HEART OPENING yoga session -- the teacher had said if you avoid backbends a lot that means you have probably closed your heart at some point in your life, and you don't want to expose that part of you and don't want to feel vulnerable. I thought uh huh yeah ok.....but then after backbend after backbend and a theme around vulnerability = wholeheartedness, showing up fully in life and ultimately more success and more of getting what you want----I had a full on BEAUTIFUL BREAKDOWN. Like I cried, but I also actually felt like I had a fucking fever, headache, chest ache and had to go home for the day. Could it actually be the "physical" breakdown of imagined walls around my heart, or was it just a hot day, or something I ate? All I know is how I took it, and fuck.....I decided to be more aware of opening my heart.....and fuck....I sort of regretted that shit (up until recently <3).
It's not easy living here with an open heart, unless you surround yourself with like-minded/like-hearted people ALL THE TIME..... and I am SO GRATEFUL to say I hardly know anyone who is otherwise. Or maybe I just see people so clearly now!
And so even when I regretted opening my heart....I realized it made me feel way more beautiful to be more open, even if it meant dealing with being sad sometimes. And so feeling beautiful is a very personal, in the moment thing. It's NOT ABSOLUTELY NOT about the number on the scale (although making the healthier choice is USUALLY 99% of the time what makes you feel more beautiful & so the inner work translates to outer work so this is why ANYONE can be beautiful when they are truly taking care of themselves this is where the logical side of the inner work mirrors/parallels the outer appearance comes into play).
....or even the way you look in the mirror...if you don't FEEL beautiful you won't even SEE that...you will ALWAYS find something wrong with you externally if you're not taking care of the bigger part of WHO YOU ARE INSIDE....we are meant to never be still, constantly meant to be growing learning and evolving....otherwise we just search for or create the next problem, find something to be wrong. SoOOooo embrace whatever "problem" you are facing, it is there for your growth and to make you better, or to teach you the other side of things so you can appreciate the greatness of its' opposite. Shutting out ANYTHING leads to shutting out the bad AND THE GOOD, the bad and the other side of that.... you gotta go THROUGH it <3 <3 <3