Beauty Truth Tuesday

I feel like we can be so hard on ourselves sometimes, especially when it comes to our appearance.  As I get older, I am trying to become more comfortable in my skin.  

It’s incredibly hard.

If you haven't already figured this out, I love all things beauty, fashion, etc. – I’m a girly girl, after all – so a lot of what comes with that is having fun with make-up, testing new hair products, trying new fashion trends.  

But the fact remains that there are things about me that I just don’t like, have never liked, and probably never will like. 

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It’s funny, though, because I feel slightly MORE comfortable with my body since having my son, even though I know it’s changed it for the worse.  I try to think of all those changes as battle scars, in a sense, you know?  I think we all have our own “battle scars” that come from a multitude of things – genetics, health issues, operations… even stress.

I’ve read so many articles and watched so many programs where women talk about how, once they hit a certain age (usually around 40), they feel the best they ever have.  I think learning to accept ourselves for who we are is one of the biggest challenges in our lives, don’t you?  One blog I read not too long ago was about a mom who decided to wear a bikini on her vacation even though her body was much different than it had ever been.  To her, though, she figured that this is as good as it gets, so she may as well show it off now because it will only get worse.  That made me chuckle.  Probably because it's true!

Sometimes that means first acknowledging our personal battle scars, whether they be physical or emotional or both.  So today I’m going to share with you some of my "beauty battle scars."

• I have a birthmark smack dab in the middle of my back.  I tried to get it removed when I was in high school, but the removal process made it look ten times worse.  I’ve always been embarrassed by it, especially when I wear a dress or swimsuit, and one time at the beach, a woman asked me what happened to my back because, she said, it looked like someone burned a cigarette on it.  That made me feel GREAT, let me tell you.
• I am a super hairy person (thanks to my mom’s Italian family tree!).  I swear – I have the hair of a family of gorillas.  The hair removal process for me is long and exhausting.  Thank God for razors and tweezers.
• I was not blessed with beautiful olive skin, though, from my Italian ancestors.  Oh, no -  I have pasty, white, glow-in-the-dark skin.  Self-tanner is my BFF.
• I have man feet, so I keep my toenails painted year round in an attempt to make them look more feminine.
• I have lots of gray hair.  It started in college, increased when I was pregnant, and hasn’t stopped since.  Needless to say, I will be coloring my hair for a long time.
• I have horrible dark circles under my eyes.  I hate them, and even when I get a lot of sleep, they're still there.
• I have a short torso but super long arms and legs.  I'm very "Amazonian," if you will.  Tarzan-like.  Very disproportionate.

I could go on - believe me - but I'll spare you, because now that those are out there, I am going to take a deep breath and do my best to stop focusing so much on them.  I will continue my beauty routines for them, like my concealer, hair color, etc., but I am tired of focusing on them so much.

I need to remind myself that beauty is more than what's in the mirror.  We are more than what we look like.  We are more than we think we are.  So here are some new thoughts I'm adopting:

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