Beauty is widely thought to be something that we are born with. Contrary to this popular notion, there are quite a few things that can enhance our beauty and attractiveness to a remarkable degree. By understanding the principles that underpin beauty, we can work towards looking and feeling more beautiful.
Firstly, Health is Beauty. Health, not just interpreted narrowly as the absence of disease, but as complete physical, mental, social and spiritual well-being. Notwithstanding the bone structure and other relatively fixed attributes, if you are at the peak of their health, you will seem beautiful to most people. Because when you are at the peak of your health, you are at your optimum body weight and body composition, that best shows off your physical features and underlying bone structure.
That is also when your hormones are in balance, so you look more symmetrical, have even toned smooth skin, fuller and thicker hair, plumper lips, thicker limbal rings, healthier waist to hip ratio, less bloating. Better collagen production will ensure a tighter, more lifted, sculpted face. There won’t be any allergies or sinus issues and so your nose will lookmore defined. There will be less puffiness in the face and also less pronounced dark circles. Better health also ensures greater vitality which gives a brighter appearance to the person.
Furthermore, better health includes better functionality. This is particularly shown in the work done by Dr. Mew on facial aesthetics and functionality. For instance, mouth breathing or poor tongue posture may lead to poor orthodontic profile or an underbite or overbite and may make a significant difference in key ratios such as bigonial width, bizygomatic width, which has a bearing on your face shape and the overall harmony in your facial structure. In this case, a better tongue posture will also ensure better facial forward growth, better muscle tone around the mouth and the cheek, more defined upper lip, lesser deposition of buccal fat(lower cheek fat) for a more sculpted face. A better tongue posture, could also ensure that the airways are more developed, which will ensure better breathing, which in turn promotes a more open and expansive posture overall. So, better mental and physical health promotes a healthier breathing as well as a more erect, open and expansive posture.
This in turn, will ensure that the fat doesn’t accumulate at unwanted places like around the dowager’s hump or the muffin top, which will make your body shape look better. Absence of postural defects like forward neck posture will ensure a lower fat deposition in the submental region (double chin), for a better defined jawline and a face that looks naturally lifted. Small changes like chewing equally on both sides, can have a drastic impact of facial symmetry considering most (75%) of facial asymmetry lies on the lower one third of the face.The correlations between health and beauty are endless. By focussing on health and fitness, we can improve our attractiveness substantially.
Secondly, the notion of Beauty is not simply about how one looks. Looking a certain way is part of a larger whole that also manifests in different ways like how you stand, walk, move and talk. Beauty also lies in animation, a truly confident and healthy individual would feel free to express themselves hence have a more open body language, a better posture, more expressive face, brighter eyes, would smile more often, hold less tension in the jaw and would also have a more pleasant resting face. All of these factors are largely not genetically defined and can be improved significantly by working upon them.
Thirdly, Beauty is where there is a harmonious blend of averageness and rarity. While averageness correlates with healthier functionality, good genetics and good health, rarity encompasses embracing our own unique beauty and striving towards being the best version of ourselves. Good genetics may be like winning a lottery, but by simply enhancing our features with self-care and grooming and by understanding what works for our face and body type, we can embrace our own unique beauty and look our best. Novelty is rather prized across cultures.
The moment every model starts having the same look, there is usually a countermovement towards a more unique and novel look. It is perhaps why cultural standards of beauty are rarely timeless, and subject to frequent changes. For instance, a few decades ago, normal to thin sized lips were considered beautiful, while fuller and more defined lips are “in fashion” now. Chasing cultural standards of beauty can often leave you with a low self esteem. So it is worth experimenting with a different look only as long as it gives you joy and not when it makes you feel unworthy.
Fourthly, beauty also lies in being or looking natural. It is perhaps why the “no makeup” makeup look is so popular and the best cosmetic procedures are those that do not look like there was any work done. Sometimes, even in the most conservatively done cosmetic procedures, the immediate results may improve facial harmony, but over time, due to aging, it could lead to greater facial disharmony. For instance, buccal fat removal could give a chiseled look to the face immediately, but it could also cause premature aging by causing skin to sag over time.
Some types of nose jobs lead to “nasal shrinkage” over time, while repeated use of cheek or chin fillers could accelerate the sagging of skin. Furthermore, aging can often be a great leveler when it comes to beauty. For women who have features such as oily skin, flat nose, rounder cheeks, unruly brows, curly hair, grass may seem greener on the other side, but with age, these features start seeming like a boon as this contribute significantly to a more youthful appearance.
Lastly, the single biggest parameter that has a bearing on beauty and attractiveness may just be our conviction in our own beauty. You might have different looking features but your conviction in your beauty would lead others to believe you are beautiful. The most beautiful women are not the most perfect looking, but rather have a certain charisma and confidence that draws people to them. On the other hand, insecurities and unhealthy thought patterns like lack of self-love, body dysmorphia, may reduce one’s attractiveness.
Nothing shows a lack of conviction in our own beauty than wanting to look like somebody else. Excessive focus on perfectionism in beauty and the compulsive need to change one’s physical features through cosmetic procedures can often be a result of working in a profession that lays too much emphasis on physical attractiveness, or it could also be premised on some degree of body image issues, body dysmorphia or an insecurity about the way we look. The latter could be a manifestation of internalised shame due to bullying, early romantic rejection, comparisons to a “better looking” sibling, parental overemphasis on beauty etc.
Additionally, the unrealistic ideals of beauty have now been “normalised” by social media, which further makes people insecure about the way they look. The “Instagram” standard of beauty is often considered an ethnically ambiguous idea of beauty – modelled on eurocentric standards of beauty but peppered with “cherry picked” features from other ethnicities such as full lips, poreless skin, tanned body, thick lashes, dark eyebrows, canthal tilt (upturned eyes), low waist to hip ratio etc. It is a kind of look that is difficult to achieve without makeup, photoshop or cosmetic procedures. It is therefore more advisable to work on loving oneself, and resolving the deep seated issues such as internalised shame, instead of rushing into any kind of cosmetic procedure.
Our Healing Affirmations work on all the aspects outlined above, including lifestyle and behavioural changes such as eating healthier foods, staying hydrated, adequate sleep, self-care and grooming as well as weight loss and hormonal balance. They will also cover aspects such as nose breathing, tongue posture, body posture, resting face, etc. which have a bearing on facial muscle tone and reduction of buccal fat (lower cheek) and submental fat (double chin), clearer sinuses for a better defined nose. Most importantly, our Healing affirmations work on confidence, self-love, accepting our own unique beauty, reducing self-consciousness for a more confident body language. Furthermore, unhealthy thought patterns that result in a poor body image, body dysmorphia and an unhealthy relationship with food, are also addressed in our audio.
