.....the skin you're in

Yogis,
How could I possibly let this surreal time in our history go by without at least some discussion on our looks…….

When I was about twelve or thirteen, there was a girl in my class that I can picture to this day. I don’t recall her name but will call her Nancy for the sake of this discussion. Nancy wasn’t what our society would give the arbitrary label of beautiful. Shoulder length straight brown hair. Simple features, average height and normal weight. Yet there was something that drew me to watch her. She was so comfortable in her own skin in a way that I wasn’t.  I wanted some of that.

She stirred something in me that I carried as I made my way through the gawky years of adolescence. I thought of her as I carefully applied makeup and teetered on high heeled pumps as a young woman in the workforce. Hours spent trying to look like Farrah Fawcett weaved their way into the years of perms and then the dreaded hair straighteners. All to find ‘the look’ that made me feel good.  That made me as comfortable in my own skin as Nancy. Tidying up the outside in an attempt to please the inside.

Jump ahead to 2012 while living in my tent at Susun Weed’s with no access to a bathroom or mirror. I went a week without any makeup, only one shower and whatever hair style happened to show up on my head each morning after sleeping on the ground. And you know what? By the end of that week I had never felt more beautiful. ‘Me’ was finally shining through.

That was an awakening for me. The fact that when we feel beautiful on the inside, it transforms how we look on the outside. We move differently. Breathe differently. Glowing in the skin we are in. What freedom! I never looked back.

From that day forward I ditched the makeup and guess what! Everyone still likes me. And I rarely look in the mirror because I have realized that when I do, the inner critic rears up……look at those lines in your face, your belly is too round, what are those ages spots, your hair is…..you get the idea. The outside can never make the inside happy, but boy can the inside make the outside happy.

This pandemic, with its forced absence of haircuts, colorings, manicures and facials, and less outside pressure to look a certain way offers us yet another opportunity. A chance to become not only comfortable, but in love with the skin we are in.

Get still and tap into the ‘you’ that resides in that deep quiet place within and then wear it. Shine you out! Because ‘you’ are absolutely stunning.

Thank you Nancy,
SARAH