Public opinion will also have its ideas on aesthetic canons regarding external beauty, but the internal one has a completely different meaning. Feeling beautiful inside has more to do with personality than physical appearance. Find out what meaning you attach to beauty and cultivate the right amount of self-esteem to live by your own rules by starting today.
Steps
Part 1 of 2: Defining Beauty in Your Own Words
Step 1. Ask yourself what beauty means to you
How would you define inner beauty? Can you imagine a smiling person? A person who has a kind word for everyone? Or is it a more complex definition? A tenacious person, who loves and who represents the embodiment of strength? Stop for a moment to reflect on the meaning you attribute to beauty. Grab a pen and paper and list any adjectives or nouns that help you describe the inner one.
Remember that inner beauty is subjective, so you decide how to define it. Don't cling to society's point of view, trust your instincts. Without researching or asking for the opinion of others, try to set your own standards for inner beauty
Step 2. Do a self-assessment
Human beings can be described using a long list of positive traits, including honesty, integrity, fairness, compassion, leadership, forgiveness, hope and openness. After you have listed the traits of a person who is beautiful inside, compare them to the strengths of your personality. It is possible that many of the aspects you consider important will overlap with characteristics that you yourself have. If you speak English, visit the VIA Institute on Character website to devise some sort of inventory of your character strengths.
According to research, when a person is aware of (and makes use of) their character strengths, they enjoy greater well-being and lead a satisfying life. Revealing your virtues can help you make the most of them and understand who you are. In essence, recognizing how much you have to offer can also help you feel more beautiful on the inside
Step 3. Look beyond the mirror
What you see is only part of your beauty. Don't be limited by society's definitions of physical appearance. When it comes to inner beauty, physical attributes could never live up to traits like patience, kindness, and empathy.
Enhance all those wonderful little features that belong to you but are not visible on the outside. Imagine being a book that, as the old adage goes, should never be judged by its cover. If you only pay attention to people's physical appearance, you risk losing all the other qualities they possess
Step 4. Don't try to change for others
Accept that you have something unique, just like all human beings. The view you have of yourself does not have to be determined by what others think. If you ever have any doubts about your identity and why you are special, take a step back and review the results of the assessment of your character strengths. It shows that you have something of value to offer the world. Learn to love yourself and accept yourself for who you are.
Just like you shouldn't try to change to please others, you shouldn't be competitive with people either. The only person you should try to compete with is yourself. If you want to improve something about yourself, do it for your future, not for someone else
Step 5. Believe in who you are
In addition to bringing out your character strengths, you can adopt strategies to feel more confident. Regularly engage in activities that work well for you, from music to sports. Doing things you are good at fuels self-esteem.
- Stop comparing yourself to others. There will always be someone better than you, in any industry. Comparing yourself to others only detracts from your strengths rather than amplifies them.
- You should also pay attention to your own safety. If you only feel good when someone else finds out and approves of your skills, then you have a shaky self-esteem. Don't count on someone else's approval to approve yourself.
Step 6. Smile and laugh more often
Try to do it. Even if you don't feel like it, just take on a smiling expression to radically change your mood. Smiling can improve your mood and help cultivate a much more hopeful attitude. Also, you should try to laugh as much as possible. Laughter is contagious. Not only can it make you feel beautiful on the inside, it can also attract others like a magnet and make you more beautiful on the outside.
Laughter has numerous benefits: lengthening of life expectancy, strengthening of the immune system, optimism and hormonal balance. All of this can be influenced by a good laugh
Step 7. Learn to appreciate the beauty around you
A proven method of becoming more beautiful on the inside is to make it a habit to see beauty in everything. Every day you are surrounded by wonderful people, places and things. Make an effort to slow down and recognize them on a daily basis.
- In the morning, listen to the birds singing. Enjoy the sunrise. Stop to look and smell the flowers. Instead of rushing, strive to consciously experience the little morning moments that come together to create your life.
- Take note of the smile of that old lady crossing the street. Let the laughter of the children playing in the park become the soundtrack of the lunch break. Recognize small acts of kindness, such as holding the door open for someone, offering coffee to another person.
Part 2 of 2: Working on Yourself
Step 1. Be grateful
Gratitude is defined as the "quality of being grateful" or the "willingness to show appreciation for kindness, whether by giving it or receiving it." There are several ways to express it. Thank a friend, teacher, parent, or sibling for everything they do to encourage or help you. Express your gratitude to the universe, the earth, or a higher power that gave you life and helps you cope with it.
- Express your gratitude by meditating on all the things you are grateful for, journaling about what you value, praying, and sending letters of thanks.
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Whichever method you choose, feeling grateful has many benefits, including:
- It makes you less superficial and you tend to judge others less based on what they have.
- It makes you more willing to share with others.
- Improve interpersonal relationships.
- It fights stress, anxiety and depression.
- Encourage you to help others.
- Increase the satisfaction you have with your life.
Feel Beautiful on the Inside Step 9 Step 2. Leave people, places and things in a better state than you found them in
In other words, try to positively affect everything you are dealing with. Regardless of your life path, make an effort to help the people around you or the environment, rather than harm. At work, school, in your community and in your relationships, work hard to make others happy when they see you and sad when you leave.
Feel Beautiful on the Inside Step 10 Step 3. Put yourself at the service of others
Get involved in your community. Help out in a homeless shelter. Babysit neighbors' children so they can enjoy a well-deserved night out. Help elderly neighbors with housework. Be a positive role model for young people. Make a difference in someone else's life, you will see that you will feel more beautiful inside and out.
Studies have shown that volunteering or community service helps transform your life and that of others, strengthens a sense of community, allows you to build bonds and solve problems. Lending a helping hand to those in need can also help reduce the rate of depression, improve their functional skills and lower mortality
Feel Beautiful on the Inside Step 11 Step 4. Think positive
Your outlook on life can greatly affect your inner beauty. If you are pessimistic and do nothing but see the glass as half empty, you will tend to create a self-fulfilling prophecy, where your way of thinking determines your reality, in the negative. On the other hand, if you see the glass as half full, you will be more likely to observe and grab opportunities. As if this were not enough, positive thinking can strengthen the immune system, psychophysical well-being and the ability to manage stress.
- Optimism can be learned. The first step, however, is to recognize and identify the moments in which you think negative. Pessimistic thoughts tend to be irrational and generalized. "Yesterday was a bad day. The whole week is now ruined." In addition, negative thoughts often affect the body (for example, you feel a feeling of heaviness in the chest, you feel doomed).
- Once you learn to be aware of negative thoughts, try changing them to become positive or realistic. For example, instead of generalizing that an entire week has been ruined because one day has gone wrong, you might say, "Today was a difficult day. Tonight I will rest well and hope that tomorrow will improve."
Feel Beautiful on the Inside Step 12 Step 5. Be courteous
To feel beautiful on the inside, how you treat others is just as important as how you treat yourself. Having good manners in a social setting is essential for cultivating a good character. Think back to the behaviors you were taught at school: looking your interlocutor in the eye, greeting people when you arrive at a place, remembering the names of others, keeping the door open for someone, and so on.
To know in detail how to behave in certain contexts, such as an interview, a party or a dinner, read this article
Advice
- Feeling beautiful on the inside not only increases your self-esteem, confidence and motivation, it also makes you a role model for others.
- Having a good character is important for feeling beautiful on the inside. If you make someone feel good, you will probably feel good too.
