Ladies: We are Beautiful.

Last night my future sister in law as well as my future mother in law shared a link with me on Facebook that hit me hard. I sat down this morning to write about my parent’s visit and our epic snow storm in April. But I was compelled to share this instead… I have always loved the campaign Dove has been involved in trying to change the perception of beauty and empowering women to see their own beauty. They first started with the photoshop video, I am sure many of you have seen it. It was powerful, it forced us to think about those photos we may have cut out of magazines as our “ideal body”.. It isn’t real. It’s a photoshopped, fake, non-human ideal.

And last night as I sat down at my computer, I was thinking about the two weeks I have until I put on that wedding dress for the first time, and how my “idea” to get in tip top shape for my wedding was washed down the drain… I was falling prey to what we all do. I was beating myself up, I was focusing on my flaws, and I was wishing to be someone I wasn’t…. And along came this:

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XpaOjMXyJGk&w=560&h=315]

And I was reminded not to focus on the bad, the flaws I see.. But instead to focus on the beauty. What do people see when they look at me? I bet you eight out of ten people would say my smile, my eyes, my hair. Nobody would say one of those things that I hate about myself. So why, as women, do we dwell on those imperfections…? And why do we hold ourselves up to such a high standard that we are striving to be something that is a fake ideal…?

Dove has launched this campaign with the hashtag #wearebeautiful. And I love that. Because we are.. Each and every single one of us is beautiful in our own way. We may never be that non-human, perfect, fake ideal, but you know what, we are real. We are living, breathing, women who have the ability to love, to laugh, to form relationships and friendships. We work hard, we feed our families, we nurture  we love unconditionally. And at the end of the day, we shouldn’t be so hard on ourselves. The world out there already beats us up enough, we don’t need to beat ourselves up. The world is already negative enough for us, why do we need to be negative too…?

So watch this campaign and take some time today to look in the mirror… Look long and hard and throw those negative thoughts out the window. Tell yourself, I am beautiful. Say it out loud or repeat it if you need to. And then identify WHAT makes you beautiful. Write it down. Get gussied up and take a photo! Whatever it takes! And then on the days when you are feeling down, find that list, find that photo… To remind yourself, you are beautiful, you are strong, and you are a real woman. And nothing nobody else out there says or does can change that, but YOU! You hold the power to your own confidence and to your own beauty.

We are beautiful ladies! Let’s celebrate that fact! When was the last time you felt truly beautiful…? Change that, today!