What makes a woman feel beautiful?

woman


‘Beauty is in the eye of the beholder. Beauty is on the inside. Beauty comes not from how you look, but from how you feel. Beauty is skin deep.’

There’s an abundance of quotes and opinions about where beauty can be found, what it is and how to let it shine. But the truth is, most of us don’t spend our days contemplating the generosity of mother nature when she was handing out the beauty tokens. Most of us, if we’re honest, are more likely to be fairly happy with our appearance, at best. Thanks to the rise in social media, we scrutinize ourselves, and others, at an alarming rate. We are our own worst critics, before the unhelpful, and uncalled for, spiky comments from ‘friends’ and followers get started. 

Maybe you’re one of the lucky ones, happy in your own skin and confident of your abilities, with no need to worry about the latest fashions in clothes, hair and makeup to boost your self-esteem. Or maybe you’re like the rest of us, a little insecure and overly self-critical.

So what makes a woman feel beautiful? And what can we do to give ourselves a boost when we need it?  Here are a few tips to feeling more beautiful yourself, and exuding that feeling to others.

Exercise

You might not want to hear it, but getting that heart rate up and breaking a sweat is a great way to feel good about yourself.  The release of endorphins, a chemical that improves your mood, is the reason for this, and it will show on the outside, as well as benefit you on the inside.

Smile

Even if you don’t always feel like smiling, it’s worth faking it until you feel it.  Smiling lifts your mood and eventually becomes a true reflection of how you are feeling. The act of smiling results in the brain releasing molecules, called neuropeptides, which help fight off stress.  This causes other neurotransmitters, like dopamine, serotonin and endorphins, to kick in.

Laugh

Find humor in life.  Learn to laugh at yourself, and embrace your imperfections. It helps take pressure off yourself if you can see the funny side of life, even when things aren’t going the way you had hoped. Not only does it start to make you feel better about yourself, it also makes you more attractive to those around you. It’s infectious too, so you’ll be doing your bit to boost the mood of your audience. 

Show your skills

Don’t be tempted to hide your intelligence, knowledge or skills. Feeling beautiful isn’t just about your physical attributes.  We can feel great about ourselves when we know our worth. Whether your knowledge comes from experience, qualifications, or you’ve just got a great memory for facts and figures, don’t be afraid to let it shine. It’s true that other people will find your skills and knowledge to be attractive traits. Your life experience goes a long way to making you who you are today, so don’t ever dumb down or feign ignorance for fear of overshadowing someone else. 

Body confidence

One of the more obvious ways we can feel and exude confidence is through our body image. Exercising, eating a healthy diet and pampering ourselves go a long way to cementing a positive self-image. This, in turn, shows on the outside and we are deemed more attractive because of it.  It can be an effort to factor self-care into our busy lives, but your body will thank you for it, and it will show on the outside too.

Fashion

Fashions come and go, and it’s easy to fall into the trap of arranging your wardrobe around the latest trends instead of sticking to a capsule wardrobe that shows your personal style. But not every style suits everybody. Find out what enhances your shape and style, and work your wardrobe around that. Feeling relaxed and comfortable, rather than forced into a style that isn’t right for you, will show in how you carry yourself, and your natural beauty will be able to shine through.

Hair

It’s often referred to as your ‘crowning glory.’ We talk about a ‘bad hair day’ as though it determines the trajectory of the next 24 hours. It’s true, our hair can make or break us. We are only ever a hairspray away from potential hair horror (remember the 80s). But on a serious note, for those with thinning hair or women suffering from medical conditions or treatments that cause them to lose their hair, it can have a devastating effect on their self-confidence. Feeling beautiful is hard enough, but losing your hair can render it almost impossible for some.  Thankfully there are fantastic treatments available in way of hair transplants for women, medications and injections that can reverse the problem. 

Make-up

When it comes to enhancing our appearance, the most popular route is to do it with make-up.  We’re certainly not short of choice in this area, with the make-up market taking a good percentage of our disposable income every year. We have the ability to finely tune our features, and change the shape of our face, the size of our eyes and lips with a few brush strokes. It might take a few attempts, throughout those tricky teenage years, to find the look that does us justice, but we can have a lot of fun along the way. And let’s be honest, there won’t be a shortage of helpful comments to let you know where you’ve gone wrong!

So when all’s said and done, where does our confidence come from, and what makes us feel beautiful, inside and out?  The truth is, beauty is subjective. We all find it in different things, and we all feel beautiful for different reasons. Be it our intellectual abilities, our sporting prowess or the perfectly symmetrical face that looks good from every angle. We all have something to celebrate and feel good about, and it’s likely that others find beauty in us where we fail to see it. Now, slap on a smile, laugh like a lunatic, and fake it ‘til you make it.


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