By Lisette Palella
Before I decided to come to the Yoga & Meditation Retreat at Life Source Retreats, I was struggling with loving myself. A majority of this struggle had to do with how I viewed my body. I had asked a girl earlier in the year whether she thought I was pretty. Her answer was, “You’re not ugly, but you’re not beautiful either. You’re just normal.” I don’t know why I asked her, but I do know that I rejected her opinion of my beauty vehemently. I didn’t understand why at the time, but now I think I do.
I was taking a shower the other day, when I realized I had left my face wash on the bathroom counter. When I leaned out to grab it, I got a glimpse of myself in the mirror and my first reaction, without thinking, was “pretty”. Normally I would stand in front of a mirror and look and look at myself, trying to see what other people see when they look at me. Instead of doing that this time, I just accepted what I saw. I went back into the shower and couldn’t stop wondering why I had finally accepted myself as beautiful.
The phrase “beauty is in the eye of the beholder” came to mind, and I finally understood what had happened. The girl whom I asked about me last year was beautiful. She was exotic with blue hair, bows, and clothes that seemed to come straight out of anime shows and comics. Her idea of beautiful is not blonde hair and white skin, but rather colored hair, and exotic clothes, and that is fine. I am beautiful because I believe that I am beautiful. Beauty really is in the eye of the beholder, and as long as you believe it yourself, it is true.