My Experience: Sarah Maria, Body Image Expert
Description:
Author: Sarah Maria

Sarah Maria is a body-image expert who helps people learn how to love their bodies and love their lives. Her book, Love Your Body, Love Your Life, will be available in November'09. She combines ancient spiritual wisdom with modern transformational techniques to help people create a body and a life that they love. Her work has been endorsed by well-known authors and spiritual teachers, including Deepak Chopra and Marci Shimoff (featured teacher in The Secret), among others, as well as by numerous physicians and psychologists. Learn more about her and her work at www.breakfreebauty.com.


Eco-beauty…it conjures up images of ecologically-friendly beauty products, doesn’t it? Well, valuable as those may be, I have something else in mind. Specifically, what is your beauty ecology?


This means how do you look at yourself versus how do you look at the world around you. Sometimes we are able to see the beauty in everyone else, but not in ourselves. Other times, we are as judgmental of other people as we are of ourselves. For most, it is a mix of both.


Here it the reality though: everything in your outer world is a reflection of your inner world. Everything you see outside of yourself is a reflection of your inner self, for there really is no difference between the two.


This realization is of the utmost importance when it comes to discovering the beauty that you truly are.


Most of us can readily see the beauty in nature. Have you ever been for a hike in the spring time and been struck by the fresh beauty of spring flowers? Have you ever been out in the wilderness and been awed by the sight of a glacier? At the very least, I am sure you have seen a picture of a flower, or a mountain, or a lake, and been touched by the quiescent beauty of nature.


Yet have you ever looked in the mirror and been dismayed at your reflection? Have you ever grimaced at the weight you have gained, or any newly acquired wrinkles? Have you ever wished you were just slightly taller, thinner, or younger, or saw a different face staring back at you?


Or what about looking at someone else and wishing you had their body, their height, their butt, their eyes? Or have you ever looked at someone else and been glad that at least you don’t look like that?


In our current society, almost anyone could answer “yes” to at least one of the questions above. Depressing, right?


There is a beautiful truth, however. None of that is real. None of the comparisons, none of the judgment, none of the embarrassment or frustration, is a reflection of the true beauty that you are and that you have inside of you, available to you in every moment.


The truth of the matter is that the very beauty you see in nature is within you as well. The beauty that you see within anyone else is within you. This simply has to be the case – there is no other way. The reason that you can see beauty in anything is because beauty exists within you.


As you realize that everything outside of you is a reflection of what is inside you, you will discover that you are inherently and majestically beautiful. You will discover that the same beauty you see outside is also within you.


And when you connect with this beauty, you will realize that you are even greater than your grandest dreams and aspirations. The more you connect with you internal beauty, the more you will discover that you always have been and always will be eternally and irrevocably beautiful. This is the true meaning of eco-beauty.