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Nice Attitude...

It's a secret that the magazines and TV shows don't want you
to know, but hey, I'm not bound by the strictures of selling.
I'm a lot more interested in seeing women access real beauty,
the kind that doesn't wrinkle with age or evaporate in harsh
light. Fact is, the most beautiful women in the world are the
ones who know the secret and who use it before ever applying

moisturizer.Have you ever noticed that, some days it's easy
to look beautiful, and other days, with the same clothes, the
same makeup, the same face, it's just plain impossible? Do you
ever feel like your face changes drastically and mystically,
from day to day? Why does beauty abandon us without warning
some days and then spring forth others? The secret is, real,
lasting beauty isn't physical. Real beauty comes from attitude.
With the right attitude, beauty is inevitable; without the
attitude, all the cosmetics in the world can't create beauty.
When we buy cosmetics or clothes, we hope to buy the things
that go along with them in the ads: confidence, poise, style.
But those things don't actually come in the package: they come
from inside.

So what is the secret to achieving real beauty, not the kind
that changes day to day, but the kind that stays with you all
your life? I think the secret is simple: make your whole life
as good as it can be. Start beautifying your inside and worry
about the outside later.

Joy and Passion

Finding something you love to do is a good start to increasing
the moments of joy in your life, and your passion for living.

Today's pace of life prevents too many people from finding what
they love to do because they feel so tired. But when you give
in to the urge to take photographs or make your own clothes or
do woodworking, or become a first-class baker, you're giving

yourself a gift. It takes energy, but it also creates energy
in the passion you find for a new activity. You may or may not
be able to change careers, but doing something you love even
as a hobby brightens you up. You'll look forward to getting up
in the morning, you'll feel more interested and alive, and
other people will be drawn to your energy. If schools really
wanted to increase the quality of kids' lives, there would be
a place in the curriculum for finding things you love to do
and working at them, attaining a level of expertise that lets
you express your creativity. As adults, we can re-educate
ourselves about joy and passion by skipping the night class in

business management and studying sculpture instead.

Kindness

People remember striking physical beauty, but people appreciate

kindness. Stress is one of the killers of kindness: when we
feel pressured, we tend to pull away from others in a misguided

attempt to save ourselves from more pain. In fact, this
protective measure is exactly the opposite of what we need to
do to reduce stress. When you reach out to people, it
invariably makes you feel good. You don't read much about
kindness these days, and it's a real shame, because it's one of
the few things that really count. Kindness can take so many
forms, it's hard to know where to start in describing it.
Sometimes being kind just means not pressing an advantage when
you could. Letting someone in front of you at the supermarket
is a small gift: so is taking a minute to talk to someone who's
sad. Kindness is more than doing things for other people,
though. When you're kind to someone, you are stretching a set
of mental or spiritual muscles, growing your own capacity for

compassion. It?s a no-lose proposition.

Health

Physical health is often expressed in glowing skin, bright eyes
and a toned-up body. Mental health is an important component of

physical health, because your mind and your body are
inextricably linked. Your mental health rests on your ability
to be happy, on your having harmonious relationships and on
your capacity for creative self-expression. There might be a
few other things, but I think these are the most important ones.

If you're dealing with anxiety, depression or relationship
problems, your quality of life will suffer until something can
be done to change what ails you. There are a variety of ways to

reduce mental suffering but they all rely on your being willing
and able to get help, and to try more than one method if the
first one doesn't work. Making a commitment to your own peace
of mind is the first step in changing your life for the better.

Some problems really can be alleviated with medications. A few

problems can only be addressed with medications, so if you
suffer from bipolar disorder, clinical depression,
schizophrenia or debilitating anxiety, the chemical solution
may be the best first step. If depression or anxiety has an

underlying mind-based cause, such as traumatic memory or a
recent loss, medication may relieve enough of the highly
distressing symptoms to make it easier to get to therapy.

A good therapist can help you work through things that are
keeping you stuck, and can be an excellent ally when you have

problems with relationships or career issues. Working with a

therapist is a good way to check out your beliefs about the
world and about people, and to make changes in behavior and
thought patterns that may be making you unhappy.

A vital part of mental health, spiritual health is infrequently

addressed by doctors and therapists. Ignoring your need for
quiet, for peaceful meditation, for pondering life's mysteries

depletes your consciousness and impacts your mental health by

increasing stress. Whether you believe in a particular religion
or not, taking the time to consider and meet your spiritual
needs is an important part of keeping your overall health.

Courage

It has been pointed out that you can't have true freedom
without taking responsibility for your actions. Great minds
have said that the only thing that makes life meaningful is to
live as though you have purpose.

In the same way that it takes courage to keep plugging away at

creating a meaningful life despite life's setbacks and
intellectual red-herrings, working on your inner beauty takes
some nerve. It's more difficult to build character than it is
to get glossy hair, and there are no guarantees that building

character makes life any easier or more pleasant. Courage
(from the French word for "heart") means being willing take

important risks. The risk is that inner beauty will, in the
end matter more than outer beauty. I think it's a good risk,
don?t you?


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