On Valentine’s Day, love is in the air.\u00a0 It’s what makes the world go round. We all crave it, we all need it, and we all suffer at times for it. We forget that love and inner beauty go hand in hand. When we forget, we need to write ourselves a new script.<\/p>\n
A friend once wrote a book called How To Make Yourself Irresistible. Loving yourself was a good way to begin. I was reminded of this when I read the wonderful blog post: Beauty of a Woman Blog Fest by August McLaughlin. If you go there, you’ll find other posts on what beauty is and how, as women, we need to hang on to what that truly means.<\/p>\n
Last year, I wrote a guest post, that speaks about inner beauty and letting it shine through. It was for Paula Renaye, a life coach and author of the Hardline Self-Help Handb0ok. Here it is again.<\/p>\n
The Body Beautiful<\/strong><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/strong><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Reflection,<\/strong> A Bronze Sculpture by\u00a0 Robert D\u2019Arcy Stevan<\/p>\n Every time I go to the supermarket, I\u2019m visually assaulted by some magazine heralding a new weight loss diet or the latest photos of a celebrity who looks fabulous after losing pregnancy pounds, or a series of before and after shots of obese people who\u2019ve successful trimmed down. I\u2019ve known women, who\u2019ve seen these photos and rather than be encouraged to lose weight, they eat more out of frustration. Try as they might, it\u2019s hard for them to reach the ideal manufactured by popular media. If they would only consult health charts, they would see that normal weight is more than what popular culture is promoting.<\/p>\n So I have to admit, I was shocked when I first met Luce, a Mexican Indian woman, who was a life model for art classes in San Miguel de Allende, Mexico. Without saying one word, she taught me more about self-confidence than any Oprah<\/em> show, People<\/em> magazine, or pop psychology book.<\/p>\n When I met her\u00a016 years ago, she was in her late twenties, a heavy-set woman with large hips and thighs, layers of fat on her stomach, and a face that, by North American standards, would be described as plain. And yet, she radiated confidence. Perhaps it was no accident of birth that she was named Luce, meaning light.<\/p>\n What struck me, was her comfort with her own body. She would pose naked for us, and then after a twenty minute pose, she would stretch and walk over to our canvases in all her nude glory, and see what we had captured. Her face was lined from the sun but she didn\u2019t worry about how she looked, or the fact her body jiggled when she walked. She was proud of what she did for a living\u2014proud and confident with herself.<\/p>\n Where and when did we lose sight of being comfortable in our own skin? The one God (or Nature) gave us? Where and when does it start, the lamentations about this inadequacy or that? My nose is too big, my hips are too wide, my arms are too flabby, my stomach sticks out, my thighs touch, my breasts are too small, my bum is too large <\/em>(the latter, maybe not, given Jennifer Lopez\u2019s beauty).<\/p>\n Today, we have an obesity epidemic and a rise in anorexia and bulimia, two extremes, that didn\u2019t exist in these proportions two generations back. What are we doing to our children, when we continue to admire falsehoods? With airbrushing, makeup, and face lifts, stars and models peer out from magazines portraying some unattainable ideal. No wonder we give up and eat too much junk food to ease the pain, or try too hard and eat too little.<\/p>\n If I could\u2019ve, I would\u2019ve bottled Luce and brought her home with me to Canada. I would\u2019ve bottled that self-confidence and passed it around. Luce was painted, sculpted and appreciated. Her light shone for all to see.<\/p>\n Despite what popular culture has taught us about beauty, Luce reinforced for me the old lesson, beauty comes from within<\/em><\/strong>.<\/p>\n What do you think about the messages in popular culture? Are you as upset with them as I am?<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" On Valentine’s Day, love is in the air.\u00a0 It’s what makes the world go round. We all crave it, we all need it, and we all suffer at times for… <\/p>","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":true,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[88,86,4],"tags":[267,53,11,78,201,98,268,269,266,8],"class_list":["post-830","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-life","category-therapy-2","category-writing","tag-august-mclaughlin","tag-beauty","tag-book","tag-diana-stevan","tag-love","tag-paula-renaye","tag-script","tag-the-body-beautiful","tag-valentines-day","tag-write"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p1LuVB-do","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":296,"url":"https:\/\/www.dianastevan.com\/uk\/2011\/writing\/more-thoughts-on-writing-rules-2\/","url_meta":{"origin":830,"position":0},"title":"More thoughts on writing rules","author":"Diana Stevan","date":"5 \u041a\u0432\u0456\u0442\u043d\u044f, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"Paula Renaye, author of The Hardlines Self-Help Handbook www.hardlineselfhelp.com had an interesting response to my earlier post on writing rules. As she said I could post her thoughts, here they are: \"It's funny, we all approach a topic from our experiences and our own lens. When I first started writing,\u2026","rel":"","context":"\u0423 "Writing"","block_context":{"text":"Writing","link":"https:\/\/www.dianastevan.com\/uk\/category\/writing\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":428,"url":"https:\/\/www.dianastevan.com\/uk\/2011\/writing\/a-writers-passion\/","url_meta":{"origin":830,"position":1},"title":"A Writer’s Passion","author":"Diana Stevan","date":"27 \u0422\u0440\u0430\u0432\u043d\u044f, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"As I see my Star Magnolia flowers come and go, I'm reminded again of the passage of time.\u00a0 So, in thinking of all the writing I still want to do, a read through of\u00a0Jane Friedman's Blog was both helpful and timely. Her post on the 6 key components of an\u2026","rel":"","context":"\u0423 "Life"","block_context":{"text":"Life","link":"https:\/\/www.dianastevan.com\/uk\/category\/life\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.dianastevan.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/05\/P1070772-300x225.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":411,"url":"https:\/\/www.dianastevan.com\/uk\/2011\/uncategorized\/writing-a-guest-blog\/","url_meta":{"origin":830,"position":2},"title":"Writing a Guest Blog","author":"Diana Stevan","date":"18 \u0422\u0440\u0430\u0432\u043d\u044f, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"I find the whole world of blogging fascinating. As a newbie, I've now met people from all parts of the world showing their colors through what they write. As I've worked many years as a clinical social worker, I was intrigued by Paula Renaye\\'s website. She's a life coach with\u2026","rel":"","context":"\u0423 "Life"","block_context":{"text":"Life","link":"https:\/\/www.dianastevan.com\/uk\/category\/life\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.dianastevan.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/05\/cid_sigimg1%40f765733703ecc61b79823bc163645fc1-205x300.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":715,"url":"https:\/\/www.dianastevan.com\/uk\/2011\/life\/what-price-beauty\/","url_meta":{"origin":830,"position":3},"title":"What Price Beauty?","author":"Diana Stevan","date":"6 \u0416\u043e\u0432\u0442\u043d\u044f, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"What lengths would you go to try and live up to the popular media\u2019s conception of beauty? Judging by what is going on in society today, it seems that many will go to extraordinary lengths in order to compete in the marketplace. An article in Maclean's recently caught my attention:\u00a0\u2026","rel":"","context":"\u0423 "Life"","block_context":{"text":"Life","link":"https:\/\/www.dianastevan.com\/uk\/category\/life\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.dianastevan.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/10\/Leather_Fetish_Shoes-300x298.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":1231,"url":"https:\/\/www.dianastevan.com\/uk\/2013\/writing\/how-we-are-human\/","url_meta":{"origin":830,"position":4},"title":"HOW WE ARE HUMAN","author":"Diana Stevan","date":"9 \u0421\u0456\u0447\u043d\u044f, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"What better way to start a new year than by reviewing HOW WE ARE HUMAN, a book of poems by Luke Maguire Armstrong.\u00a0 It found its way to my desk by chance. And I\u2019m thankful it did. It's what I love best about social media; it's the happenstance, the meeting\u2026","rel":"","context":"\u0423 "Life"","block_context":{"text":"Life","link":"https:\/\/www.dianastevan.com\/uk\/category\/life\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"How We Are Human Cover (2)","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.dianastevan.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/01\/How-We-Are-Human-Cover-2.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":6683,"url":"https:\/\/www.dianastevan.com\/uk\/2025\/books\/an-enduring-love-story-for-valentines-day\/","url_meta":{"origin":830,"position":5},"title":"An Enduring Love Story for Valentine’s Day","author":"Diana Stevan","date":"17 \u0421\u0456\u0447\u043d\u044f, 2025","format":false,"excerpt":"To celebrate the upcoming launch of Along Came A Gardener, I'm offering a Special Sale of my debut novel, A Cry from the Deep, an enduring love story for Valentine's Day. The ebook, a time-slip romantic mystery and adventure, is now .99 and the paperback is $11.97 US ($14.99 Canadian)\u2026","rel":"","context":"\u0423 "Books"","block_context":{"text":"Books","link":"https:\/\/www.dianastevan.com\/uk\/category\/books\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"enduring love story","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.dianastevan.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/ACFTD-highheels-1.jpg?fit=700%2C492&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.dianastevan.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/ACFTD-highheels-1.jpg?fit=700%2C492&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.dianastevan.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/ACFTD-highheels-1.jpg?fit=700%2C492&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.dianastevan.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/ACFTD-highheels-1.jpg?fit=700%2C492&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x"},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dianastevan.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/830","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dianastevan.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dianastevan.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dianastevan.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dianastevan.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=830"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.dianastevan.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/830\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dianastevan.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=830"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dianastevan.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=830"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dianastevan.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=830"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}