“The Huichol of northern Mexico regard being beautiful (adornment) as an act of devotion. Their traditional clothes enfold them in the beauty of the natural world… Because the Huichol see themselves as mirrors of the sacred, they regard their colorful and ornate clothing as a source of pleasure to their gods and goddesses.”
– From Notes on the Need for Beauty, by J. Ruth Gendler
by Astara
We are all made of stardust, earth dust, pollen, rock, lava, leaf, water, light. We are part ocean, part plant, part mineral, part star, part galaxy. Cosmic earth alchemy is what you are. You are not apart from everything, rather you are a part of everything. When you remember just how connected you are, an invitation emerges from within. Slowly, steadily, you begin to wake up to the beauty inside you, and suddenly everything around you is beautiful too.
Go find a mirror. Stand in front of it. What do you see? You might have your inner critic hat on and only see the things you don’t like or wish were different. But I will tell you what I see. I see a miracle.
A miracle is defined by Oxford English Dictionary as:
a marvelous event not ascribable to human or natural agency, and therefore attributed to the intervention of a supernatural agent.
Author Dr. Ali Binazir describes the Buddhist version of the probability of this precious incarnation:
Imagine there was one life preserver thrown somewhere in some ocean and there is exactly one turtle in all of these oceans, swimming underwater somewhere. The probability that you came about and exist today is the same as that turtle sticking its head out of the water — in the middle of that life preserver. On one try.
Dr. Binazir calculates the probability of your existence. Check out Dr. Binazir’s great infographic. His math states that the probability of you existing is 1 in 10 2,685,000— that’s a 10 followed by 2,685,000 zeroes. That’s a lot of zeros!
A miracle is an event so unlikely as to be almost impossible. By that definition, I’ve just proven that you are a miracle. Now go forth and feel and act like the miracle that you are. – Dr. Ali Binazir
If the odds of you being alive are basically zero, why don’t you feel or act like a miracle every day?
It’s hard to feel like a miracle when everything around you indicates otherwise. All of us are steeped in a cultural stew of photo-shopped ads and fear-based news with messages claiming indirectly or directly that fear is the truth, we are not enough, we are not beautiful just as we are.
We internalize a big message: we need fixing. We internalize another big message: the world needs fixing.
Our narrow news and hustle for business teaches us to constantly live in our minds where comparison is commonplace, even encouraged. Much of our economy depends on us being insecure enough to be good consumers. You may not realize you have internalized a plethora of toxic cultural viruses (contagious negative agreements) until anxiety, depression or illness show up at your door.
To build immunity to any toxic cultural virus that disempowers, start in your heart. Ask yourself as often as possible, “What does my soul think of this?”
Let’s apply a soulful antidote to our skewed sense of beauty in this moment. Imagine that inside the palm of your right hand you hold a bunch of imaginary pieces of paper. On each paper is written all the narrow cultural stories from movies, books, magazines, billboards, and social media that you have agreed to about beauty.
As Yoda wisely says, “You must unlearn what you have learned.” Like any good Jedi would, harness the power of the Force and scrunch all those invisible but weighty papers up in your hand. Imagine throwing them away in the trash can or washing them down the drain or tossing them as compost in your garden. You do not need them anymore.
Go back to the mirror and look at yourself again with this new freedom. See beyond size, blemishes, scars, color, age, gender, and how much energy you have (mood). See your essence. Remember the miracle you are. See and feel the Force that you are.
Miracle: the odds of you being inside your skin, the largest organ of your body, is zero.
Miracle: your skin is so sensitive that you can feel the weight of a mosquito or a fly.
Miracle: your cerebrospinal fluid cycles three to four times a day and your heart circulates blood without any effort on your part.
And those miracles barely scratch the surface of your magnificence.
Look in the mirror. If you feel so bold, say out loud “I am beautiful.” Even if you have trouble believing it, from the vantage point of your small protective personality, your words have power. The more expanded aspects of you will jump for joy at the truth and a small shift will happen in your body chemistry. Imagine if, like brushing your teeth, you practiced that habit and said that every morning and night to yourself. Yoda would be proud.
We have chalk pens that we use to write such statements all over the mirrors in our home office. They say things like “You are enough,” or, “You are beautiful,” or, “You are loved.” Get some chalk pens at your local art store and write out a love bomb to yourself on a mirror or window. Another good one, “I am a miracle.”
When you remember your beauty—from the energy field you sit in all the way down to the cells that make you solid—something changes. You begin to find everything and everyone beautiful, for we are all made of the same stuff.
Although we are socialized to forget this inheritance that once flowed freely and expressed itself in everyone, call back the memory, the truth inside you, to heal the schism between beauty born and beauty learned.
You are alive. Beauty is life. Therefore, you are beauty.
Like the Navajo and the Huichol, and many other indigenous wisdom traditions rooted in earth wisdom, their ritual and ceremony teach you are beauty incarnate and you are surrounded by beauty. When you embody the truth, you become a walking altar of life, love, and respect for the mystery. Whether you throw on jeans and a t-shirt today, or something a little fancier and more sparkly, enjoy the altar you are.
Invest in some chalk pens. Send yourself a few messages of truth. Unlearn what you have learned. You are a miracle on two legs. Now go forth and feel and act like the miracle you are.
Happily may their roads back home be on the trail of pollen.
Happily may they all get back.
In beauty I walk.
With beauty before me, I walk.
With beauty behind me, I walk.
With beauty below me, I walk.
With beauty above me, I walk.
With beauty all around me, I walk.
It is finished in beauty,
It is finished in beauty,
It is finished in beauty,
It is finished in beauty.
‘Sa’ah naaghéi, Bik’eh hózhó
—from a Navajo (Dine) Ceremony
