Chapter 7 The Power of Beauty Beauty is not in the face.
Beauty is a light in the heart.
Kahlil Gibran In 1957,
A group of monks relocated a giant clay Buddha to a new location in Thailand.
During the move,
The monks noticed that the statue had cracked.
Later in the day,
The head monk investigated the damage and saw a light emanating from the crack.
He decided to chisel the statue,
Which revealed that underneath the Buddha was solid gold.
It turns out that in 1757,
The Burmese army invaded Thailand,
So the monks covered the golden Buddha with clay to prevent the Burmese from realizing it was a precious statue.
Unfortunately,
The Burmese killed everyone,
Including the monks of the monastery,
And left without discovering the golden Buddha.
Because no one was alive to tell anyone about the clay,
The golden Buddha wasn't discovered until 200 years later.
This true story illustrates the seventh power of women,
The power of beauty.
Inside everyone is a valuable being waiting to be discovered by the world.
You are precious.
When you discover your true beauty,
You will be in awe.
The amazing power of beauty is born in the seventh chakra,
The crown center of the body located on the top of our heads,
And it comes to full force around our seventh birthday.
This power is energized by the colors purple and bright white and the element of light.
This power has little to do with your lustrous hair,
Glowing skin,
Perfect makeup,
Gorgeous curves,
Or attractive clothing.
Instead,
It's about how you see yourself,
Recognize your divine beauty and surroundings,
And what you do with your essence,
Also called purpose.
We walk the earth thinking and believing we are less than we really are until there's a crack in our world.
This crack may come disguised as a crisis,
A weekend retreat,
An awakening moment in meditation,
Or a book.
Then we're led to see the beauty hidden inside us and recognize that this beauty is also outside of us,
Everywhere.
The power of beauty is the manifestation of the divine laws through the presence of women.
It's the power women use to create a beautiful life by knowing their inner beauty and their connection with the universal mind,
God,
Goddess,
Higher power,
Or whatever you call a power that makes your heartbeat and your lungs breathe without your command.
You are a divine creation,
Beautiful,
Perfect,
And goddess-like.
Would the Creator make any being less perfect after creating the sky,
The sea,
The trees,
And the flowers?
This beauty is infinite and constant.
You will grasp the vastness of your power when you become aware of the essence inside you and begin to use it for the good of all.
Your purpose is your beauty.
Your beauty is your purpose.
These two essences are directly related to how beautifully you will build your world.
We are all creators of the beauty of our lives.
We don't do it alone.
We have a partnership with this divine force and in every space outside of us.
As you suspect,
We are co-creators with the divine.
We are in a partnership with the divine,
But our free will makes each of us the leader.
Take a look around and see what you have created so far.
I strongly caution you to avoid any harsh judgment of your creation.
Before blaming God,
Your parents,
Partner,
Children,
Past choices,
Or your job,
Take a deep breath.
Your younger self did it.
She didn't have the level of awareness you have today.
Use your inner eyes and be kind to the naive self who has yet to understand the power you hold.
As the architect of your life,
You have the power but not the obligation to create a beautiful life.
You have at your command the universal mind that responds to you by the way you think,
Feel,
And act to create a beautiful life purposefully instead of by default.
Perhaps beauty may not have been part of your vocabulary or a desire thus far when you account for the setbacks of your early life.
Maybe you don't know your purpose and the pathway to building a beautiful life.
But as one of God's perfect creations,
There are no mistakes in you,
Your life,
Or your goals.
All you have lived so far has led you to this moment.
It's like you are learning to test the waters to see which water you should drink more.
To further understand this concept and your power,
Ask yourself,
Do you see beauty in the woman in the mirror?
Please pause and sit with your answer.
Look in the mirror.
There's great wisdom in the words,
Beauty is in the eyes of the beholder.
If you don't see beauty in the mirror,
You aren't connecting with your divine self.
Your outer world is a reflection of your inner world.
To see beauty,
You must see past the clay and find the Golden Buddha,
Christ,
Shiva,
Allah,
Or the higher power inside you.
And if beauty is a matter of perception and you don't recognize it in yourself and in your life,
Then you haven't connected with a divine woman who signed up to be in this lifetime and builds a life worth living.
In other words,
You aren't aligned with your purpose.
Yes,
Purpose brings beauty to our lives.
You may have the most beautiful house full of expensive items in the best neighborhood,
A handsome partner,
And gorgeous children,
And that's wonderful.
But if you don't entirely like the beautiful woman in the mirror,
You aren't experiencing true beauty in your world.
The daily news and popular magazines don't make it easier for people to see what's beautiful.
We've been conditioned to look for bad news and places to blame.
We feed our feelings with emotional outrage about the behaviors of humanity.
But humanity is beautiful.
Our nature is love,
Kindness,
And pretty.
But we tend not to recognize it because of what's being fed to us and what we choose to eat.
We could complain about the news,
But we have a choice to turn it off.
I'm not suggesting we put our heads in the sand and forget about the world,
But we can choose the amount of news we allow into our consciousness.
It's hard to recognize the beauty in the world when we are bombarded with hate,
Disasters,
And death.
Horrible events are indeed happening somewhere,
But not at the rate they're repeated on the news.
A sure way to stop the promotion of one disaster is to have another one happen.
Then,
The new disaster bombards our homes because the television producers believe we want more of that.
I don't think people want more bad news,
But societies have become habitual consumers of unhappiness.
Bad news,
Typos,
Outrageous behaviors are shared more often than good news.
You may remember the events in America on September 11,
2001.
Everyone remembers what they were doing when they first learned about the attack.
The images of the planes hitting the towers in New York City played so often for weeks that it caused people to be re-traumatized over and over.
What was the benefit of that?
Would anyone forget the impact of that destruction?
I don't think so.
It only led more people to believe that the world isn't safe,
Experience more stress than necessary,
And forget to see what else is beautiful in the world.
No one remembered what the sunset,
Moon,
Or waves look like that day.
On the other hand,
Some good came out of that disaster.
Extraordinary acts of heroism,
Communities came together,
People became more compassionate with their families and neighbors,
And the people directly impacted found their path to purpose.
Finding Beauty It's not difficult to find beauty in the world.
It may require you to disconnect from electronics.
For once,
Look in the mirror.
You are beautiful.
Do you agree?
Every inch of your body is gorgeous because of what's inside you.
Let's do an exercise to help you rediscover your full beauty and what may be disrupting your vision.
You will need to call your inner child and your power of creativity for this fun exercise.
Get your journal or book companion and draw yourself and your house.
Come on,
You first drew yourself and a house when you're three or four years old,
And that was pretty awesome.
You still know how to draw.
Get markers and crayons and try to use the right colors.
When my younger daughter Isabel used to draw herself,
She would use orange to color her hair.
People used to tell her that she had beautiful red hair,
And she corrected them.
My hair is orange.
It was that bright orange.
Take your time and make sure you draw as many details as you can.
Then,
I want you to make a heart on every part of your body that you don't like or have hard judgments about.
For example,
If you don't like your breasts,
Draw a heart on that area.
If you don't like your legs or hair,
Do the same.
I want you to become aware of every misperception you have about your body.
Using your intuition,
Can you see why you don't like those parts of your body?
That was the old you.
Now it's time to find the beauty in them.
Every inch of your body has a purpose.
Therefore,
It's beautiful.
Find the beauty in the clay so you can see your inner beauty light up your life.
Next,
Draw a house.
You still remember how to use triangles,
Rectangles,
And squares.
Then,
Divide the inside of the house with the number of floors or rooms you have.
Now,
Think about your actual house and draw a heart on the rooms you don't like.
For example,
If you don't like the bathroom,
Write bathroom on one square and draw a heart on top of it.
If you dislike your backyard,
Front yard,
Or kitchen,
Do the same.
Your space is beautiful.
It's a reflection of your energy.
We can paint a room,
Buy new furniture to make our space more beautiful.
But if we feel negative emotions about the rooms,
It's not the rooms.
It's in you.
You will not make your space beautiful until you find beauty in yourself.
If you love your home,
Great job being beautiful.
If not,
You are only one drawing away to change it.
Do the exercise.
It's simple,
But it works.
Our minds think in pictures,
And it's the shortest way to change your mind.
Finally,
Write the beauty equation at the top of the drawing.
Heart equals love.
Music is a path to beauty.
Another way to connect with the beauty all around us is through music.
Music helps us to link with very high or low emotions.
Music that brings us to more heightened emotions will elevate us to beauty.
Music that is sad,
Depressing,
Or signals us to remember unhappy events will part us away from the beauty.
Music has a way of storing moments in our memory.
When we hear a song that was played at our wedding,
Or the theme song of a movie we watched in high school with our besties,
And even the music we danced to at prom,
It will transport us to a moment of beauty.
It happened some time ago,
But when we connect to the emotion of the music,
Our body,
Mind,
And spirit don't know when it happened.
It only knows that it is beautiful in this time.
Music is creativity drops,
Dancing in the ether,
Blowing beauty in the air.
So play your favorite uplifting songs as often as you like.
I always play my music when gardening,
Cooking large meals,
Driving,
Riding my bike,
Or walking alone.
Feeling uplifted is not only good to connect with beauty,
But it is also good for your health.
Music has been shown to positively reduce pain,
Anxiety,
And stress.
In addition,
Research has shown that music can also have a profound effect on people by aiding in heart,
Mental,
And physical conditions,
And even helping patients recover faster from surgery with less pain.
Play your music.
Your body will love you back.
The Life Compass We are all born beautiful.
You see babies looking at themselves in the mirror,
And they want to kiss the mirror,
Touch,
And hug themselves.
They see animals and want to touch,
Kiss,
And take them home.
This is our natural state of beauty.
As we grow,
We begin to lose our innocence,
Hiding it with clay,
To avoid exposure to pain.
It all starts mostly by osmosis.
When we learn from the people around us,
Our parents are the first culprits.
They are masters at protecting us by introducing and projecting their fears onto us.
They tell us things like,
Don't climb trees,
Don't run on the street,
And don't walk far from home because bad things can happen.
They sound like useful advice because we don't want children getting hurt.
Unfortunately,
These cautionary statements also introduce fear,
Impacting children's natural ability to follow their beauty compass.
You see,
The power of beauty does indeed work like a compass,
Directing us to live and create beautiful lives.
Some of you may suspect that your compass must be broken.
As you look around,
You may feel that you don't belong where you are,
And you can't see a way out of your dissatisfaction.
Perhaps you don't like where you live,
And the conditions you've been subjected to are pretty bad.
Or,
On the other side,
You have a good life,
But feel something is missing.
You still may not know what you want to do with the rest of your life,
But every compass works.
Again,
If you aren't seeing your life's beauty,
Then you're simply disconnected from your purpose for now,
Something that you can absolutely rectify.
Around our seventh year of life,
We already understand the essence of our purpose.
At that time,
We verbalized how we planned to create a beautiful life for ourselves.
I want to be a teacher when I grow up,
We might have said.
Unfortunately,
More often than not,
Children are misdirected by adults struggling to create their own beautiful life.
Their confusion teaches us not to trust our own knowing.
They might say,
Teachers don't get paid enough,
Nurses aren't doctors,
Or go for the real money.
Although well-intended,
Our parents ask us to trade our life's purpose for security,
And it isn't a fair trade.
Because as children,
We want to be accepted and loved,
And don't want to disappoint our parents.
We forget our initial dream when we sense their disapproval of our future plans.
It's okay to ignore the desire to be a teacher,
But not the essence of working with children.
The child who wanted to be a teacher may end up working in another industry,
Feeling unhappy and stuck,
Distrusting their longing.
As we get older,
Life often reminds us of the purpose we signed up for before we were born.
Perhaps we see a teacher helping a student,
Or a nurse caring for the sick,
Which causes something to be sparked within us.
As an adult today,
You may believe that several circumstances must change before you can fulfill your purpose and see beauty in your life,
But you're misinformed.
The power of beauty calls us to seek small wins before the larger ones can be fully seen.
And for this,
You need to be aligned with your purpose.
When I ask clients who are struggling with their career what they wanted to be when they were kids,
Most of them can't remember.
I ask them to ask their mothers,
But their moms don't remember either.
Still,
Questioning our parents often triggers memories.
When we receive negative feedback from our parents,
We tend to forget the specific negative experience,
But it's stored in our minds.
These days,
Too many people have second and third careers.
I suspect that many of them initially followed the security path until something happened.
Perhaps they were fired,
Downsized,
Or just had enough of their unsatisfactory work.
When older and wiser,
People discover their need to live a life that makes them happy,
And true beauty and purpose make people happy.
The beauty of your purpose.
Our power of beauty directs us to our natural ways of being,
Love,
Happiness,
And connection.
When we follow our true happiness,
Beauty shows up.
It has to,
Because we're connected with our essence.
This pure energy is always available to those who feel their divine beauty in their core due to their alignment with spirit.
It seems like it's an unusual mystical experience,
But it's as physical as it can get.
You see,
Hear,
Or sense the guidance to a path directing you each step of the journey.
It doesn't mean that you won't experience the thorns and the walls,
But once you choose to embark on the path of your purpose,
Doors do open.
There will be obstacles,
But they are there simply to slow you down enough and help you remain absolutely clear about the calling you've answered.
This also teaches you patience.
The longer you stay on the path,
The easier things will become.
At one point,
You'll know that you answered your calling because purpose will bring you back to your power of authenticity.
You will see your true beauty then.
I like watching the tall trees being shaken by the wind and their leaves shivering in the air.
Beauty sees them in excitement,
Celebrating their purpose.
If you mistrust what you see,
You will call it the wrath of nature waiting to take the trees down.
You fear for your surroundings.
While you are afraid for your safety,
You miss that the leaves have waited to fly free and become part of the ground,
The soil,
And the nutrients for a new family of trees.
Trees are a perfect example of living on purpose.
Your purpose is also waiting to be set free and become part of something larger than you.
There are no limits to your purpose.
It wants to be beautiful,
And it's beautiful if you let it be.
Restoring the Power of Beauty Here are six suggestions to restore your power of beauty.
1.
Align yourself with your purpose.
When we think about finding our purpose,
We think about what job will make us happy.
But this thinking comes from a self-serving place.
What's in it for me?
How much money does it pay?
And what are the benefits?
Knowing your purpose and acting on your mission,
Which is how you express your purpose,
Will create beauty in your life.
But your purpose isn't really for you.
It's how you will serve the world.
Let me repeat.
Your purpose is your way to serve the world.
When you serve with your gifts,
The talents you were born with,
You live a life of meaning and happiness,
Which unfolds the beauty you seek to be and experience.
Plus,
You don't find your purpose.
You remember it.
The question is whether you will trust it when you remember it.
Find out how you can serve,
And you'll know your purpose.
Einstein,
Steve Jobs,
And Mother Teresa clearly had a well-defined and clear purpose.
Unfortunately,
Some people may perceive them to have a ginormous purpose.
Your bus driver,
The grocery store cashier,
And the school janitor may be perceived to have minor purposes,
But that isn't true.
All purposes are essential and require the same level of dedication.
Can you imagine a day with no drivers or a school with dirty classrooms?
It would be a disaster.
Everything has a place,
And everyone is needed.
All purposes support other purposes.
Plus,
We don't know if what those people do is their purpose or a job.
For example,
The bus driver's purpose could be protecting children in a dangerous neighborhood or volunteering to serve dinner in a soup kitchen.
2.
Surrender to Present Conditions of Your Life The practice of surrendering to the current conditions of your life will revitalize the way you feel about everything.
This practice can be misunderstood as resigning or giving up,
But it isn't.
Surrendering stops the fight against yourself,
And fighting yourself isn't worth the time or effort.
Simply put,
You created what is,
And now you're ready to build something else.
As you read these words,
Take a deep breath,
Release it,
And let your shoulders drop on the exhale.
Do this three times so that you can begin to surrender.
Yes,
Surrendering begins with each conscious breath.
3.
If you don't like your job,
For example,
Accept that and surrender it in a breath with the help of your shoulders.
If you don't like where you live,
Accept that and surrender.
Do you dislike your partner?
Accept that and then surrender.
I want you to surrender to what you've created so far.
It's only temporary.
I ask you to practice three days of surrendering.
Just find a quiet space,
Sit comfortably,
And do nothing for 20 minutes except to breathe in and out.
With each breath,
Let go of any conditions in your life that you don't like.
Use your shoulders to help you surrender,
And don't seek solutions.
Let the answers come to you.
Don't worry if you don't immediately recognize a way to solve it.
You'll hear the resolution soon.
This practice of surrendering will improve your energy.
The fight against the things you dislike only keeps you exactly where you are and creates more of what you want to leave behind.
Surrendering is the art of trust.
Believe that there's an immense intelligence behind your ability to create beauty in your life.
3.
Stop complaining.
Stop complaining about everything you dislike in your life.
You'll no longer talk about your boss,
Pay,
Landlord,
Or anything that sparks dissatisfaction in you.
This is another form of surrendering.
If you think about something that upsets you,
Stop giving more power to it by speaking about it out loud.
When the thought comes to mind,
Say to yourself,
I surrender.
You can do this practice at any time.
When you stop complaining,
Your awareness will be open to happiness,
Which is the beauty you seek.
4.
Allow yourself to be brilliant.
To rebuild your power of beauty,
Give yourself permission to be brilliant.
This means you will stop doubting your ability to build the life you've dreamed of.
It isn't too late,
And you aren't too old.
If I asked a room full of adults if they believe they're brilliant,
Few would come forward.
If I asked the same question to a classroom of seven-year-old children,
Most of them,
If not all,
Would eagerly raise their hands and tell me why they're stars.
When we think of brilliance,
Our brains race to find all the reasons we can't possibly be brilliant people.
We equate it to highly talented and famous individuals like Oprah Winfrey or Martin Luther King.
In Britain,
People often use the word brilliant to characterize good deeds,
Smart actions,
Or good ideas such as suggesting a pub with a great beer.
British people have found the true meaning of brilliant in an amazing way by including everyone.
I want you to know that your divine nature is waiting to glow.
Your brilliance from the age of seven still exists inside,
Even if you're now 77.
You can own it by stepping into your purpose,
Whatever that is.
You don't need to quit your job or wait to win the lottery.
You can start by doing what gives you joy a few hours a week.
Release any expectation.
You've already surrendered to your current job and everything you've been complaining about.
In doing that,
You've created beauty in small doses.
Say to yourself out loud,
You are brilliant.
You are beautiful.
You are creating a beautiful world for yourself.
When I ask you to allow yourself to be brilliant,
I'm asking you to remove the outer layer of your being and let your divine self shine like the golden Buddha.
Your divine cut is unique,
Like a diamond.
No one can shine just the way you do.
You are precious.
There are multiple ways to shine your light in the world,
But you can radiate the light that exists inside of you only when you accept your brilliance.
Your light is unique.
There are many wise and talented people,
But they are somewhere else,
And you are here right now.
There's much that you can do just from the space where you live.
Write.
Paint.
Sing.
Bake.
Teach.
Do crafts.
Share your joy.
Start small and see where it goes.
Another way to accept your brilliance is to remember how you used to feel before you forgot your bliss.
You can tap into the feeling when you look at your childhood pictures and remember how you felt.
Pull out your old box of photos and remember your eagerness and wisdom.
Just like your purpose,
Your radiance isn't self-serving.
It's for the world to see.
The more people shine,
The better and more beautiful our world becomes.
5.
Ask for divine help.
Feel free to ask for guidance from the divine world.
Remember,
You are co-creators.
Jesus,
Angels,
Goddess,
God,
Divine Mothers,
Ancestral Grandmothers,
And any Spirit of Light can lead you to the beautiful path you seek,
But they won't interfere unless you ask for their help.
So trust the voice that may seem like intuition,
A gut feeling,
Or a strong pull in a specific direction.
The spiritual world is helping you.
Release your skepticism.
There are miracles we can't explain.
Why do you need an explanation if you get the results you want?
You don't need to share with anyone what you do when you meet the cushion of your spiritual practice or the bench of the church you visit.
There is only one requirement to get spiritual assistance,
And that's faith.
Faith will allow you to notice the help,
And when you do,
Say thank you.
As you ask for help,
You will be saying thank you so often that these two words will be regulars in your vocabulary.
6.
Do the drawing exercise while playing your favorite music.
The drawing exercise introduced in this chapter may look like child's play,
But it's powerful.
I would like you to draw yourself and your house while playing music that uplifts your soul,
Because it will access your inner child who remembers how beautiful you are and your critical adult self.
The drawing with the hearts will influence your subconscious to accept your brilliance and beauty.
Also,
The music will anchor you to the moment of transformation.
Every time you listen to the songs playing while drawing,
It will reinforce the understanding that you are beautiful and there is beauty in your life.
Remember,
The moment you recognize your beauty,
You will drop the lens of your limiting conditioning.
Then,
The world will reveal itself as the beautiful place it has always been.
I am waiting to see your brilliance.
