Welcome.
My name is Andrea Ashley and I am so grateful to have you here sharing your time with me,
But most importantly spending quality time with yourself.
I invite you to find a comfortable position and allow yourself to settle into the space.
Allow your eyes to soften or close completely if you're comfortable with that.
And begin to bring your awareness to the natural rhythm of your breath.
Letting any distractions or thoughts drift away as you come into this present moment connecting with yourself.
Continuing to breathe naturally,
A nice fluid breath as you listen to the sound of my voice.
Today we are going to be working on redefining beauty.
As we know,
The term,
The word beauty seems to be so intrinsically linked to external appearances,
To our physique,
To our facial structure,
The hair color,
Hair texture,
The shape of our nose,
The size of our body,
Our height,
Our weight,
Our shape.
And I'm here to invite you to contemplate and maybe even reconsider that beauty has nothing to do with this.
Take a moment to think of three words that you define the current beauty industry.
Not editing it or trying to make it something that it's not,
Whether it's better or worse,
But three words that come to your mind that defines the current beauty industry or your definition of beauty at this moment.
Once you've thought of these three words,
Take a moment and ask yourself if these words are not inclusive,
If they make you feel less than,
If they are limited or focused only on physical appearances.
What words could you choose instead to replace them?
If we were to remove physical appearances from the narrative of what defines beauty,
How would you then define it?
On personality?
On ability?
On kindness?
Intellect?
Talent?
Efforts?
Connections?
How much more would we open up to explore other aspects of ourselves,
To explore other aspects of others if we remove this laser focus on physical commercially defined beauty?
How much more would we expand as individuals if we weren't as focused and time consumed with making ourselves fit into a definition of physical and external beauty?
Would we have more time to reconnect with ourselves and our inner beauty?
We have more time to connect with each other.
What would you do with this additional time?
Have you removed all the time you spend worrying about how you look,
Going down a rabbit hole of pictures of how other people look?
The time you spend on your beauty regimen?
The time you spend researching or shopping for such items to help with this image?
Time you may even spend torturing your body to move in ways that are not enjoyable.
Moving only to reach an image rather than for joy,
Rather than because it's amazing and it's magical that you have this body and finding a movement that makes you happy to do so.
How much time do you think you would get back if you removed all of these things?
Would it be 15 minutes a day,
An hour a day,
Two?
What about adding that up?
What does that look like in a week,
A month?
When you have that total number in your head,
Seeing what that looks like on spending this time on things you may not necessarily enjoy,
That may not be reflective of who you truly are or what you truly need or how you truly define beauty,
Where would you put that time instead?
Experience that in your mind's eye now.
Where would you be?
What would you be doing?
Who would be there?
What would it look like,
Feel like,
Smell like,
Taste like,
Or sound like if you were doing what you wanted to do with this time.
With these reflections,
Take a moment now to use these as inspiration to create your own definition of beauty.
Pull upon the things you would rather be doing,
Emotions you would rather be feeling,
The time you would rather be spending.
This is beauty.
If you enjoy the commercial beauty and working on physical appearances,
If that is your truth of truth,
Then that may be your definition of beauty and that's okay.
This is about empowering you to take the definition of beauty back into your hands instead of being dictated to and what that looks like.
Just take a moment to define beauty on your own terms,
Defined by your inner being,
Your truth,
Your own definition described in a word,
Phrase,
Or message.
Take a moment to set that now.
Once you have chosen your definition of beauty in a word,
Phrase,
Or message,
I invite you to say it in your mind or out loud three times now.
Placing your hands on your heart if that's comfortable to you.
Taking a deep breath in and visualize absorbing this message,
This new definition into your entire body,
Your mind,
Your breath,
Every cell.
You're completely embodying it,
Ready to take it on as your own.
With your hands remaining on your heart,
I invite you to take a moment to send yourself gratitude,
Respect,
And acknowledgement of your true beauty.
Wishing you a beautiful day and in ultimate gratitude,
I bow to you in respect and acknowledgement of your true beauty.
