I am beautiful!

There is something powerful in having the confidence to speak these three words aloud. Looking in the mirror during my daily morning routine, which includes drinking 12 oz. of water, washing my face, and brushing my teeth, I often times take a few additional minutes to appreciate my facial features. The subtle slant of my eyes, the fullness of my lips, the shape of my nose.

I do this to remind myself of the features in my face that make me special and different from anyone else on this planet.

I like to do this first thing in the morning because I have no make-up on. This allows me the opportunity to really focus on the nuisances in my face. This exercise is important to me, because, I realized a majority of the day I’m looking at other people. The people on my social media, on tv, in magazines, my relatives, friends, my clients, professional colleagues, or people that I pass on the street. It’s easy to start making comparisons looking at others thinking you wish you had “those eyes”, “that hair” or “those high cheekbones”. And then I’m reminded, the same way I do this with others, someone is doing this with me. Sure, it’s nice to admire those physical qualities we see in others. But, it’s just as important, if not more, that we recognize and acknowledge our own physical beauty, too.

I would even take this a step further to include other parts of your body. For me, I love the length of my neck, my shoulders and upper-back. Too often when we do look at ourselves it’s through the lens of all the things we wish we did or in other cases didn’t have. And this is the reason the “appreciate my beauty” minutes in the morning have been important to me as I grow to be comfortable in my own skin. I’m intentional about appreciating my natural beauty first.

This for me sets a tone: though I enjoy wearing makeup, make-up does not define my beauty, I do!