We have all become so very wrapped up in what is “beautiful”, though what is mostly seen as beauty has been narrowed down to a few select features – usually relating to a certain bodily quality or body type. When did beauty become so skewed and base? Just why do most women feel that beauty is a seamless face with large breasts and a thin waist? Why is it that men crave those six pack abs and muscles that they see on the cover of magazines?

Exactly because of that. What we see in the media today is what we have confused as being “beauty”. Yes, that so-called “perfect body” will get you a whole lot of attention, but it is important to realize two things:

1) It may not be the attention you want, and
2) External beauty fades

Sure, there are a number of surgical procedures and creams and treatments out there that you can try to help “conceal” the fact that your youth is fleeting, but at a certain point these all seem to be a cry of desperation and hopelessness. Everyone knows when you have had “work done” and many of these surgical “jobs” leave you looking more foolish than before.

As almost any man will tell you, yes he would like to ‘be with’ a large breasted, thin-waisted woman at some point, but once he discovers that there’s nothing beautiful happening from within he will ultimately leave. As a matter of fact, men tend to fantasize about being with the “perfect 10s” yet they will marry a woman with a less substantial bust and a more realistic body. Why? Because their beauty surpasses what is seen on the exterior, and he would like to instill the quality of inner and outer beauty in his own children.

Women who are obsessed with a man’s outward appearance also feel the same. Yes, it’s great to have that trophy man who looks wonderful on your arm, but not too many women want to settle down and be with a man who spends his time obsessing about his dress and his body.

Men and women both want the same thing: a deep and fulfilling relationship with one another. Without inner beauty, the “stuff” that makes us all unique from one another, we would ultimately all fall by the wayside and never have that deep and fulfilling relationship.

Though it is not quite certain just where the majority of us tend to develop a skewed and underdeveloped view of what is “beauty”, many of us tend to devolve from our child-like perceptions as to what beauty truly is. Ask an adult what beauty is, and chances are they will point out a celebrity, an athlete, or anyone else who is easily recognizable and, most likely, famous. Ask a child, and he or she will become confused. Their brow will furrow. They will look in every direction, and they will answer in a confounded way, “Everything”.

It’s time for us to take a lesson from the children who are not yet blinded by media and unnecessary “beauty” hysteria, and appreciate the beauty in everything – from the people we encounter every day, to the trees we see, and even to the refrigerator that is in our kitchen. Beauty is all around us; it is what you make of it that counts.