Redefine beauty to access better health

By Valerie Minard

Is beauty really “in the eye of the beholder”?  Go ask Dove, the personal-care brand, owned by Unilever.  They’ll say yes! Since 2004, they’ve begun a “Campaign for Real Beauty” after market research revealed that only 2% of women consider themselves beautiful.   Yep.  That’s right, just 2%.

In research they sponsored, Dr. Ann Kearnery-Cook, a psychologist and body-image expert, studied how women perceived their own beauty.  In her experiment, she gave several women of varying ages  a “revolutionary product” to wear, a “RBX beauty patch”, developed to enhance the way women perceive their own beauty. The women were instructed to wear the patch and keep a daily video diary.

Each woman recorded significant gains in appreciating her own beauty, believing her bodily appearance had actually improved.  When asked to look at the ingredients of the patch, it turned out to be a placebo, with no drugs involved.  The women were delighted to learn that it was a change in their viewpoint and not a drug or bodily change that had made them appreciate their own beauty more.

So the question becomes, how can we change our viewpoint and improve our self-image? And why is this important?  Sure we can diet, buy new clothes, or change our hairstyle, but if we are not valuing ourselves, no outward change will really reframe our perception of our beauty.

Its important because a positive self-image leads generally to choosing a healthier lifestyle.  While, a negative self-image can lead to eating disorders, hormonal abuse, unnecessary surgery, and depression to name a few.

But just like those women in the Dove study, it’s never too late to change our viewpoint.  It’s all about how we identify ourselves.  I’ve found it helpful to identify myself from a spiritual perspective.  For instance, in the Bible it says that man and woman were made in the image and likeness of God.  And it was very good.

I don’t think that means we are made in terms of body parts but in terms of spiritual qualities. I can’t image divine Love, making any of its children less than beautiful.  Can you?  But more than that, as the image and likeness of Love, God’s child must be happy, kind, loving, strong, unselfish.  Aren’t these the same qualities that everyone finds the most attractive and loves? Isn’t that what the women in the study were sort of tricked into seeing? As I identify myself with these qualities and strive to live these qualities in my day, I feel better about myself and that contributes to my health. There’s no need to create it through a trick.

As we keep our eye on expressing beautiful spiritual qualities, we’ll not only feel better about ourselves, we’ll also appreciate those qualities in others.  And that’s beauty worth beholding!

Valerie is a health and spirituality blogger who writes about the connection between health, spirituality, and consciousness.  She is also a Christian Science practitioner living in New Jersey.