The Page Turner

Mirror, mirror on the wall…

When I look at myself in the mirror, I see an ordinary person. A very planar, practically two dimensional perspective of me. But is that all I am? Most of us spend hours gazing at our reflections, either admiring or criticising. But in the end, why does it even matter? We think, we are what everyone else sees: a misleading kind of a mask. However, it isn’t even a fraction of who we truly are. Our insides burst with colour, our minds overflow with thoughts and knowledge. But nobody ever sees that. How we look on the outside is completely irrelevant if we aren’t just as beautiful from the inside.

Inside/out: where to be beautiful?

Everybody likes to look good, that’s understandable. It makes them feel good about themselves. However, if looking good and focusing on our exterior makes us act like someone who we’re not, then there is no point. For example, it always makes me feel better when someone says, “You’re so nice!” as opposed to “You look good.” Just being who we are is the most natural thing in the world; making unnecessary changes to ourselves to please others or appear wise isn’t. We should reflect upon the mirror that’s inside our hearts instead of the one in front of our eyes. The former is far more accurate and is more adaptable too!

Pulchritude versus personality

People aren’t remembered by how attractive they appear, but their personalities, how they act towards other people, their ability to assess different situations in a certain kind of way. As Steven Aitchison once rightly said, “Your outer beauty will capture the eyes, your inner beauty will capture the heart.” What a wonderful quote that fully defines the importance of personality and of course, inner beauty! Appearances can be deceptive; people aren’t always how they look. I always feel more at ease when I encounter a kind and genuine person compared to a good-looking one who has no heart. We are all multi-dimensional and have so many characteristics, we would need over a thousand mirrors to display just a few of them. Even while putting this into consideration, mirrors are simply two dimensional versions of us: length, width, but virtually no true depth. People without personalities aren’t really people at all.

New eyes, new perspectives

If we were given eyes that could see the truth of who people really are, we would be amazed. There is so much that we don’t know about everyone, maybe even ourselves, that we really don’t need to spend time worrying about the artificial appearances of ourselves. Each of us look and act different, and I think we should accept that. We’re all so unique and wonderful in everything that we do, and it would therefore be wrong to alter that, to change ourselves more than necessary or to make ourselves who we’re not. Every tiny original detail of us matters, so we should keep it that way, and that’s something that everyone, even me, needs to work upon. The important things happen on the inside, like feelings and emotions. Nothing is a substitute for our true selves.

“If only our eyes saw souls instead of bodies, how very different our ideas of beauty would be.”

To conclude, I think focusing on inner beauty and outward mannerism is more important than focusing on our looks all the time. We are all so different, every minute detail of ours is extremely significant and original. I think we should embrace that and pay attention to the places where it’s due: working on how we nurture ourselves from inside. We are all so beautiful, in our own respective ways. What do you think? Does inner beauty overcome outward appearances? Thank you for reading my post and I hope you enjoyed it.