On the other hand, I love complimenting others and I do that quite a few times a day. When it comes to giving compliments, I am always certain that the 'complimentees' deserve every single word.
Beauty really depends on the eye of the beholder. For me, beauty is a massive suitcase accommodating tons of versatile definitions. One of them is details that I find extraordinarily beautiful and I like focusing on those unique features. For example, I love freckles! I have symmetrical ones on my index fingers, my boyfriend has a perfect line of three freckles on his cheek, my brother has a heart shaped freckle on his cheek, my best friend has a tiny one just above her lip corner.. I have not seen anyone with the same pattern of freckles and I have not seen anyone with a not cool freckle!
Also, I love the uniqueness of smiles. When my nephew smiles, his smile moves up to the left and he winks his left eye, when one of my friends smiles, she covers her mouth and I move my focus on her happiness reflecting eyes - these are all unique patterns.
Sometimes I just can't explain why something is beautiful to me. Maybe 7 years ago I was watching one of those "Good morning Vilnius" programmes on the TV. They were talking about arts and for some reason there was quite a big episode dedicated to Claude Monet. For the first time ever I got to see some of his works. When "The Waterlily Pond" appeared on the screen, it brought me to tears (literally). As I know now, it was the very first time I experienced catharsis.
Just a few days ago I went to London for the first time and visited the National Gallery. I stepped into one of the rooms and teared up immediately. I had absolutely no idea that there were Monet's paintings on the walls of the gallery. I happened to see the Waterlilies in the real world, just a few centimeters away from me. I don't know what exactly about the Waterlilies makes me feel this way.. Neither I am a fan of impressionism nor I am so emotional about the other works of Monet. I somehow just feel that unity of beauty.
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The other day I got to see a fascinating video. Shea filmed her schoolmates' reactions when telling them that they are beautiful. The reactions varied: most of the people smiled and called Shea a cutie, someone called her goofy, someone seemed confused.
versatility of the reactions:
I can relate to all of these reactions as I've felt that way at least once in my life. As I mentioned, especially familiar are those confused ones. Why is it hard to accept compliments sometimes? I reckon that the reaction to compliments does reflect self-esteem. Feeling uncomfortable when receiving compliments should indicate lower levels of self-esteem whereas feeling comfortable in such situation should indicate that a person has confidence in self a.k.a self-worth.
Self-worth is one of the keys to great success (at least according to Travis Bradberry, contributor to Forbes). And I accompany him 100%.. High self-worth doesn't come with sinful pride, it is accompanied by respect to others, dignity, tolerance and believing in self.
It has taken me ages to gain decent self-respect and understand that I am beautiful too. Well, I must admit, I am still on the process and I still struggle horribly. My friends are fabulous and really help me with that - they keep telling me things about myself that I kind of ignore. I believe that people who derogate themselves just abandon the amazing things they have done and the challenges they've conquered. They focus on those teeny tiny issues that have never worked out because of so many sub-reasons.
I know how that feels and how hard it is to get out of self-derogation. I also know that I am the one who will have to live with myself for the rest of my life so I better start loving myself.
It has taken me ages to gain decent self-respect and understand that I am beautiful too. Well, I must admit, I am still on the process and I still struggle horribly. My friends are fabulous and really help me with that - they keep telling me things about myself that I kind of ignore. I believe that people who derogate themselves just abandon the amazing things they have done and the challenges they've conquered. They focus on those teeny tiny issues that have never worked out because of so many sub-reasons.
I know how that feels and how hard it is to get out of self-derogation. I also know that I am the one who will have to live with myself for the rest of my life so I better start loving myself.
