Truth is, when you are really stressed and have a million things that have to be done right now, that is the time you most need to take time for yourself and your beauty regime.

I’m currently writing a dissertation and getting some very important job applications together to mail. This doesn’t sound like a lot on the face of it, but anyone who’s had a HUGE writing project knows there is nothing more daunting than the blank page. And I have 150 of them to fill!

I’ve found that I tend to focus on my work to the exclusion of all else, and that includes my beauty regimen. My regimen is more of a routine, and I use natural products, so I don’t have a cabinet full of bottles and such to contend with every night. If your routine is more of a daunting effort than a simple, enjoyable routine, it may be a good idea to streamline. Do you really need all that stuff? Is it really helping you or is it just getting in your way or making you do a lot more work than you have time for? If you’re already short on time, a daunting regimen is going to fall by the wayside.

It’s better to have a streamlined, back to basics beauty routine that you know you will take the time to do every night. There are a few things you should do:

• Brush and floss your teeth (of course)
• Comb your hair (unless you have a style you want to preserve)
• Wash your face thoroughly. I use a gentle natural soap. I find that it’s not as drying as commercial soaps. Naturally, you’d never use a deodorant soap on your face. I don’t even use them on my body. My skin is too sensitive and dries out terribly and with a lot of itching if I do.
• I also like to use a soft washcloth. It acts as a gentle exfoliator, and it’s reusable!
• Dry your face gently, without rubbing too much so you don’t pull your skin into sags and bags.
• Apply night moisturizers.
• Get enough sleep. I find I need between seven and eight hours every night, otherwise I look tired, my skin gets pale (and here in Washington in the winter, we have so little sun that being pale just happens anyway) and I get dark circles under my eyes. A real beauty killer.

And although it’s not part of your evening routine, integrate into your day the following:

• Drink enough pure water (not soda or coffee!) Water flushes the toxins out of our body.
• Eat right. Don’t worry so much about being thin. Thin won’t help you if you look like the walking dead!

This way, we can look our very best and healthiest without falling under the spell of commercial beauty peddlers who want to sell us the idea of beauty by talking us into buying hundreds of dollars worth of their products. You can get a nice, natural soap for about $2-3, and the Water Lily Naturals Moisturizer for under $15. Our moisturizer lasts a loooooooong time, so it’s a good investment.

That’s a big difference from the big bucks charged in department stores for name brand stuff that you might not really need.

If you’re busy, streamline your routine to the very basics. That’s really all you need! And once the stress is over, you might decide to go back to that 30 minute regimen, and then, you might just decide you don’t really need it.

Have you read the book by Naomi Wolf, The Beauty Myth?

Published in 1991, it examines beauty as a demand and as a judgement upon women. Subtitled How Images of Beauty Are Used Against Women, Wolf examines the role that modern conceptions of women’s beauty impact the spheres of employment, culture, religion, sexuality, eating disorders, and cosmetic surgery.

Wolf’s position in this book is that women in Western culture are damaged by the pressure to conform to an idealized concept of feminine beauty. She is especially critical of the fashion industry. She suggests that this development is consequential to the liberation of the work market. The femininity myth, which was represented by the stereotypical position of women as housewives, was replaced by the beauty myth, which took over the role of the social guard over women. Former public interest in woman’s virginity has been replaced by public interest in the shape of her body. (Wikipedia)

I don’t mind being beautiful, but I want to be beautiful on my own terms. I don’t want television commercials, magazine ads, and even TV shows (”What Not to Wear” springs to mind) telling me that I can’t be considered beautiful, acceptable, desirable, or even worthy of happiness, if I don’t allow myself to be chained into their ideas of physical beauty.

• I don’t believe I have to weigh 100 pounds (I’m 5′ 8″) and wear a size 8 to be beautiful and therefore worthy of love and happiness.
• I don’t believe I have to look like I’m 25 (even though I just turned 47) to be beautiful and therefore worthy of love and happiness.
• I choose to be beautiful on my own terms.
• I can have a wrinkle. They are my badges of honor.
• I can have a few gray hairs. They are marks of courage and strenght.
• I can weigh a healthy weight, be a size 12 or a size 14, and still be worthy of love and happiness.
• I can wear flat, sensible shoes, and not have my sexuality called into question because of it.
• I can eat regular, sensible meals; I don’t have to starve myself or live on celery in order to fit into someone else’s image of “the ideal woman.” I make my own ideals, and being fit, healthy and happy mean more to me than looking like an airbrushed magazine photo.

What are your ideas of beauty? Are you a rebel, like me, a nonconformist? Let me know what you think. Feel free to leave a comment.

Welcome to the Your Beautiful Spirit web newsletter, a place to find words that lift the spirit and help us to recognize our inner — as well as our outer — beauty, because we are all beautiful. When we stand in awe at a beautiful sight in nature, the mountains or sea or a single flower reflects back to us our own beauty. We can appreciate beauty because inside, we, too are beautiful.

These pages are dedicated to you, and your beautiful spirit.

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