A New Social Awareness Movement? Slow Beauty, a Spiritual Approach to Anti-Aging
For the last 150 years our approach to beauty has remained the same. We focus on our outer appearance and we are obsessed with youth. The mantra “anti-aging” pervades all aspects of our product-centric approach to beauty. I am interested in having a dialogue about a new approach to beauty and aging. I’m concerned that we are internalizing a tyrant who drives us to be at war with our self and our natural aging process. Instead of a tyrant, why don’t we internalize a celebration?
I propose that when we celebrate beauty our outlook should expand to include health and wellness. To do this, to excavate and embody, this celebration, we need to slow down to gain a deeper understanding and acceptance of the process.
Now would be a good time to give our-self permission to decelerate. Our lives are fast and furious. Our pace – unsustainable; we are stressed out, burnt out and even worse diseased. When we slow down we create opportunities to heal, to reclaim our vital energy, to reconnect to our self and to our loved ones. When we finally make that conscious decision to slow down, we will need resources to support and guide us to create a beauty practice that suits our unique and individual lifestyle. This is where “Slow Beauty” comes in. “Slow Beauty” exists off the fast track of our post-modern lives. There are 7 outposts of “Slow Beauty” available to us. They are opportunities for us to get “off the grid” for a realistic period of time. Visit them, often, and reap the benefits and rewards they offer.
The 7 Outposts of “Slow Beauty” (And the Spirit They Impart)
Spa Tradition: SPA, Latin for “health through water,” is rooted in an ancient tradition of wellness, honors the mind, body, spirit connection. Visit these havens to experience this restorative resource. Take to the waters.
Rituals: Bring the spa tradition home. Create an integrated beauty practice of personalized beauty rituals that include nutrition, forms of movement and ancient cultural traditions such as Ayurveda to complement your ethical beauty care products. In this spirit, beauty becomes sacred, joyful, and graceful.
Renewal: Our bodies are inundated with too much food, too much activity, too much pressure. Utilize seasonal cleanses, downtime and techniques to achieve a good nights sleep to restore your natural rhythms. This outpost promotes profound rest.
Nourished Mind: I love the quote “A small mind discusses people, an average mind discusses events, a great mind discusses ideas.” Strive for the great mind. We are conscious of what we feed our bodies. This outpost helps us reflect on what we feed our minds.
Self-Expression: Share your gifts and talents with the world. Practice self-expression. When you are creative your creativity increases. Creativity also boosts self-esteem. Create to give others permission to create and become a catalyst for change.
Meditation: This is the secret ingredient to slowing down the aging process. I foresee meditation will explode in popularity like yoga did a decade ago. We need time out each day to reduce the stress that accumulates. There are studies that show that a regular meditation practice reduces the signs of aging between 7 to 13 years. Breathe, transcend, and find your inner peace to gain more clarity and focus in your daily life.
Mindful Consumption: We are a consumptive society, and that will not change anytime soon. What can change are our consuming habits. Make purchasing habits based on authenticity, better work conditions, giving back, environmental stewardship and safer ingredients. Share.
You can visit SlowBeauty.com to be part of this social awareness movement. For the next 7 months we will be exploring, in depth, each of these outposts, and sharing information on how to create and experience a holistic beauty, health and wellness practice for yourself!