I am beautiful
Mary Berkery
I was invited to spend last Winter Solstice and New Year on the wonderful, warm island of St Croix in the Caribbean. Our host, Stephan, a family friend of many years, lives and works on St Croix. Stephan wakes each morning at 5am to take two hours from that time each day for his “inner life”, walking in the rainforest while embodying more deeply. He says: “The ‘I’ am of who I am, I am wonderful, I am delightful.” Before his work day begins, he walks these words he says into his being, to fully embody these words before his outer day commences. He was an inspiration and a joy to be with.
On the morning of Dec 21st, Stephan’s pet peacock woke me at sunrise with a honking, high-pitched cry. He had not done this in the previous mornings. I wondered if he knew that it was a special date. Arising to peacock cries, from the bedroom veranda I saw a bright, beautiful rainbow arching over the blue sea with the Virgin Islands in the background. It seemed auspicious to wake and welcome the New Birth of our planet with nature celebrating too.
Rebirth
In the following days, I felt myself stepping into a new time. I had, from a young age, chosen a path that had encompassed personal self-development, attended many education and spiritual activities, while also learning lessons from rich and sometimes cruel life experiences. However, I realised more deeply than before, that I now have a choice. I can choose what thoughts and feelings to entertain. I can live in a deep sense of knowing myself as wonderful, live in wonder and love, or operate from thoughts of inadequacy and fear.
I reflected on beauty, the path I choose over 25 years ago, as an aesthetician, tutoring in beauty therapy, anatomy massage and cosmetic chemistry, before embarking on teaching holistic beauty. As much as I know on natural health and beauty approaches, I felt a deepening of my desire to embody a more empowering sense of my own beauty, as a woman, now in my 5th decade.
These quotes struck a heartfelt cord in those days:
“By choosing your thoughts and by selecting which emotional currents you will release and which you will reinforce, you will determine the effects that you will have upon others and the nature of the experiences of your life.” ~ Gary Zukaf
“We spent January 1st last year walking through our lives, room-by-room, drawing up a list of work to be done, cracks to be patched. Maybe this year, to balance the list, we ought to walk through the rooms of our lives…not looking for flaws, but for potential.” ~ Ellen Goodman
I have a choice to show up daily, and, like Stephan, with: “I am beautiful. I am at One with Love and Life.” I hear it from my beloved of my loveliness, yet, to know it from within is the deeper journey, to live in that state of awareness no matter what else comes up for release and healing; to choose beauty in how I talk, think and feel.
When I am then with others in this place of wonder, I feel different and more present in my way of being and listening. Self-care and daily rituals would come from that deeper love rather than from a place of trying to shape up or measure up to outer standards that set up limiting comparisons.
I experienced how to dissolve thoughts of fear and criticism with awareness and breath, so as to daily step up to the full potential of who I am as a co-creator with the Love Intelligence that has birthed all on Earth and in the cosmos.
Choose to be beautiful, wonderful, filled with Life and Love this day and each day. I am/You are beautiful.
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“Choose to be beautiful, wonderful, filled with Life and Love this day and each day. I am/You are beautiful.”
Contact: mary@livingbeauty.ie
