Beauty is a complex topic to discuss as we have all experienced the self-doubt and shame that comes from seeing the unrealistic Western standards of beauty and I want to reassure you that at TICM, I do not want you to conform to anyone else's idea of what beauty is. So much of your beauty lens is formed through your genetics, your upbringing, the media you are exposed to and the cultural context in which all these facets intermingle.
What I want to talk to you about is the radiance you see in a wild animal, as it moves with grace through its habitat. Its sleek coat, its shiny eyes, its healthy teeth, and bones. To us, that is the truest expression of beauty. Not some standard set by an industry designed to sell you a story of never enough. Rather, a natural expression of your own truest health and radiance beauty from within, radiating out. Chapter Two of the Tao Te Ching speaks of beauty as having to exist from a place of simplicity and without being grasped, or it will immediately transform into its opposite. I am sure we can all think of examples of beauty so overdone that it becomes unattractive. It is from this place that I plan on sharing some of my personal favourite ways to nourish my inner wild creature and allow the beauty of nature to arise with the assistance of our beautiful herbs.
I can't wait to spend the next few weeks with patients who come in for ‘beauty’ treatments, exploring all the ways we can redefine, embrace and embody the concept of what it means to be beautiful. One of my closest patients has actually realised that I am a woman on a mission when it comes to health, keeping people away from vile hands and drug dealers as much as possible. With God’s help, I am winning.
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