“The mirror on the wall will not tell you that you are beautiful, until you see it yourself.”
The phrase, “Beauty is in the eye of the beholder” describes how beauty is subjective. The phrase derived in the 3rd Century B.C. in Greece, and is supposed to indicate that we perceive beauty with our eyes. But what about this expression from the 2001 movie, “A Beautiful Mind”:
Nash: “Perhaps it is good to have a beautiful mind, but an even greater gift to discover a beautiful heart.”
How can one see a beautiful mind or a beautiful heart?
I decided to write about this subject after visiting a photo show where Kate Fomina displayed her work. During the day, she is a very good real estate agent with Princeton Real Estate. But in her free time, she makes women (and now men as well) look beautiful, with her photography.
The concept of beauty changes with time. We often follow the trends set by fashion and Hollywood. But what is real beauty and how do we see it?
Kate told me about a client, a woman who after a mastectomy was in a bad state of mind. After the stylist and make-up artist worked with her, Kate took her photo. Suddenly, the woman saw herself as beautiful. But it was not just her new view of herself as others saw it, as if it was evidenced by the responses she received from social media. What changed?
In the remarkable book “Psycho-Cybernetics”, Dr. Maxwell Maltz who was a plastic surgeon, writes that “when you change a man’s face you almost invariably change his future”. But he also wrote that “self-image is the key to human personality and human behavior”. He also observed that some of his patients, whose appearance changed after surgery, did not see themselves as “beautiful” because they did not change their own perception of their self-image.
Can we change our self-image not only about the way we look externally; but also, our outlook on our lives and the world around us? I believe we can. Try it…you might like it.
P.S.
On our Cuba trip, we met quite a few beautiful men and women. You will find some of their images in my book Soy Cubano, I am Cuban. It is available as an e-book for $9.99 on BLURB or you may also purchase a hardcopy here. (The links are also on my website.)
The first image in this story is Kate Fomina in front of her display. The last one is a photo of two women I photographed in front of a bank. One of them asked me to buy her a drink. After I did, she asked for my phone number. It was in front of my wife and daughter, who after the women left, enlightened me on what the woman’s occupation was. In my eyes, I just saw beauty.
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