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[azurelunatic]

There is a little exercise I have started doing when out in public and waiting at the plasma place. I look at all the people around me and see how beautiful they are. Not models, just gloriously human. It takes eyes that can see it, but I'm getting better. It transforms my day to look with those eyes.

Comments

[juuro.livejournal.com]

This is an interesting excercise, and one that I really should indulge in. Thanks for the nudge.

[tygerr.livejournal.com]

The rarity of that way of looking at people and the world always astounds me. Not merely that most people don't do this instinctively, nor even bother to learn. But that so many folk don't WANT to learn to do this--indeed, they eschew it and think it weird to the point of offensiveness. As though there is some bizarre benefit to be had in emphasizing people's flaws, in finding them wanting/inadequate in some essential way.

The world is chock-full of amazing beauty, and is populated by incredibly beautiful people. And that beauty is frequently (nay, MOSTLY) found in bodies that by conventional standards are too tall/short/fat/thin/pale/dark, with eyes/lips too big/small/whatever, hair too long/short/scraggly/dirty, wearing the 'wrong' clothes, etc ad infinitum ad nauseum. *uncomprehending head-shake*

[azurelunatic]

You're welcome.

I find it's hard to look at some people that way. I tried doing that on some TV personality, and I got a headache before I succeeded. And the effect is likely to be spoiled the moment some of them open their mouths. (Just the way the effect is spoiled for some physically lovely people the moment they open their mouths.) But the more I look at people this way, the more likely I am to be the kind of person I want to be around.

[azurelunatic]

And sometimes even the people who believe in "inner beauty" don't think of it as something that can be seen with the eyes.