Drop
Dead Gorgeous - Holistic Alternatives to Cosmetic Surgery
by Debbie Mandel
The untimely death of writer Olivia Goldsmith, author of the First
Wives Club, from plastic surgery highlighted the risks associated with
our narcissistic addiction to looking forever young. Is being beautiful
and youthful through surgical intervention worth dying for? Extreme
makeovers are popularized by the media. We watch the magical
transformations on TV believing that the participants will live happily
ever after. However, they don’t. As a result of the surgery (surgeries),
many have confessed to having lost friends, and facing overt or subtle
criticism from family and colleagues at work. Some are soon dissatisfied
and feel the need to have another nip or tuck. They have broken through
the surgery barrier. Plastic surgery can become addictive if one has the
money to support it.
Why are we women cutting up our faces? Why are we becoming obsessed with
our bodies? I have seen women who had so many procedures done that they
continually stare at themselves in the mirror, not out of wonder and
admiration, but because they do not recognize who they have become.
Many eye-lifts have resulted in hollow, vacant looks. Many face lifts have
resulted in a loss of expression. However, worst of all is the death of
the interior woman, the beauty of her words, experience, wisdom and
intuition. Instead, a more superficial female emerges working on the
outside without working on the inside to get a sense of her true life and
an appreciation of her accomplishments. What is most frightening is that
during all this time, a girl is watching her mother aging ungracefully,
cutting up her face, vacuuming out her thighs and inflating her breasts.
Her mother embodies the message that in order to succeed you have to be
stereotypically beautiful and thin. Her mother is struggling to turn into
a Barbie doll.
We need to learn how to love and respect ourselves to see beauty in
self-expression, a smile and a sparkle in the eyes. We need to take back
our power! Here are some suggestions to attain internal and eternal
beauty:
1. Reward your body with affirming and enhancing activities like massages,
music and fragrances.
2. Exercise to reverse the clock naturally. Strength training will lift
your spirits, tone your body, and increase your self-esteem, making you a
woman of substance.
3. Don’t smoke - it ruins the skin and your health. You don’t need to
inhale toxins to be thin.
4. Eat a balanced diet to nourish your body and soul. Sugar is
inflammatory and puts on the pounds. Fruits, vegetables, complex
carbohydrates and omega 3’s will make you glow. Protein is important for
your muscles. Drink plenty of water to make your skin moist and flush out
toxins.
5. Get an adequate night’s sleep to repair daytime cellular damage and
relax your mind.
6. Carry yourself like a goddess. Dress the part. If you hold yourself in
high-esteem, others will too.
7. Keep your skin clean and wear sun block to avoid premature wrinkles. A
moisturizer will make you glisten.
8. Get rid of stress and anger. They make you look unattractive and damage
your internal organs. Learn to see the positive in life. It will help you
to live longer.
9. Have a romance with life. If you feel as though life has passed you by,
reinvent your career or relationship. Transform your perceptions. Get
passionate about your life by tapping into your creative side.
10. Volunteer to help others. See yourself benevolently reflected in their
eyes instead of a mirror.
We don’t need to wear a mask to obscure our inner light. True beauty is
honest and joyous. Vanity-based plastic surgery is the unkindest cut of
all - a betrayal in the deepest sense to ourselves. We are good enough!
__________________
Debbie
Eisenstadt Mandel, MA is the author of Turn On Your Inner Light:
Fitness for Body, Mind and Soul, a stress-reduction specialist,
motivational speaker, a personal trainer and mind/body lecturer at
Southampton College. She is the host of the weekly Turn On Your Inner
Light Show on WLIE 540AM in New York City , produces a weekly wellness
newsletter, and has been featured on radio/ TV and print media. To learn
more visit: www.turnonyourinnerlight.com