Gratitude Message: You are Beautiful!

" Woman, what is your worth? " I am urging all the women out there to take that moment to ponder on this very important question that can make a difference in the way you view yourself. Go ahead and take a good look at yourself in front of a whole-body mirror, or if you can't find one, just a mirror from your powder compact would be fine. Take that pleasure as you examine every inch of you - from head to toe... and realize only a word that describes you perfectly: BEAUTIFUL.

It took me years to realize that the first step in my happiness as a modern day woman is to appreciate the way I am. Gratitude for the way that you are is the very key in defining your self worth.

I realized that I have been too harsh with myself, my mind was filled with the thought that I was never good enough. I could never measure up to those stories of successful and glamorous women making headlines on the covers of a glossy lifestyle magazine. I could never have that perfect size zero and that flawless svelte that would turn the femme fatale out of me. I could never even be that classy career woman who have the power to control the world at the tip of her well-manicured hands... and the list goes on.

Happiness cannot be chased, but, it can be inspired!

Running after happiness is like chasing after one's shadow and no matter how hard you try to "fit in" to that perfect image inside your head, the more frustrated you will feel with all the comparisons and unmet expectations you encounter. So what if you are not that "perfect" person you want to be? I have to learn it the hard way and I realized that I could escape almost anything in this world, except for that face staring in front of me when I look at myself in my bathroom mirror. There's just no escaping from me, so I better start loving me. You better start loving yourself as well because if you don't, who will?

Loving oneself takes more than a positive reinforcement.

If you love yourself the way that you deserve to be loved, everything else will be - magic. But learning to love yourself takes more than all those self-help books and counseling you could get. You have to believe that you are deserving of all the good things in life. You have to learn the art of letting go of all the bad things that happened, whether made by you or done unto you, and start on a clean slate. Forgiveness may be the hardest thing to do, but this is the only way for that peace of mind you have always wanted. It can be a wonderful act to do and it feels like you have just detoxified yourself from a lot of stress that add on the harmful toxins your body gets ( on top of the free radicals around ).

You are the key to your happiness.

Many women, including myself, have had this lingering belief that somehow, there's this sense of being incomplete. We, then, find ourselves trying to fill in that void with an addiction so powerful it threatens to destroy the very beauty in us. We hear many women say that they are "lonely" and needs a man to complete her joy. We even see others finding solace in food as they binge eat to satisfy that hunger within. It's like shopping for that pair of magical shoes until we have a roomful of them, and still, there's this craving to buy some more.

Only when you are at peace with yourself can you truly see that you are the only person in charge of your happiness and no one else. When you see that you are perfect and complete in your own unique way, then, you are closer to that piece of heaven here on Earth. Joey McIntyre have said it better when he sung " Don't you ever wish you were someone else...you are meant to be...the way you are exactly.." Yes - you, me and all the women in this world are meant to be just the way we are and if people are having a problem loving us for who we are, I say it's their problem and not ours.

Love Yourself. Appreciate Your Very Being. After all... You are.. Beautiful!