If I told you to explain what scissors are, you would do that with ease. Even if someone had never seen a pair of scissors before, you could make hand gestures and show them what a pair of scissors does.

You would be able to define the purpose of scissors and how they help with cutting things. After 2–5 minutes of explaining, I would have a pretty good idea of what scissors are. If I were observant enough, I would even be able to spot some, even though I had never seen one before.

However, the word beauty is not like the word scissors. Unlike scissors, it can not be condensed into a form or a shape. The purpose of beauty is also another thing that can not be clearly defined.

In a world with so much negativity, it is almost as though the world feeds on ugliness. Some of the best-performing articles on this platform are those that have pushed hate out into the world. And guess what? A tonne of people come after them with their comments of hate alongside the article.

However, it is not just this platform. Cancel culture on Twitter continues to thrive, and those who are open about their opinions are repeatedly ridiculed. Unfortunately, in a world where there is too much information, we lose trust in everything. And no one is willing to be wrong about anything.

As a society, we have become very proud individuals. We seek the validation of others whilst believing that our opinion is greater than theirs. Although there is still much beauty left in our world, I would argue that much of what we see is ugliness.

So, how do we redefine what it means to be beautiful in a world of false expectations and instant gratification? After all, it is what we regard as beautiful that defines what we wish to see in the world.

What Does It Mean to Be Beautiful?

To explain beauty, we must first understand how we experience beauty. For many of us, it is more than just seeing or hearing. Yes, we gather the information of beauty through our senses, but it turns into a feeling of pleasure and happiness.

Beauty is not one thing, and neither can it be confined to a set of rules. When we see something with beauty, it can sometimes be hard to put our finger on what makes it beautiful. We are sometimes just lost for words and left in awe about the thing rather than its qualities.

For many of us, we have been taught that beauty is a thing. We believe it is a particular type of male or female. Or it is a specific color, smile, or shape. And unfortunately, many of us live by this rather rigid definition of beauty. That is why many are trying to obtain standards of beauty that are unattainable.

We have to redefine beauty if we seek to change the way people go about pursuing it. Beauty is not a thing or a specific standard to attain, it is an expression of pleasurable qualities. Therefore, beauty is:

“An expression of the innate pleasurable qualities human beings can experience.”

How Do We Become Beautiful?

Not all of us can be expressions of physical beauty. Unfortunately, not all genetic make-up is pleasurable to gaze at. However, that is not the only way to express the innate pleasurable qualities of nature.

Beauty is taught as a thing, and we are constantly weighed down by the idea that we must become something. However, if we teach beauty as an expression, we are motivated to act.

We can become beautiful beings by first acknowledging the beauty around us. Many people are left ugly not because they refuse to express beauty, but because they neglect to look for it. In our everyday lives, we miss so many moments of beauty and often take them for granted. If we learn to spot expressions of beauty, we can become beautiful.

Secondly, we must express the innate qualities that are pleasurable to one another. Things like kindness, humor, and empathy are all qualities that bring humans closer together.

We must become expressions of the qualities we seek to see in the world to truly become beautiful. It is through action that we become beautiful, not through being.

Closing Thoughts

Not too long ago, I watched a troubling video of many young individuals explaining why they do not feel beautiful. Much of them were discouraged by social media and its standards of physical beauty. Some were left feeling ugly based on the validation of others and the number of followers they had.

True beauty does not lie in the validation of others, nor in the form we take. It is found in the way we choose to express the innate positive qualities that can make the world a better place.

Start becoming a beautiful individual today by choosing to turn your focus from being to acting. It is through our actions we become the beautiful individuals the world needs to see.