The meaning of "BEAUTY"
It's been 15 years since I started laser treatment for skin. At first I didn't think of beauty as anything more than just ``Beauty''. But what I realised was in the past 15 years looking at variety of skin conditions, treatments I provide isn't just to fix their skin concerns but to restore confidence of those who found their courage to decide to come see me - a stranger.
The sign of this year is a Dragon - my year. I was born in 1976, and apparently people who were born that year is a fire dragon - the type of person who thrives on their own. Well I guess I'm like that. I have always working hard as long as I remember however, I've had no respect or confidence for myself.'' Even so, I have a vivid memory of my own reflection on the black shiny surface of my piano when I was about 5 years old. I thought, ``How lucky I am to have my eyes, nose and mouth.'' Despite of my lack of self-respect, I also felt a little selfish thinking, ``Since you have every part of the body, you should know that you have enough.''
Aside from my personal reminiscences, people who are confident in themselves are shining.
People without confidence or people with too much self-conscious may look a little difficult to talk to or look strange because they pay too much attention to what other people are thinking? (However, I also believe that those people can be very kind as they put others first.)
One of my customers is a 20-year-old girl. I have been treating her since she was 16 years old. To me, she is tall, her limbs are long, she has a great figure, she has a bright personality, and she is a good girl who is well-balanced in every way, and she is always cheerful and sweet. We always enjoy having our Girls' Talk.
I always admire her young yet mature way of thinking. However, she doesn't have much self confidence. That's why she sometimes wants more treatment than necessary. I would say, ``You don't need it right now.'' It's certainly not that I don't understand where she's coming from, but I think it's not good for her to start too many cosmetic treatment at her age. By improving looks on the outside, you can even brighten a person's facial expressions. However, this does not mean that we should provide whatever treatment they want, but rather that we should not do anything that is unnecessary.
It would be best if you could get her to understand, and at the same time take care of the root cause of her lack of self-confidence. At times like these, I try to say something that will help them see more of the good in them. Since the cause of her lack of self confidence was from nothing but people's casual comments about her.
Beauty for me means to love yourself, even if you can't say that you are confident (especially because how we Japanese are brought up to be modest). I didn't like myself for a long time.
I feel like I'm questioning everything about my face, my thighs, my hair, my hands, my style, my introverted personality, even my name. Everything seemed to be wrong about me. Because of that every time I look at other people I would wonder ``Should I do this?'' or ``Should I do that?'' all my life.
I'm sure many of you are like that, to a greater or lesser degree. Even if I tried other peoples' way, it wasn't bound to work because it just worked for that someone else.
This was the era of Showa, when patience, effort, and perseverance were taught as virtue.
As I talked about balance in the previous issue, it's not good to just over do everything.
After I turned 40, I started to feel like I was being my true self.
All my difficult life experience has taught me that no matter how much I try to imitate others ways and push myself in that direction that I don't even know if it's correct or not, there is little to be gained, and in fact, it only ends up damaging my mind and body. You can't do anything more than what you think is the "right thing to do," so all you have to do is to believe in yourself and move forward.
At the beginning, I talked about "getting your confidence back," but in the end, you don't necessarily have to feel confident. If you push yourself hard every moment, you will always be the best version of yourself. Other people have already decided what kind of person you are, whether you want to show it or not. When someone says to me, ``Oh, I thought Yuri-chan was like blah blah,'' and I would feel like I had betrayed their feelings.
By gaining more people who love me for who I am, I feel like I can become more beautiful from the inside out.
Skin is honest and reflects everything what's going on inside of us. It is very important to have a will to improve yourself, but sometimes give yourself a little compliment how good you are is the way to achieve your true beauty.
A friend of mine who is the same age said to me,
``Are you talking about the people we used to call Obatarian* when we were younger who don't care about what other people think...?''
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*Obatarian is a word we used to use for middle aged women who had no care what's going on around them. (Not a respectable word but a bit funny in a way)
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