The choice should be yours

By Conchetta Jones

In this day and time, confidence and beauty don't seem to go together. At least that's how the media and society portrays it. We are always being told that if we are not this size or this shape then there is something wrong with us. Our skin must look this way. Any sign of aging must be stopped at all costs. Eternal youth is the goal. What is a woman to do?

Now I am all for taking care of yourself and doing what you can to hold off the aging process, but I don't think we should be bullied into getting these treatments and procedures to look beautiful. I am not against anything a woman wants to do to feel better about herself.

But I don't like it when a woman feels like she HAS to do these beauty processes to compete. I don't like when women become depressed because they don't look like what the media plasters before us as the ultimate way to look; when women are made to feel that they just don't measure up. When they feel forced to go under the knife looking for beauty.

​Beauty is a mind thing.

I know some very beautiful women who don't even think that they are pretty—let alone beautiful. They are not sure of their looks and are always focused on their flaws; most of which are in their heads. Then, I know some women who don't fit the standard that society deems as pretty, and they are self-assured and satisfied. This is their confidence.

And that is what it all boils down to. It's a confidence thing. When you feel good about yourself you move differently. There is a distinctive air about you. You don't feel the need to compete and compare. You know that beauty trends come and go. What is IN today will be OUT tomorrow. You learn how to work with what you have. You make the best of what you have been blessed with.

The things you can change, you change. The things you can't, you learn to love. It comes down to choices. Don't worry yourself searching for that perfect body. Don't become depressed and upset about that wrinkle, or that your breasts are not as firm; your butt not as high. Find something about your body that you love, be grateful for what you have. Remember that what you don't like, another woman may love to have. Beauty is in the eye of the beholder.

And if a little nip here and tuck there is what you want to do, then do it. Remember, it's about choices.

Just let the choice be yours, sis.