Slow Beauty

about SLOW BEAUTY

HOW MANY TIMES HAVE YOU HEARD some version of the phrase beauty comes from within? My guess is that the answer to this question is something along the lines of “a lot.” Yet, at the same time, social media, magazines, and even newspapers are constantly flooding us with information about antiaging methods, and tips and tricks for enhancing our external beauty. If beauty comes from within, then where is all of this advice and strategy for illuminating our inner beauty?

Well, here it is.

The Slow Beauty practice that you are about to embark upon has nothing to do with creating the perfect smoky eye or combating wrinkles. Instead, it’s about living a life that centers on a philosophy of living better, more wholly, and more truthfully—and having fun in the process! That is where true beauty springs forth: bubbling up from the inside and spilling over to the outside. At the heart of the Slow Beauty philosophy and practice is the idea that the biggest component of any beauty program should be wellness and self-care. To achieve this, we must each regularly find some time to slow down and connect with ourself.

Within the pages that follow, you’ll find inspiration, support, and tools for cultivating that beauty within to the point where it spills over to every aspect of your life, including your physical appearance. Yes, we’ll talk about beauty, but we’ll also focus on general wellness, aging happily and gracefully, and—most important of all—cultivating a truly joyful life from the inside out.

Know that this practice is called Slow Beauty for a reason. It’s what I like to think of as a sustainable beauty alternative. It’s not a quick fix—much better than that, it’s a solution that will last over time. It will become an inextricable part of your life. And, as I’ve seen in both my own life and the lives of the clients I’ve worked with, the ongoing journey of Slow Beauty will be one of the most fulfilling, adventurous, creative, and transformative experiences you’ve ever embarked upon. Rather than a chore or source of stress, this ongoing beauty routine will become a cherished part of your day-to-day life.

Slow Beauty marks a return to our connection with our personal natural rhythms, and ultimately, it brings us back to an unconditional love and acceptance of becoming who we really are. When we live in this sort of manner over a period of time, we naturally and continuously evolve into a more beautiful and timeless version of ourself. Most of all, we find more joy in our life on a moment-by-moment basis. And that is truly beautiful.

Together, we’ll get in touch with the type of beauty that starts from within and emanates outward from there. The type of beauty that defies age. The type of beauty that knows no bounds.

the four pillars of slow beauty

Slow Beauty encapsulates such ideals as inner beauty, self-love, self-care, self-compassion, and joyful living in what is less of a program, and more of an open-source system that will make you look and feel better. This is not a prescriptive program, although I definitely will share tons of ideas for you to incorporate into your own life. Like the Slow Beauty program itself, this book is meant to be playful, iterative, and interactive. With that in mind, there are many ways to enjoy it. There is, of course, the traditional approach of reading it from cover to cover and trying everything in the order in which it is presented. Another option is to engage with it in whatever way feels most natural to you. For example, if you are feeling active, begin with a ritual or a recipe. If you feel as if you need some intellectual stimulation, dive into the Philosophy section. Ready to get creative? Flip to the Mapping section.

With this in mind, Slow Beauty is divided into four distinct sections—the Four Pillars of Slow Beauty, if you will.

PHILOSOPHY

What kind of beauty book starts with philosophy of all things, right? At a glance, it might sound a bit odd to correlate beauty and philosophy. But Slow Beauty is all about an elevated type of beauty that comes from the inside and, from there, takes up residency in all aspects of our life. Since Slow Beauty is also, in many ways, a personal program that each of us determines the specifics of ourself, it’s important that it be built upon a foundation and a framework people can understand, get behind, and incorporate into their daily life.

There was a time when philosophy was not only the cornerstone of education, but also of life in general. People had an underlying ethos that informed many facets of their life: the way they thought, what they believed in, and the decisions they made on a moment-by-moment basis.

Over time, philosophy has become a less and less integral part of our system and our life. Look at any college curriculum today and you’ll see a vast difference in how much philosophy is introduced to students, even between now and a couple of decades ago. Our society’s concept of philosophy is now doled out in little nuggets through articles shared on Facebook and Instagram memes. Something may resonate with us, but it is fleeting, and before long, we’ve moved on to the next thing. Most of us don’t have a solid credo to hold on to.

We live in a world that moves quickly, and we’re constantly pulled in different directions. So many of us are wearing this stress; we don’t feel good because of it, and when we don’t feel good, we don’t look good, either. It’s time to slow down and get back in touch with life and ourself. The Slow Beauty philosophy provides us with a touchstone to do that through its belief that it is by making the time to go inward to discover what lights us up and bring us joy—and then honoring that—that we ultimately find true, lasting, timeless beauty. It gives us ideas to marinate on and take with us, and allows these seeds of self-care to continue to grow, even amid all the white noise of our life.

Beauty is multifaceted and inherently simultaneously spiritual and biological. If we care for ourself in deep and meaningful ways, then we are better able to care for others and for the world around us. If we want to slow down, enjoy life, and be well, the Slow Beauty philosophy will help us to discern, engage, and amplify what is a most true and creative process—being our most beautiful, healthy self!

So, how will we know this is working for us? How will we be able to celebrate how we are changing? Or even know we are on the right path? First we need to acknowledge the “new normal”: the frantic, nonstop pace of our life today. We shouldn’t have to merely accept and adapt to this new pace of life. This isn’t about continuing at this insane pace, it’s about challenging that pace. It’s about finding our own pace and grounding ourself in it. It’s a question of pace for inner peace, and from that slower pace the seeds of enlightenment are planted. At the core of the Slow Beauty philosophy is discovering ways to slow down, because it is only then that renewal happens.

RITUALS

One of the primary ways we put the Slow Beauty philosophy into practice is through rituals. As Princeton sociologist Robert Wuthnow put it, we are currently living in the Age of Practice. He explains, “In the United States, religious life has evolved from a ‘dwelling spirituality’ in the 1950s, when the physical church or synagogue building was the focus of family religious life; to a ‘seeking spirituality’ of the turbulent 1960s, when the individual’s quest for personal meaning and moments of transcendence stood at the center; to our age—an age of meditation practice communities and yoga practice communities.”

Wuthnow points to this trend in an academic sense, but you’ve most likely already noticed it at play in your own life. Maybe you practice yoga yourself; if not, you likely know many others who do or have noticed its increasing prominence in society. The ancient practice of meditation is now becoming mainstream in the same way yoga has in the past decade.

So, what does all of that have to do with Slow Beauty? Slow Beauty is something to be practiced, and a big part of this practice includes meditative techniques, both in the traditional sense and in the terms of rituals that can be meditative in nature when practiced mindfully. Wellness and well-being are big buzzwords, and thankfully there are a ton of options in terms of techniques and tools to live well. But so many choices can also be daunting: Which ones should you choose? When should you integrate them into your life? It can be confusing. This section will help you identify what techniques and tools to use when, and leaves the door open for you to incorporate the wellness practices you are already using.

Just as we practice yoga and meditation on a regular basis for our health and state of mind, with Slow Beauty you will also have the opportunity to practice a fun, healthy, lifestyle throughout your day. Over time, that lifestyle becomes who you are. Slow Beauty will provide you with a host of rituals that can be performed both on a daily and intermittent basis to enhance your life and light you up from the inside. In this section you’ll find a huge variety of ways to do this, including hydration, movement, light therapy (in other words, aligning ourself with our built-in circadian rhythm), and ideas for group gatherings. This diverse menu allows you to go however wide and deep you choose to, and to adjust that scope as you evolve and the various seasons of life come and go.

The ultimate goal with all of this is to better attune yourself with your mind, body, and energy levels on both a day-to-day and a seasonal basis, and to help you live your life in an intentional way. As I’ve seen in my own Slow Beauty practice and in my work with others, once you discover how alive and refreshed you feel from incorporating these rituals and how permissive and accepting you feel when you understand your natural cycles of downtime, you will fall into an easy routine of awareness and self-care that will leave you joyful, enlivened, and brimming with self-acceptance. With these practices incorporated into our daily life, we improve with time, rather than fading away. The passage of time becomes something to celebrate rather than to fear. This, my friends, is true freedom.

RECIPES

Whether we’re ingesting them or applying them, Mother Nature has armed us with all of the ingredients we need to keep our body running like a well-oiled machine. Here, you will learn how to put nature’s bounty to good use through recipes for teas, soups, juices, infused waters, and smoothies, which bolster body, mind, and spirit. When we’re talking about recipes as they pertain to Slow Beauty, though, it includes more than just what we put into our mouth. It also involves being dedicated to ensuring that we put only the best on our body as well so as to promote recovery and vitality.

With that in mind, I’ll also be sharing a variety of deliciously effective recipes, such as sugar scrubs, body oils, mists, and soaks. I love using homemade beauty products not only because they allow us to control and have a greater awareness of what we’re putting on our body, but also because we can cater them to what we need at any given moment in time, whether it’s a bit of hydration during the hot summer months or a soothing concoction to counteract the effects of harsher winter conditions. These treatments will be organized by season so that you can better align yourself with the natural rhythms of the world around you.

We’ll also cover some more intangible recipes. For example, I will lead you through the process of creating your own mantras for the purposes of self-affirmation, a more optimistic outlook, and manifestation. I will also share a variety of physical movements designed for various seasons. While these will help tone and refine the body, they are all, at heart, meditative in nature and will thus enhance your mental, emotional, and spiritual fitness, as well.

The recipes included in this book will not only leave you looking and feeling great, but they will also help you break down the obstacles in your life. I know—sounds like a big promise, right? Here’s why it works: By putting good things on your body and in your body and mind, you will ultimately feel better about yourself and enjoy an improved body image. This will be your greatest protection against the constant barrage of beauty ideals being incessantly hurled at us from every direction. From this wonderful place, you will naturally begin to discover the unique gifts that lie within you, as opposed to wasting your energy striving to become a part of an idealized standard. Obviously, this will leave you feeling great, but it’s also an act of altruism because once you’ve unearthed your gifts, you can contribute them to the world.

MAPPING

Slow Beauty is a philosophy, but how each individual practices it should feel different because we are all different and unique. Beauty is a way of life with countless compositions of varying sizes, shapes, forms, and colors. Just as there is not one catchall variety of outer physical beauty, neither is there one for internal beauty. Sure, there are many universal tips and tricks that I can (and will!) offer you, but it’s also vital that each of us caters our own Slow Beauty routine to the uniquely beautiful creature we are and to those specific things in life that bring us joy and peace.

With all of this in mind, I am especially excited about the final Mapping section of this book because this is really the essence of Slow Beauty and what we’re ultimately striving for. It is here that you will really get in touch with your own path—where you are at right now, where you want to go, and how you will get there. For each of us, those answers are beautifully personal. Through a series of written, artistic, and mental exercises, I will offer you an avenue for digging into that deepest part of yourself to find what specific things you need to realize the full strength, energy, and luminous beauty of your inner core.

you write the slow beauty user’s manual: practice makes process

The ideas in this book are both additive and subtractive—you can build on what you are already doing and you can easily drop anything you find in here that simply isn’t resonating with you. It is through this process of developing your own Slow Beauty practice that you will have the opportunity to get to know yourself better; to get in touch with your inner wisdom; and to shut out all of the outside noise and influences to find that core of what makes you joyful.

Most important, I encourage you to engage with this book. Make it your own! Have a pen by you at all times so that you can circle words that call out to you, make notes, or doodle. Underline, draw in it, dog-ear it, highlight, write in the margins, react, glue things to the pages, add pages—anything goes. This is your book, and your book should have your process all over it. The idea is to transform it into something that is meaningful to you. It’s meant to be referenced again and again, carried around as a companion, and the rituals and recipes tried and tweaked to suit your personal style and taste.

What’s more is that, although you are creating your own program, you don’t have to go it alone! Of course you may do this as a solitary practice if you wish, but Slow Beauty is also set up in such a way that you can build a community around it to support your process, and, through this, you can also support others. (In fact, on here I will show you how to form a group to develop your Slow Beauty practice.) What I want to emphasize is that this book is simultaneously very personal and very communal. But, most of all, it’s whatever works for you. This is in no way a rigid, prescriptive, follow-the-rules-or-else tome. It’s a joyful, living, breathing, and liberating practice; not something to be perfected, but something that is always in process, just like the changing, evolving, human being you are.