Cosmetic Surgery and Diets

After my last post, a blogger left an advertisement for plastic surgery.

While I'm not opposed to cosmetic surgery, I do want to say that a person must learn to love him or herself, no matter what he or she looks like.

While a surgeon may give you a beautiful face that matches your inner beauty, he or she can't make a troubled person who hates himself feel whole or happy.

Look at Michael Jackson. He's had over forty operations on his face. He was once good looking but, never satisfied, now his face is decimated.

The truth is, too many people suffer from low self esteem. They look in the mirror and find fault with everything. If you feel this way when you look in the mirror, plastic surgery is not the answer.

Some people will scoff and say: you don't know my problem.

Let me put it this way. Say you have some real deformity that you know is not attractive and you dream of having it fixed, but have no money to get it remedied.

Let's go a step further and say that, when you were small, children made fun of you. Perhaps even now, as an adult, people look at you strangely or make comments.

If this is happening to you, obviously it's painful. Saying "learn to love yourself" may seem like a cruel joke.

But it isn't.

If you don't love yourself, it's doubtful you'll ever have the money for the surgery because - in this example I've described - having the disfigurement fixed cosmetically would be a great act of love toward yourself.

Bottom line, with or without surgery, to have people love you better, you must learn to love yourself better. Why? Because we can't change others, only ourselves.

So if you really want surgery, but you can't afford it, my advice is to embark on a program of positive self-talk. Really learn to love yourself. Tell yourself you're pretty or handsome, even if you feel it's a lie. Then look, every day, for all that's good about yourself.

In short, stop every self-critical thought in its tracks.

If you do this - if you learn real self-love - then if it is in your highest and best good to have surgery, the money will come to you.

Cosmetic surgery in itself is not bad. The desire for such surgery does not mean one is shallow or only concerned with looks. However, the act of having such surgery must be undertaken as an act of love toward the self, not an act of hate for what one looks like. Anything else can lead to further dissatisfaction and more surgeries until one's face or body is beyond repair.

I also noted that the blogger was advertising a diet. This is another area in which people - and especially women - go through agony. Virtually every woman is on a diet and billions are spent in an attempt to look thin.

The best "diet" is no diet. Healthy eating and an active lifestyle - in which one walks or bikes instead of driving - is really what is needed. Learning to listen to when your stomach says you're full is crucial to keep one's weight down. For men, beer is the main culprit in weight gain as they grow older and lose muscle mass.

Although the need for excess food and alcohol is symptomatic of deeper problems -perhaps with self-worth or with feeling disconnected from others or God - anything that helps a person battle inner demons that put his or her health at risk is worth considering.

The answer to every problem is, ultimately, a spiritual solution. However, the human psyche is not often healed overnight, so one must be open to whatever other, temporary, help is available.

God created the people creating the diets and the surgery. Obviously both have a place in this world.

However, I believe there is far too much emphasis on dieting and looks than on learning to appreciate people for the quality of their characters.

If we were more focused on service, on giving and receiving the love within us through helping others in those ways in which we are each uniquely suited, we would be less interested in food.

Happy, busy people tend to be thinner. People full of appreciation for themselves, others, this world and God have little time for dissatisfaction with their weight or their noses.

God can see the quality of our souls. Once you really see your own inner beauty, what you look like, physically, will be less important. Then you will dress in celebration of your beautiful, authentic self instead of trying to appear acceptable to others.

Ultimately, it is more important to think lovely thoughts than to try and attain some standard of physical beauty, for that standard changes and is fleeting.

Think on beautiful things, think on the beauty of God and your soul, and you will appear to be more beautiful to others, no matter what you look like.

Beauty starts inside. The plastic surgeon may play a part, but most of the work is an inside job and our responsibility.

Whatsoever things are lovely, think on them. Philippians 4:8

Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify God. Matthew 5:16