This past weekend I ran across one of the best videos (a rap video no less) that I have ever seen! Honestly, if it hadn’t been for the title and the description of the video I would have never watched it as I’m not a fan of rap music! But it was the promise that the writer of the blog that I was reading made of a man telling the woman in his life that she was perfect just the way she already is that sparked my interest so I decided to watch the video.

A man telling a woman that she is perfect just the way she is? Truthfully, I have heard men say that before and I honestly think that men really do luv us just the way we are. Of course there seems to be some conflict between what they say to us and who they say is beautiful in magazines so what is an everyday woman to do?

We women put so much time into being physically beautiful: hair weaves/extensions ( not just African American women either), make-up, body shapers and all kinds of other sometimes burdensome “stuff” to make us feel and look beautiful. We spend so much money on products for our hair and skin and on the latest fashion all in an effort to “keep it together” and most of the time it is to attract the opposite sex!

Rarely do we wake up in the morning and look in the mirror and luv what we see! Our face in its natural glory! Our body with no body shaper on! Our hair ( possibly standing all over our heads)…everything about us!

I recently had a talk with myself after realizing that I had not totally accepted myself as I am. That is another post but the short of it is that I was trying to understand why I kept continuing a pattern of behavior in my life and after meditation and prayer I realized that the root of it was that I had not totally fallen in luv with me! I decided at that point that I was TOTALLY beautiful “JUST AS I AM” and took out my red lipstick that I use to write on my mirror with and wrote an affirmation of “just as I am” across the top of my mirror as a daily reminder to myself of how beautiful I really am! Inside and out!

On this Magnificent Monday morning ladies, no matter what color you  are, no matter what the size of your hips or breasts, no matter what your hair texture is, I encourage you to embrace YOU JUST THE WAY YOU ARE and to LUV you just the way you are! Let YOU be your standard of beauty and not some chick in a magazine that has been made up and airbrushed and called beautiful!

I take my hat off to Sha Shastimuli for this wonderful tribute to women everywhere and to the testament to our natural beauty! He gets it ladies, what are we waiting for?!