Take a picture of your face and remember that, in ten years, you will be amazed at how gorgeous you WERE.

Be Amazed Now.

Those are lines from a poem I wrote, which I find myself, more often than I care to admit, needing to remember.

I dare you to see your own beauty. RIGHT NOW. I dare myself, as well.

Can you do it? Be amazed now. Not later. Not years from now.

Nobody wants to get to the end of their life and say, “I wish I’d realized I was beautiful. I wish I saw it.”

Why is it so hard for us to recognize our beauty? What if now is all we have? I’m pretty sure it is. There’s a new popular phrase floating around the web. YOLO. You. Only. Live. Once. Unlike some of the memes and quotes that get posted daily on our news feeds, this one is truer than true.

I started this campaign months ago, and the response has been amazing. For many a woman, posting a picture of her own face and allowing herself to recognize her own beauty was far out of her comfort zone. They had never looked at themselves as beautiful before. They had been taught not to acknowledge their own beauty. Much as I spoke about last week on my birthday when I invited people to celebrate themselves.

Whatever the reason, this isn’t always easy for people. To see the beauty within themselves.

I promise you this: You will look back and wonder why you didn’t see it. Tell me that you have not looked back on a photo where, at the time, you thought you were [fill in the blank here with whatever suits you: fat, ugly, old, tired, boring] and seen in that photo someone beautiful. Tell me you have not shaken your fists at the sky asking Why? Why didn’t I see it then? What was clouding my vision?

What will it take to recognize your beauty now rather than in ten years time?

I bow to all the people (mainly women so far) who have had the courage to post a picture of their face, up close and personal. I know how scary it can be to look at ourselves. I still hide sometimes from my own reflection. How silly is that? What have we been taught, and can we undo this?

I say yes.

What if we don’t like what we see? What if other people don’t like it? What if? What if?

Oh, the world of what if banging at the door. Hammering away until it’s all we know. The what ifs climbing the walls and sleeping in bed with us. The what ifs will swallow us whole if we let them, so the key is to look the what if in the eye and say “What if I am beautiful right now? What then?”

Take a picture of your face and remember that, in ten years time, you will be amazed at how gorgeous you WERE. Be amazed Now.

I dare you.

Take the #mybeautynow challenge. 

Post a picture of your face on my Facebook page or Instagram (or below in comment section) and use hashtag ‪#‎mybeautynow so we can find it!

Take a picture of your face. The world eagerly awaits your beauty. Go. Post your picture. #mybeautynow
@JenPastiloff (Click to Tweet!)

Your future self will thank you. I thank you. 

Jen will be leading Manifestation Writing/Yoga retreat at Kripalu Center in Massachusetts in February 2014 as well as her annual retreat to Tuscany July 2014. She travels around the country leading her signature Manifestation Workshops. Check out her site jenniferpastiloff.com for all retreat listings.