Walking the Beauty Path
In my first post, I mentioned that throughout my life, I’ve followed a “Beauty Path” dedicated to the discovery and experience of beauty wherever I can find it. This path has taken shape over many years of individual exploration and research devoted to fostering my own psychological and spiritual growth, as well as that of my clients in my work as a psychologist. That journey has blessed me with many experiences of beauty’s healing and transformative power.
Photo by Bernd Dittrich. Unsplash
My personal Beauty Path has not been related to any formal system and has no clearly definable stages or easily measured markers of success, though in retrospect, I’m able to discern both. A disclaimer: I privately used the name “beauty path” for my experience long before I discovered the traditional Navajo-Diné concept of a “beauty way path.” I discuss the Navajo-Diné’s more encompassing concept in my recent book Awakening to Aphrodite’s Light: Love, Beauty & the Divine Feminine. What follows is a short excerpt from that book that illustrates how I chose to purposefully attend to the beauty around me and allowed a deep experience of that beauty to transform my negative emotions into ones of appreciation, gratitude, and a sense of peace.
In early 2020 when I initially heard that a dangerous virus was loose in the world and that immediate and drastic action needed to be taken by everyone everywhere to combat it, like most people, I was taken aback and fearful. But I also felt skeptical about the story being put forth by the media and the government (in my case, the Canadian government) about a deadly global pandemic. I clearly remember the moment in March of that year when a friend and I turned to each other and agreed there was something fishy about that narrative. It seemed too quickly established, too slick, and too coordinated. It took some months before I would begin to see the bigger picture and understand why events had unfolded as they had.
I am generally an optimistic and resilient person, and I strive to maintain a high spiritual vibration, but as increased restrictions were put into place and I learned more about the nefarious driving forces behind them, I began to feel afraid for my own and our collective future. The official predictions of mass infection and casualties didn’t ring true to me, and I was not worried that either I or my loved ones would become ill, but I did grow more and more concerned about the loss of our civil rights and liberties.
Thankfully, I found a number of alternative internet-based news sources that explored those concerns in depth, as well as much else about the pandemic and the more general world situation. That information was crucial in helping me connect the dots about what was going on, but it was also often frightening and depressing. I soon realized I needed to find something else to focus on to shift my energy when my thoughts started to spiral downward.
As I have done before when I have felt troubled, I turned to beauty—this time as an antidote to the dark and often shocking truths I was encountering in my internet deep dives. Discovering and celebrating beauty has not only been a constant source of pleasure in my life but has reliably provided comfort when I have needed it. So, on the first day of spring 2020 (an auspicious day for starting something new), I began a Beauty Diary. Every day I would seek out an experience of beauty. That experience might be one that overtly involved my senses—the brilliant pink and orange palette of a sunset over the ocean or the perfume of an abundant yellow rose bush I passed on a meandering neighborhood walk—or one that involved other people such as an uplifting talk with a simpatico friend or a video by someone who was sharing a controversial perspective—an example of beautiful courage.
My diary entries varied in length, but they all served the purpose of directing my attention to what felt positive and healing in the midst of the chaos, confusion, and fear I was watching build around me. I ceased keeping the diary after a few months but only when I felt more spiritually centered, felt sure that salutary and concrete outer changes were underway (that the forces of light were slowly but surely overcoming the forces of darkness), and when I decided to turn my attention to writing [my] book, an experience that in itself allowed me to immerse myself in the subject of beauty. But I have not stopped scanning my environment for examples of beauty—nor do I expect I ever will—either for the simple pleasure of doing so or if I need to connect with a greater spiritual healing power.
I hope you’ll walk the Beauty Path with me. I look forward to hearing your thoughts and discoveries along the way.
Awakening to Aphrodite’s Light: Love, Beauty & the Divine Feminine is available through major online booksellers.
This post was originally published on Substack.