Beauty comes in many shapes and forms. We’re an expression of it, so we too come in various shapes. Why then we believe that only a certain image of human body is beautiful? It seems like the whole society is under a spell, which is strengthened by media. I certainly don’t believe in this and I do my best to not to buy into this illusion. Sometimes I lapse back into the old way of thinking, that’s why I need reminders. I’d like to share this powerful reminder with you. This week it’s coming from an amazing woman – Aimee Mullins, who was born missing fibula bones and, as a result, had both of her legs amputated below the knee when she was a year old. This experience could easily crush her spirit yet it made her extraordinary and empowered woman.
She’s an outstanding role model for all of us for many reasons:
1. She breaks the stereotypes, provokes the senses and wakes the imagination by simply being the way she is.
2. She redefines the image of a beautiful woman.
3. She has reframed her experience and instead of allowing herself being portrayed as a disabled person, she sees herself as a person who shapes her body the way it suits her.
4. She teaches children and adults to change their outlook on disabled people.
5. She had put a call out to innovators to step forward and create better prosthetics. A lot of them answered that call and thanks to that there are more and far better prosthetic limbs to choose from.
6. She builds up others by saying that people who are perceived as disabled can become architects of their identity by designing their bodies from the place of empowerment.
7. Aimee encourages us to combine the cutting edge technology with poetry so we can move closer to understanding our collective humanity.
What is so amazing about Aimee is that she’s empowered and she transcends the obvious and takes us with her on the journey of discovering what being human means. She shows us that we are beautiful and we have a power to shape and change our reality.
She also points us to the understanding that we have an ability to be incredible and to rise above the standards our society sets for us. Aimee is not a victim of her condition, in contrary she makes the best of it and she goes even further and tells us we can do it too.
It doesn’t matter what we have, what matters is what we do with it. I believe that our highest potential is already within us. We don’t have to go and make ourselves better. We just need to tap into or connect with the highest version of who we are. There is a huge treasure buried in all of us, we just need to uncover it and use it. That’s what Aimee has done and she is teaching us how to do it by simply living as her amazing self. She reminds us: ‘’It’s our humanity and all of the potential within it that makes us beautiful.’’ We are beautiful and we are amazing – all of us, with no exception. Let’s just wake up to that realisation and live from it.
Photo credit: GA Shutter Bug