How to live a beautiful life

Because I want to live a beautiful life….

Find someone to love and take care of them.

Life is only beautiful when there is love in it. If you want to have a beautiful life, you need to have someone to love. It is most probable you already have many people to love, but even if that seems overwhelming, just start with one. Love someone consciously. Treat it as your duty to love them. Look out for them in the world, take care of them, be a supporter of their life. As you learn how to love consciously, allow yourself to love more people. Discover what love means to you and how you express love. Let your life be an experiment to determine how to love perfectly. The by-product of this kind of experiment can only be beauty.

Be loveable.

I believe that if you want to be loved, you must be loveable. When you focus on making yourself into someone who can be loved, and is open to being loved, you start to fall in love with yourself and take care of yourself. When you use the spaces in your life to make yourself  the kind of person who is easy to love just because of who you are, your life is going to light up in a beautiful way.

Create something beautiful.

If you want to be a part of the beautifulness in the world, you must also do your part to contribute to the beauty. What can you create that is beautiful? What do you find beautiful? It may through music, art, movement, literature, ideas, projects, products – but whatever it is – it must be creative. Whatever you find beautiful, learn how to create it. Contribute to the beautiful and you will deserve to be a part of it.

See the blessing in every situation.

Beautiful lives are not exempt from hardships and trials. But beauty is found in the subtleties. Try to see the blessings in every aspect of your life. When you focus on picking out the blessings, you start to see the beautiful as it unfolds not only in your darkest days, but in every single day.

Believe in something.

It doesn’t matter what your religious faith is. Just have some kind of connection to what is meaningful to you. Have magic within you that is untouchable by anyone or anything.

Give to others.

We are all born as takers. As a child we take all the nurturing that we can get from our parents, and don’t think about what we can give back. As we grow up, we learn to compromise and shift roles – sometimes giving and sometimes taking. Sometimes it can get easy to get caught up being a taker. Make a conscious shift to becoming a giver. Of course, don’t give up on ‘taking’ – because taking is just as important as giving – just focus more on the giving part of things, because sometimes taking can happen a little bit easier.

And by giving and taking, I am not talking about gifts. I am talking some of the other things we can give and take – like care, attention, affection, responsibility.

Have beautiful things and value them.

It can be difficult to notice the beautiful things around you if your life is cluttered with other things you don’t value. What do you want a beautiful collection of? For example, I want a beautiful collection of books. I also really value and appreciate buying occasional products from Marks & Spencer’s grocery store (a slightly upmarket grocery store that have really great quality things in beautiful packaging! aaah!). I know others who really value beautiful clothes or shoes, or furniture, or flowers, or make up, or music collection – it is entirely personal.

So decide what kind of beautiful things you want. Then value them and take care of them.

And slowly and step by step, start getting rid of the other stuff.

Create a beautiful living space.

Wherever you live, you can make it beautiful. Make your space beautiful.

Look beautiful.

Take care of yourself, accentuate your beauty, look after your body, dress well, and show up to your beautiful life. Feel beautiful.

Travel.

Explore the world and other cultures. Open your eyes and your mind and immerse yourself in how other cultures do things differently to you. Watch the sun rise in another country. Climb mountains, swim in different oceans, star gaze, walk through the city streets. Discover what people on the other side of the world see when they open their bedroom windows in the morning.

Treat others well.

Make it your truth that no matter where you go and what you do and who you meet, you will always treat other people well and with respect. You can’t be cruel to people and simultaneously live a self-proclaimed “beautiful life”. It doesn’t feel that beautiful. So treat people well.

Do things outside of your routine.

A beautiful life is a life that is a harmonious balance between a steady and stable routine, and the occasional magical surprise. Make sure you occasionally step outside your routine to do something you wouldn’t always do. Something strange and beautiful. If we all lived inside our routines and habits all the time, we close the door on to a different kind of beautiful that you can’t see from your living room.

Be healthy.

If you want to have a beautiful life, focus on health. You may not be healthy all the time, but you can focus on becoming the healthiest and most vital version of yourself. Treat your body well. Take care of yourself when you are sick. Ask your body what changes you can make to take care of it better.

Have a purpose.

Have a sense of purpose, a direction in life. That doesn’t mean you have to have it all figured out all the time, because some days you don’t, and some days you won’t. And on those days your purpose can be just to be here. To be present. To experience yourself. To take a step forward, in the right direction.

Having a purpose means more than always knowing exactly where you’re going. Having a purpose means realizing that you matter, and that you make a positive impact on the world.

When you know that you matter, and when you know for sure that you are making a positive impact on the world, then you will know that you are living a beautiful life.