No matter what age or size we are, most girls and women continually ask themselves, "What can I do to feel more beautiful?" I have found that all women, even the ones that are outwardly attractive, fail to see and feel the real beauty that exists within us all. The key to seeing and feeling this inner beauty is to develop a bond with our soul.

My journey to feeling beautiful was painful at best and sabotaged by my upbringings at worst. I experienced many physical beatings as a child that included the rantings and ravings of how fat and ugly I was. As impressionable as I was as a child, as we all are, I believed it wholeheartedly. To make matters more difficult, I grew to 5'7" before I was twelve years old, and with my brown hair and eyes, I felt like a giant ugly duckling.

As a young woman I was offered many opportunities to model but I totally lacked the self-image and self-confidence to pursue these offers and chose to specialize in helping other women look beautiful through the beauty and fashion industries.

As I embarked on my healing and spiritual journey, I learned to connect with my soul and to being committed to living as my soul as often as I could. Over time, it became very natural for me to identify with my soul and feel its beauty growing inside of me. It was at this time that I could actually look at myself in the mirror, and rather than cringe at what I saw, I smiled and felt grateful for the vessel that my body was, a vessel to house my soul and spirit, that I my live more fully and full of joy.

There are many things we can do to develop this kind of relationship with our soul but before I share them with you I feel it is imperative for you to understand some key components to feeling beautiful now.

The three components we need to work on and develop are:

1. Self-image- Seeing ourselves as beautiful in the present moment at all times.

2. Self-esteem- Thinking and feeling all that is beautiful about ourselves and others first and foremost.

3. Self-confidence- Expressing our beautiful selves boldly in areas that speak to our hearts, without any concern for the approval or validation of others.

At any point in time, when you are lacking in these areas, it is helpful to relax any judgments or attachments to what is being felt, thought or seen and instead simply witness what is going on for you, as you would witness the same in a complete stranger. This will serve to release the hold that any negativity would have on you re-claiming the beautiful you that is real, authentic there only hidden by your current perceptions.

To intensify and solidify this real beauty within, look to your soul to guide you and help you reveal the hidden treasure of you. Your soul is by her very nature based on beauty, joy, and a perfection of being that is unshakeable once it is revealed, from the inside and out.

To develop this connection and bond with your soul here are some strategies and tips to help you:

1. Before you go to sleep, ask your soul to guide you, through your dreams, to ways that you can easily connect with and get to know yourself at the soul level.

2. When you awake, call your soul to you. Sense your soul all around your physical being as a brilliant white light and then a feel a connection between the heart of your soul and your own heart chakra. A visual that works for this is to see your soul's heart as a diamond that fits into the center of your heart chakra that is a jewel of thousands of petals opening up more and more as you make this connection. Now ask your soul to sound its note of joy, love and beauty for the remainder of the day. You will become transformed by this connection and your outer world will reflect the inner beauty that is you.

3. Commit to living as your soul. As you resonate with the vibrations of your soul this will be easier to do and making choices and decisions, moment to moment, will reflect the wisdom, beauty and love of your soul more often than not.

4. Seek to integrate your soul with your personality. Visualize a white light coming from your soul's heart pouring into your heart center. Draw this light up to your head center and back down again to your heart; creating a continual motion of light between the two centers - you may feel a slight hum and this is very normal. Sit with this sensation for a few minutes and repeat silently to yourself "with this light and the guidance of my soul I choose to live by the guidance of a wise heart and a loving mind at all times".

You will be guided by your soul to new experiences, places and people that are more in alignment with the beauty of your soul and that will reflect the real beauty of you. It will become easier for you to feel and identify with your inherent beauty and any outer beauty concerns are transformed in the process, be it physically, mentally, and emotionally or all three.

Copyright (c) 2009 Dawn McIntyre