Long Live You! by Jane Michael

Author:Jane Michael [Michael, Jane Wilkens]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781938170539
Publisher: Spry Publishing LLC

RUNG 5

Beauty

“Nothing makes a woman more beautiful than the belief that she is beautiful.”

—Sophia Loren

Look Good to Feel Better

My mother, Emily, was one of the world’s great beauties. So much so that Estée Lauder, her close friend, followed her to Havana on her honeymoon to test her sun creams on her flawless complexion. Of course, it’s never easy being the daughter of somebody that gorgeous. “Jane would be beautiful if she just combed her hair,” I remember her telling others when I was a teenager. (Thanks, Mom!) But she also told me, “Take good care of yourself, sweetheart, ’cause you are the only self you have!” Needless to say, her advice was always correct and way ahead of its time. And her knowledge of all things beauty became my legacy as well.

Aside from writing the first-ever books on spas, Emily wrote two more pioneering primers on beauty and grooming. “Every girl has the potential for beauty,” she believed. And as a founder and member of the Board of Trustees of the prestigious Fashion Institute of Technology in New York City, she created the Emily Wilkens Chair in External Impressions to help students, as she said at the time, “find new beauty, contentment, health, and confidence about who they are and what they looked like.” She also believed that a happy person has a glow to her skin that was undeniable. And that a lack of enthusiasm for life wrinkles your soul.

This program was the precursor to today’s concept of the makeover. I still recall being amazed by the before- and after-photos she brought home. In her workshop, she simplified the process of self-improvement. Point by point, she corrected misconceptions about grooming (a word used in those times), solved seemingly unsolvable problems, and turned negative attitudes into positive ones. Just by standing up straighter, changing hair and makeup, and having a heightened sense of self-esteem, her students’ physical appearance improved noticeably.

“Beauty is also an attitude,” she would say. “Yes, life happens. But it doesn’t have to show on your skin. And you are only as beautiful as you think you are. When you walk into a room, hold your head up high. The secret is to visualize yourself as the most important person in the entire place, the person that everyone else wants to see—and be! If you imagine it vividly enough, you will become that person.” Above all, she emphasized that everyone should work on inner beauty, and that didn’t cost a thing. “Smile,” she would say, “take a brisk walk, read to enrich your mind, and relax! Worry, like stress, drains beauty!”

The effectiveness of this concept was further brought to light for me when I was writing the “Beauty Talk” column for Town & Country magazine. During that time, I became involved with a cosmetic and fragrance industry initiative called “Look Good Feel Better” that helped women cancer patients improve their appearance and self-image by teaching them hands-on beauty techniques. The very valid assumption was that when survivors were able to see themselves in a more positive light, the healing process would get a big boost.

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