Try saying, “I am beautiful.”

Uncomfortable most likely.

Maybe it’s the word beautiful that’s the problem. What does it even mean? By definition, the word beauty has something to do with being aesthetically pleasing. It can be used to label pretty much anything. An idea can be beautiful, as can an elegant solution to a thorny problem. Someone can have a beautiful heart. A room can be beautiful. A song can be beautiful. The sound of a bird chirping or whales singing in the ocean…these are beautiful. A moment of forgiveness can be beautiful.

Beauty is not just in the eye of the beholder, but in the ear and the tastebuds and the memory and the history of the beholder too. Heavy metal music can be beautiful to someone but straight up noise to someone else. Slate gray on a wall can accentuate clean lines that make a room beautiful for one person but feel freezing and depressing to another who likes warm yellows and reds. Enjoying a craft beer with friends can be a beautiful afternoon for one person, while it would be an exhausting and frustrating experience to another who’d rather sit alone with a book and a latte. A poem can be beautiful to someone while to someone else, it’s a collection of words that’s irritatingly difficult to understand.

Still, one thing is definitely true: when we consider something beautiful, we value it. It matters to us. We treat it better, with more love and respect.

You see where I’m going with this: anything beautiful we take care of. We love and respect it.

Including ourselves.

But believing we’re beautiful can feel strange. We’re taught that it’s vain to think of ourselves as beautiful, valuable, worth nurturing with a positive, loving, and kind self-image. A “good” person is selfless (this usually comes from those counting on our selflessness). A “good” person takes time for themselves only if (and that’s a big if) there’s any left over after they’ve taken care of everyone else. A “good” person doesn’t shop for themselves and if they do, they feel appropriately guilty and make sure to buy something for someone else because thinking only of yourself is so…well, selfish.

The inability to say, “I am beautiful” morphs into other forms of self-disrespect. It makes it impossible to trust ourselves and know our ideas have merit. We don’t believe that our honest reactions are valid. We doubt that our likes and dislikes are real and worthy. We question whether our boundaries should be respected.

The truth is, beautiful someone, that we are entitled to look, think, talk, love, believe, and create authentically, boldly. We don’t need to conform to anything, any external standard, in order to be acceptable.

In fact, the less we worry about fitting in and going along, the more beautiful we are.

And the more uniquely beautiful we become.

You, Beautiful has three parts, each taking on a different but essential approach to growing more beautiful from the inside-out through every choice and every experience.

• Self-care: Prioritize your well-being
• Self-love: Feel as beautiful as you are
• Self-esteem: Live with power and confidence

So here’s our awakening for this moment: self-care, self-love, and self-esteem are the literal foundations of confident, healthy relationships, families, workplaces, and communities. Because only people who have high levels of self-awareness and emotional, physical, and spiritual health can give these things away to others.

That’s us, beautiful someone. And it’s now.