1. Look in the mirror just once a day.
Look at yourself just before you leave the house to make sure you look the way you want. Any more than this is unnecessary. You know what you look like and any tweak to this throughout the day will be too minimal to change your beauty fundamentally.
There's that funny scene in
Bridget Jones' Diary where she goes on a "mini-break" in a convertible and arrives with her hair in a tangled beehive. This, of course, may warrant a look in the mirror but ultimately just adds to a charming sense of adventure.
2. Smile.
As a woman, I cannot count the amount of times some man - mostly a stranger on the street - says "smile!" to me. I always found it condescending, but now I just find it annoying in this ever-evolving haven for perverts known as NYC. Ultimately, what it comes down to is that smiling changes your inner mood as well as your outer "vibe". There are undoubtedly countless scientific studies, but try it and feel your beauty pulsate.
3. Shave off all your hair.
This one can be tough for any women, particularly heterosexual women since men are so visual generally. A woman may feel hideous at first, but I have seen this action free so many women that it's impact cannot be denied. Think about the rapunzel, long-haired, beauty cliche and then think of being freed from that. Lesbians often chop all their hair off when "coming out" as one of the biggest outer statements that they can make - hey world, hey men, check THIS out! And it works, tenfold. I advise any woman to do it when she feels in a rut or finds herself feeling inferior to other women. All of a sudden she is at a level playing field. The pressure's off, so to speak. It really puts a woman in a vacuum for all intents and purposes. Sure, she is still a woman and is still attractive to people -- which is precisely the point. Her beauty can now shine and grow from a very pure place, as outside from society's boundaries as one can get without moving away and living in a cave.
4. Exfoliate.
Snakes shed their skin. We are not snakes, but we are constantly attempting to shed dead skin without even being aware. Doing it manually with a scrub in the shower just intensifies the process and your feeling of beauty.
5. Do yoga.
I am not a guru or someone selling a yoga video, I swear. I just cannot allow this one to be left out. Do a sun salutation for five minutes and tell me you don't feel like a source of light, or at least permeated by it.
6. Accept a compliment.
7. Go out for a walk in the sunshine.
Yes, even the most vampiric of us all benefit from a little sun and a little stroll. Imagine you are taking a carefree stroll purely for your amusement, that it was a hundred or more years ago - and now you can go out unchaperoned and everything! Really feel the independence that generations of women have fought for and feel your own beauty through them.
8. Talk to yourself.
I know this may make you feel like an old crazy lady with 8 cats, but really voice something that you wouldn't otherwise tell anyone. If you voice your taboos or your fears, you empower and free yourself.
Stay tuned for 9 & 10...
