Note the use of the word "taking" in place of "making." This busy, chaotic world we live in has left us all struggling to make time - literally forcing us to over-schedule every last nanosecond of our day, barely leaving room for sleep. People (women in particular) are scheduling "me" time, scheduling date nights with their spouses, scheduling meals, scheduling sleep. The average "busy" person has little room left for spontaneity these days, let alone the things we actually need or want.
This quote is stuck in my mind because it applies to me and reminds me that I need to start reclaiming more of my own time. I often find myself waiting that extra week to do my nails when they already look terrible, or cutting corners from my beauty routine by not taking the time to give myself mini-facials once a week. I neglect doing my hair, usually just throwing it into a messy bun every day. Hell, I only even wear makeup on the weekends. But it's not just the exterior stuff either: there's the studying I put off, the organization, the phone calls...Working out makes me feel so much better too and I let myself fall into these phases where I work too late, often hours I'm not even getting paid for, and then I come home, cook, clean, and go to bed beating myself up for wasting my own precious time.
I think many of us (especially women) are afraid to take the time - we feel selfish, we feel guilty, and we hate the resounding feeling of failure when we neglect other more important things. Then when we find ourselves in a rut, struggling with self-image issues and wondering how it got "like this," dissatisfied with the way we look and feel and packing on the extra pounds, we wonder why. We have stopped taking the time we need to look and feel our best.
Translate that however you want - it could mean not going to the gym or exercising at home, not fitting in a walk before dinner, it could mean not getting enough sleep, it could mean delaying that massage or chiropractic adjustment you've been needing, it could mean forgetting how much you love yoga and failing to squeeze in even ten minutes from the cable exercise channel, it could mean not cooking healthier because it takes more time than heating up quick, frozen meals, it could mean holding off on buying that new outfit you need because there's barely room in your budget for groceries. I'm not saying ignore your priorities. But I am saying that looking and feeling your best are correlated, and we neglect ourselves more than anything else these days.
So the quote doesn't have to be about existing as a beautiful woman, I'd like to think it's about being a beautiful person. And not beautiful in the skin-deep, superficial, hair-and-makeup sense, but beautiful in the happy-and-healthy-from-the-inside-out sense. Start taking that time, because it's yours, and no one else is going to take it for you - they'll just take it from you.
