Arianna's Random Thoughts are Full of Awesome

Arianna Merritt is beautiful. Upon getting to know Arianna, we found ourselves wanting to spend more time around her inspiring, thoughtfulness. Her blog, Arianna's Random Thoughts, includes posts that aren't random at all. They're moving and thought-provoking and empowering. Her writing reflects invitations to others to embrace the day and enjoy the beauty in it. We love that. We admire her. And we're happy to feature her as our See Beautiful Woman of the Month for June! 

 By Arianna Merritt

I truly believe we all possess the ability to see the beautiful things in the world. If one looks closely, beauty is everywhere.

Seeing beauty in the world starts with seeing beauty in oneself.  This is a hard fact to realize: you don’t need to go find beauty; you take it with you wherever you go. Sometimes, however, we can have blinders on that prevent us from seeing beauty. Or, the blinders allow us to focus only on certain aspects of it.

To be beautiful and see beautiful, one needs to develop the strength to keep these blinders off permanently.

That is what happened to me.

I was a free spirit until these “blinders” were put on me unconsciously in my early teens.  As a result, I switched my focus to caring about what others thought rather than listening to my own voice. I let the media and my peers control the standard of beauty that I was judging myself on.  Therefore, my vision of beauty became extremely limited. 

The teenage years were the hardest for me, as I placed too much emphasis on “fitting in” with the “right” crowd, and I ended up silencing myself. I was criticized by fellow classmates, and I did not have the strength to reject these comments.  Consequently, I struggled with my body image and self-esteem. These were the “dark” years for me, when I spent most of my time hiding and not letting my inner light shine.

I hid my talent, my body, and my voice, because I didn’t want to stand out and be judged.

This continued until my early twenties.  Then something happened:  I’m not sure how, but my blinders came off.  The change came from within.  The light inside switched on. This time, I’m not going to let it dim.

All obstacles occur in our lives to teach us lessons.  I learned the hard way that beauty comes from within, and we take it with us everywhere we go. I am incorporating this lesson into all the work I do - through my graduate studies, coaching, sport, and blog, Arianna’sRandom Thoughts.

As my blog’s mission statement says:

 My light was almost extinguished. Don’t let yours be. Make the choice, every instance, to shine brightly by seeing beauty in yourself and the world - by being you! 

To read more of Arianna's Random (and awesome) Thoughts, click HERE.

To tweet with her, click HERE.

To follow on Facebook, click HERE. 
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Are you looking for a for a tangible reminder to see beautiful, or know someone who needs one? Check out our See Beautiful™ products (and feel good knowing a portion of proceeds from every purchase is donated to charity. This month a portion of all proceeds will be donated to Surf Dog Ricochet's SURFice Projects. Click HERE.