Welcome July and welcome back from your long holiday weekends! I am honored to kick off this month as your host of the Self-Discovery Word by Word Blogger Series.

This months word is

Beauty

I know a lot of us have different meanings and emotional attachments to this word, but today I want to get a bit controversial and talk about Beauty in the context of blogging.

Recently, Eden (my newest blog obsession) wrote a post about the beautiful people.  She got all dolled up one day, went to a grocery store and got hit on like 87 times.  The discussion that followed couldn’t help but make me wonder . . .

Is life better when you look better? 

Do you get more opportunities?

Do you get more doors held for you?

Or perhaps more page views?

When I started blogging, I knew very little about anything.  I followed those who exuded beauty in every way.  The physically attractive, the ones that had opportunities I can only dream of, and the ones that seemed to have everything so well put together. It was my belief that if I followed the beautiful, then I would have a similar life. 

Day after day I would read posts about people doing things that interested me as much as a thumbtack and it wasn’t long before something began to feel off.  I started to feel bad about myself for not having certain things in my life.  I felt ashamed because my inner self cringed at running more than 3 miles or because I couldn’t afford airfare for quick getaways.  Lets face it, I didn’t fit in this way.

After grieving and accepting this fact, I thankfully realized that beauty in blogging meant almost the exact opposite of what I originally thought and I cant tell you how freeing that is. There is nothing wrong with me or my blog (or the others) and I have everything I need.  I would even venture to say that everything is beautiful in its own way around here. And so these days I only follow those who exude my very own definition of blog beauty . . .

Why I Think YOUR Blog Exudes Beauty

Your Honest – you don’t body pump as often as you “should”, you make out with strangers, you drink yourself into a coma sometimes, you curse like a fuckin sailor, you binged on all that AND a bag of chips, you realized that putting a smoothie in a bowl and topping it with the trendiest granola is well,  kind of ridiculous.  Its OK! Its real . . .

You Don’t Preach – I gotta be honest here, every time I see the GOD word and its not in the “Oh My God” context, I’m totally turned off.  I get that religion is a big part of some of your lives but as someone who believes something totally different … its kind of hard to read without clicking out immediately. A little bit is ok but a lot is not. Maybe I am being a big jerk here but refer to #1 

You Make Me Laugh – some of you are friggin hilarious!  I cant tell you how awesome it is to laugh at loud at a post.  The people that make me feel like I am out to lunch with them, cracking up and snorting have my beautiful blog vote for sure. 

You Don’t Have It All Figured Out – I happen to love reading the lives of people who are still messed up a bit, including myself!  When you hear that its about the journey and not the destination . . . its so true especially in this context! If your destination is to just eat and exercise, where are you going?  How can you mess that up?  Where are the train wrecks that go along with the trophies?

I know there is obviously a huge market for the just eater/exerciser blogs and I give them props for being successful, but if that’s not truly you then don’t try to be that way. There are many other blog markets and niches out there and you can even create your own!

You Teach Me Something – To go along with my last point,  if you are an eater/exercise blog, then I kind of need something more for me to read.  Maybe you belong to a cool organization, or are training for something you never thought you would ever do.  Maybe your going to culinary school or changing lives with your words. Maybe you own your own business or are going through something similar as me and I like hearing I’m not alone, or maybe your just a cool mom. Again, there is nothing WRONG with just eating/exercising blogs . . . I’m just saying its not always what I enjoy reading.

Your YOU – I think this boils down the previous reasons but it is the ultimate. No matter how attractive you are or how perfect your life isn’t, you are beautiful if you are your authentic self, period.  People WILL want to hear what you have to say.  You WILL create a following. You WILL get opportunities that are right for you. The people that support you are the people that matter most and those happen to be the people that know of your true Beauty . . . .

If you would like to participate in this months series, write a post about Beauty.  What does it mean to you?  What doesn’t it mean?  Anything that strikes a chord.  At the end of the month I will do a post round-up so we can all share our thoughts. Don’t have a blog?  No problem! Email me val@balancingval.com with your posts, links or questions

. . . or hate mail because your mad that I’m a smoothie in a bowl hating atheist.