Behold the Beauty in Life’s Hardships

The lotus flower is a remarkable blossom that grows from the depths of muddied, murky waters, arising to the surface speckles and unstained by the mud from which it grew.

Lotus flowers have important symbolic ties to many Asian religions, especially throughout India. The lotus flower starts out as a tiny bud at the bottom of a pond in the mud and muck. It triumphantly grows upward towards the waters surface unflinchingly moving towards the sunlight.  Once it arrives to the surface of the water, the lotus flower’s petals open and it becomes a beautiful flower.

There is nothing about the flower that would indicate that it stands before you, having risen from sludge and mire.  The lotus flower symbolizes the struggles in life in its most basic form.  Even the most benign of struggles offer lessons to be authenticated and translated into our daily lives.  Human beings do not walk around the Earth with evidence of their struggles, unless they have a lotus flower tattoo, of course!  Compassion for all beings is an important value, as you never know the struggles someone has endured just by gazing at them.

There is always beauty to be found where you might otherwise expect to find something ordinary or even unappealing.  Yet, in nature all things are beautifully unusual and uncommon.  In the same way that people whether emotional storms in their personal life, so does beauty spring from uncommon places.  This is reflected as the lotus flower blossoms from the mud, unscathed by the swampy muck from which it was birthed.  Take comfort in the process of enlightenment, like the lotus flower that reaches for the light through darkness.  The lotus roots are cemented in the swamp.  Similarly, our past remains inside of us.  The symbolic flower’s stem endures the muddy bath of life and still welcomes the beauty of its flower.  After entering the world through only hardship, the lotus flower teaches us to spring forth with the beauty of overcoming.

Heidegger philosophized: “returning to the deepest truth of our being can bring us back to ourselves.”  This philosophy is reflected in the growth cycle of the lotus flower.  Each night, its pristine petals close as it retreats beneath the water, only to rise again from the mud, remaining pristine.  This translates to me that life is long, and the lessons in life may need to be relearned and hardships experienced more than once in order to benefit from the wisdom accrued.  Therefore, we dip back down into the depths of our own mucky waters and arise rejuvenated and enlightened upon breaking through to the surface.  Behold the beauty in life’s hardships.

Beauty Recipe: Lotus Flower From the Mud Mask, courtesy of Elizabeth TenHouten

Fuller’s Earth has a texture similar to clay.  It is highly absorbent of oils, and for that reason it is great for people with oily skin to use as a purifying mask to rid your skin of blackheads and comedones (whiteheads).  Just as the flower arises toward the sky in a pure state, grown from the mud, so is this mud mask going to reveal your purified skin.

Ingredients:

2 tablespoons Fuller’s Earth

2 tablespoons Plain Non-fat Yogurt

4 drops of Lotus Flower Essential Oil

Combine Fuller’s Earth with yogurt and add drops of lotus flower essential oil.  Mix until the texture is like mud.  Apply to your face for 10 minutes and rinse with warm water and then a splash of cool water to seal your pores.

*Fuller’s Earth and Lotus Flower Essential Oil can both be purchased at your local health food store.