Our new members, Kavita and Surin are the organizers and hosts for this month’s World Speakers’ Coalition Kuala Lumpur meeting held on the 17th.
The couple selected Chili’s at Jaya Shopping Center in Section 14, Petaling Jaya as January's venue and “True Allure Lies Beyond Appearance” was their choice of meeting theme.
As the theme suggests, allure is not only physical beauty.
The sad fact is that the idea of beauty has been turned into unattainable forms by media, trends, and marketing. To reach the social’s standard of beauty, many people have gone anorexic, bulimic, or have been addicted to plastic surgery.
Granted, external beauty wields immense social power and influence. Whether we agree or not, research shows attractive people are perceived as more sociable, dominant, sexually warm, intelligent, and socially skilled. They tend to have supposedly more dates, happier marriages, and higher salaries.
Yet despite the privileges beauty affords, good looks also harbor a dark side. Beauty standards and comparisons can damage self-image and lower self-worth. Constant pressure to look young and flawless breeds anxiety. As appearance inevitably changes with time, failing to meet unrealistic ideals can dent confidence.
I’m sure all of us recognise that beauty is fleeting. The transitory nature of our physical appearance reflects the ephemeral essence of life itself.
We naturally try to cling to things that give us pleasure and satisfaction – youth, beauty, health. But change is an undeniable law of the universe. Nothing in this life lasts forever. Our possessions, careers, relationships, even our bodies will eventually decline and disappear.
Contemplating impermanence can be sobering, but it also contains an uplifting message. If nothing lasts, we should appreciate the wonders of each present moment. Life is a continuously evolving process, not a fixed state. There is beauty to be found at every stage if we open our eyes.
Making peace with change allows us to accept our looks as they are, right now. As we age, our appearance will transform, but we can still radiate joy, wisdom and compassion. Our inner light need never fade.
And that’s what the theme is trying to tell us.
We should reduce reliance on validation from those around us based on appearance, which as we already know, is subjective. After all, our sense of worth actually stems from within.
Everyone appreciates kindness, loyalty, integrity, empathy, generosity, and compassion, for instance. Those outer characteristics fade in time, but the inner qualities endure for a lifetime.
What we've learned is this: You need to be the type of person that sees beauty in even mundane and ordinary situations. An average person might be ugly to the rest of the world but if you’re capable of seeing all their beauty, then that makes you different.
Even when you look at an inanimate object like a painting, or even a view of the ocean, it seems more beautiful to you because you see the beauty that overflows within you reflect in everything else around you. And that’s when you’ll realize that the ability to see beauty comes from within yourself.
Knowing our members, we all unanimously agreed that indeed, true allure lies beyond appearance. It can be said that the maturity and wisdom and sophistication of the attendees that evening was very much self-evident!
#theartandscienceofrhetoric
#confidentcommunication
#communicationinnovations
#worldspeakerscoalition
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