Once, beauty surrounded us in our daily lives. Cities were built with care, full of character. Streets were lined with trees and buildings were meant to be beautiful (think of Gaudí in Spain). But today, these ideas have been forgotten. Our cities have grown greyer and nature is full of garbage and pollution. Even our homes are increasingly smaller and impersonal.
In this shift, something deeper has been lost.
We’ve not just forgotten outer beauty, but gentleness too.
Yet our need for beauty hasn’t disappeared. It’s simply moved. In the absence of it in our surroundings, many of us turn to ourselves. We seek it in our own bodies, sometimes obsessively. “Beauty enhancement” has become the norm: nail art, hair dye, cosmetic procedures. These are not inherently bad. The issue isn’t with the procedures themselves or with the people making them.
The deeper issue is this: human beings need beauty. When we’re no longer surrounded by it in our daily lives (in nature, in architecture, in art or in kindness) we search for it elsewhere. And often, the only place left is our bodies.
I’ve started to think about this when I was young…
My first trip to India at fourteen, and then to Brazil at sixteen (both with my father) left a deep impression on me. What struck me wasn’t just the vibrancy of those places, but how even the poorest communities were filled with beauty. In the colours of their clothes, in their jewellery, in the way people decorated their modest homes. I had never thought about that before. I had always assumed beauty was something extra, a luxury. But it wasn’t. It was essential.
Later, when I was studying Fashion Design, I was reminded of that truth again. While studying the history of clothing, I learned that across centuries and continents, people have used what they wear for expression (of power, of belonging or of beauty). Clothes are not a protection for our bodies. In some cultures, people wear almost no clothing at all, but still adorn themselves with accessories or some sort of body “decoration”. It’s not only about function. It’s about meaning.
So what does beauty give us? Why do we need it?
Maybe beauty is a form of dignity. Maybe it helps us say: I matter. This place matters.
It’s not about wealth or vanity. It’s about making something (around us or on us) feel intentional. Beauty has always been part of how humans survive – not just physically, but spiritually.
We don’t want to “just live”. We want to live beautifully.
Maybe it’s time to bring beauty back into the spaces around us, not just in our mirrors. In our cities, our homes, our daily rituals, and in how we treat one another. Because if we don’t find beauty in one place, we’ll go searching for it in another.
That’s one of the reasons I started creating and sharing my mandalas. Each one is a small invitation to pause, to breathe, and to reconnect with yourself, with stillness and with beauty. They’re not just drawings or decorations. They’re reminders. That even in a chaotic, noisy world, beauty still matters. Maybe now more than ever.
So I offer them as little windows. As something quiet, something beautiful, something intentional to bring into your space and into your day.
Let’s choose to surround ourselves with beauty again. One mandala at a time.