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 […]