Many of us are concerned with how they look and appear. Searching for "beauty" here on HubPages alone will yield numerous hubs on the subject.

For some reason we appear to work towards this one ideal. We're looking for the way to find the right hairstyle for our face shape, get flawless skin, anti wrinkle treatments, etc. The list is infinite. And all of this, because we think our appearance is sub-standard.

But who sets the standard? Many of us will point to the cosmetic industry, the media and celebrityville. While we should point to ourselves. You and you alone decide what exactly is beautiful. You and you alone come to the verdict that you're not and thus need to improve.

There are many, many people who like the work of Pablo Picasso. I'm not one of them. Britney Spears has a lot of fans. I'm not one of them.

If there was one universal concept of beauty would there be so many directions in art or music?

I'm not going to present the five truths about beauty. I'm not going to give you the ten tips to improve your self-esteem. As the word says, it's self-esteem. You and nobody else will have to establish that.

You look around you, are surrounded day by day by images of what is beautiful. Your mailbox will tell you to enlarge your penis, get rid of fat fast. Television will show you how good it feels to be tight and strong.

You absorb all these messages and create your own image of perfection. Then you will project this image on yourself and find imperfections. People will tell you that it is ok to be chubby, it's ok to have a wrinkle or two and you will change your image of perfection and again project this image on yourself. And yet again, you will find imperfections.

You can try to mould your image of perfection until it finally fits. Or you can stop projecting and look at yourself.

Remember the Tao:

All under heaven see beauty as beauty only because they also see ugliness

There is no beauty without ugliness. Therefore accept beauty, accept ugliness and accept that you will have both.