Cinderella. The name itself immediately conjures up an image of a beautiful princess dressed in fancy clothes, attending a ball, and winning the prince. It seems every culture and country has a tale featuring a downtrodden maiden who somehow is transformed overnight into a raving beauty and ends up living happily ever after.

The desire to look beautiful is innate in everyone of us. In truth, it’s so ingrained in not only our DNA, but in the DNA of animals as well. We see this evidenced in the bird world — one main source of astounding color. Males are often “prettier” than females. Sporting feathers of beautiful crimson reds, deep oranges, and bright yellows, males strut their stuff in front of females in hopes of one of them choosing him as a mate. The male peacock is a prime example of one who “dresses to impress” with his feathers for his mate.

Amongst our horned friends, the pronghorn, elk, moose, and deer, females find a larger set of antlers more attractive than a smaller set, and males use these in competitions for females as well. Male guppy fish grow longer tails to attract a mate.

On average, we spend over four hours a week on showering, putting on makeup, and dressing. The primary reason given for looking our best is to feel good about ourselves. Other reasons include to make a good first impression and wanting to look good to attract a member of the opposite sex. Throughout history, however, the desire to look good has not always been kosher in society — until recently.

In 19th century America, makeup was sold under the counter because only prostitutes wore makeup. In the 1930s, when hair dyeing was new, women colored their hair in basements so no one would see them and continued to do so for decades afterwards; now 75 percent of women dye their hair. Fifteen years ago, getting your teeth whitened was odd; now it’s not uncommon for dentists to throw in teeth whitener in the goodie bag along with the floss and a toothbrush at the end of your regular check-up. Buy toothpastes lately? Most include whitening.

Starting in the 1960s with the rise of bulimia and anorexia, the desire to look good took a turn for the worse and began to be demonized. Women who sought plastic surgery and other beauty enhancement procedures hid them from their friends and family, afraid of the backlash from it. No one talked about it, and cosmetic procedures began to be labeled as only for those “vain” and “phony.”

Now, with so many effective non-invasive procedures such as microneedling available at affordable prices, with the advent of the selfie culture where anyone can be a model and look their best for the world to see, with both doctors and patients unafraid to say they had work done to feel better about themselves, and partly because society has decided it is once again okay to do things for yourself, to take care of yourself, and to feel better about yourself, shame is no longer a concern. More and more people are engaging in cosmetic procedures, especially noninvasive procedures such as microneedling.

MD Pen supports every person’s right to look good and feel good — both internally and externally. Every person is different, so what works for one person may not work for another. However, research show when you look good, you feel good about yourself. And feeling good about yourself improves all aspects of your life from career to friendships to extracurricular activities.

THE IMPORTANCE OF FEELING GOOD

Everyone wants to be their best. Everyone wants to succeed in their careers by getting a pay raise or a promotion. Everyone wants to succeed in their hobbies such as winning a 5k or building the tallest structure out of toothpicks. Everyone wants to feel they’ve accomplished their purpose for the day; they’ve made a difference in others’ lives’; they’ve done their best.

This goes hand-in-hand with appearances. Looking our best is the same as the above bests. When you do things to improve your looks (exercise, put on makeup, or get cosmetic or aesthetic procedures), you feel better about yourself and that need inside of you is satisfied. Self-esteem rises along with self-confidence. Productivity at work increases. Life is happier overall.

When people notice you’ve had cosmetic procedures done and you look better than you did before, the innate human reaction is jealousy. There are people who are genuinely happy for you, but these are people who know you in some way most likely. We all have a constant need to feel good about ourselves, and the sad fact is most people don’t. It is these people who are the naysayers in your life. They are the ones who want to bring you down, which elevates themselves in their eyes.

So much of beauty is how we feel about ourselves. Our confidence. How we think we look. Life is full of negative people who don’t feel good about themselves, and thus don’t want you to feel good about yourself either.

There’s nothing selfish about wanting to feel good about your appearance. We all do. If you decide a noninvasive aesthetic procedure such as microneedling is for you, MDPen encourages you to have one done. If you decide all natural skin care is for you, we encourage you to do that. If you invest in a diet program to lose weight, embrace it 100 percent.

TIPS FOR NAYSAYERS IN YOUR LIFE

1. Ignore them. It’s always best to just smile and not say anything. You will just upset yourself, provoking them to defend their indefensible comments.
2. Your attitude speaks for itself. Most of the naysayers in your life are unhappy for a myriad of reasons. Your happiness is retribution enough.
3. Achieving your heart’s desire. This is the big one. Actions speak louder than words and your achievement in whatever area (younger appearance from your microneedling procedure or 1st place at the local fair for Best Pumpkin Pie) speaks louder than your words ever could.

Life is a path we all walk with its mountains and its valleys. Life is also a balancing act and a quest to find that happy medium where you are content with where you’re at and how you look most of the time. In the 21st century, we are free to do what makes our hearts sing, to improve our appearance through clothes, fitness, or aesthetic procedures, and to have a cup of coffee with a friend when we need a pick-me-up.

Life is an adventure. Why not adventure looking your best?

MDPen, a supplier of top-of-the-line microneedling products from the MDPen microneedle to all natural facial serums to microneedling practitioners and clients alike, is a strong proponent of leading your best life possible. Why spend your precious hours worrying about how you look when you could improve your looks and begin to feel better about yourself?

microneedling is a minimally-invasive aesthetic procedure that uses your body’s natural process of healing through collagen production in the skin to smooth out your fine lines and wrinkles, decrease the appearance of stretch marks and acne scars, and help lessen skin discolorations. microneedling is an affordable facial care option for many who seek to feel better about themselves.

We all have things, events, and activities we indulge in. We ride motorcycles on the weekends. We go skydiving. We travel to foreign countries. We go shopping with our friends. We do weekends away with our friends or spouse. We mountain bike. We ski. We read books. We write books. We attend conferences. We compete in 5ks. We ride horses. We cook. We garden. We draw. We dance. We follow our contentment wherever it leads.

Cosmetic procedures are a form of self-care. Self-care leads to contentment. How content are you? Contact MDPen today to find out more about microneedling and if a microneedling procedure is for you!