Five Photos that I Feel Beautiful In

I can never participate in "Facebook games", you know the ones. Someone posts a picture or a meme and tags you in it to complete the same challenge they did. I've seen this done with surveys about yourself, photos with a theme, and even asking to do a certain status update. I don't participate.

It's not that I'm stuck up or think I'm too good for those games. When I DO try to participate the result is much longer than what the game is requiring. I complete the survey, but my answers are far too detailed or thought out. I choose the photos with a theme but have to explain each one. My status update turns into a mini blog post, so I end up writing it here anyways. I'm just not good at the short to the point post that the game wants you to have.

So I'm playing a Facebook game: Five Pictures of Me that Make Me Feel Beautiful

#1. This is a typical "selfie", taken when you feel like you're looking good and better capture it. I chose this one because it's one of my better selflies. My hair turned out cute, my eye make up was spot on, and my expression was different than just my regular smile. I felt beautiful. I think this is what most people think of when they choose their profile picture. I don't think selfies are wrong, but they aren't the only way we can feel beautiful.

#2. I love this picture. I was visiting some of my best friends in Idaho and we were just cracking each other up. I don't even know what we were saying, but as I was laughing my friend snapped this shot of me. It captured the moment perfectly. It was one of the best weekend get aways of my life. I feel beautiful when I'm surrounded by unconditional love.

#3.  I believe I'm most beautiful when I am just myself; being weird, crazy, or just funny. I had made this face and Andrew found it so funny he made me recreate it so he could take a photo. True beauty isn't always about the perfect pose or right look.

#4. Beauty doesn't always come when you are trying. I had hard day at work and told Ashleigh I was coming by to snuggle with Henry. It was so relaxing that we both fell asleep. Of course someone took a picture, thank goodness my mouth wasn't open or anything. 

#5. This was taken in college on the Rexburg Temple grounds. I always feel beautiful in the House of the Lord. It was always a nice walk up to the temple and this moment captured that peace that came from just being on the temple grounds. 

I've captured at least five ways that I feel beautiful for many different reasons. I could continue the list, but thankfully they gave a limit on the number of photos. When do you feel most beautiful?

Beautifully happy,

Arica

Women: How to be TRULY Attractive

I subscribe to a weekly email that talks about relationships and more. It's always so interesting. This latest article was fascinating to me! Stephen Hussey describes what I believe makes someone really attractive, I'll add my two cents at the end. 

Dating advice is starting to irritate me more and more.

I’m so bored of reading about that ‘Irresistible First-Date Kiss That Will Keep Him Hooked Forever’.

I’m fed up of click-bait magazine articles telling women how to create a steamy night of passion by lighting a scented candle and whispering something into his ear about not wearing underwear, or wearing matching underwear, or whatever the party line on undergarment etiquette happens to be that week.

I’ve read enough about ‘Body Language That Tells You It’s True Love’ and ‘Sexy Positions He Secretly Wants His Girlfriend To Do In Bed’ to last a lifetime.

So I’ve decided to list some of the sexiest traits I find in a woman that go beyond the usual magazine fodder.

Some are universal to all guys. Others are my own personal preferences.

It’s not an exhaustive list, but these are the things I feel REALLY MATTER, the things that click in my head and set off my “she’s amazing, keep her!” alarm after a few months into dating.

15 Unconventionally Sexy Traits In The Woman I’d Love To Date

I’ve separated the specific traits into four general areas.

Put these traits all together and a girlfriend (at least to me) becomes so sexy – so incredibly attractive – she’s basically irreplaceable:

1. An Intelligent/Beautiful Mind
* A girlfriend with a rich intellectual life, who is engaged in lifelong learning and reads good books for pleasure (think One Hundred Years of Solitude rather than Fifty Shades Of Grey).

* A girlfriend who is genuinely open-minded about new experiences and is capable of changing her opinions, rather than the woman who thinks ‘open-minded’ means ‘believing in everything’, from the power of healing crystals to Dowsing.

* A girlfriend who is a critical thinker and questions everything, embraces doubt, and isn’t dogmatic about her views.

2. Intimacy and Thoughtfulness

* A girlfriend who learns my likes and dislikes and shows that she factors them into her decisions without complaining.

* A girlfriend who will hug me when I’ve been beaten up (emotionally) by everyone else instead of making me feel like less of a man for being vulnerable.

* A girlfriend who will let me hold her when she’s suffering without accusing me of being patronizing.

* A girlfriend who is a problem-solver and works out difficulties together. She doesn’t shut down or hide in moments of conflict.

* A girlfriend who tells me the truth without making me feel judged, and corrects me without making me feel like an inept, hopeless child.

3. Integrity and Rounded Character

* A girlfriend who decides for herself what is important for her mind to focus on, instead of parroting whatever her celebrity-filled twitter feed tells her is big news this week.

* A girlfriend who loves socializing for fun and enjoyment, not because she wants validation and attention.

* A girlfriend who can debate without turning it into an argument.

* A girlfriend who adapts to situations. She can drink beer and play pool, go running together in the park, be elegant and charming at a dinner party, work on our laptops in the evening, and wear sweats and eat pizza when we relax on the weekend.

4. Long-Term Thinker

* A girlfriend who invests in her long-term skills and potential instead of desperately trying to hold onto superficial things through her twenties/thirties/forties.

* A girlfriend who takes pride in being able to take care of her own life, and doesn’t secretly dream someone will come and fix it for her.

* A girlfriend who builds a future she loves, instead of trying to recreate a past that is already behind her.

Dating advice tends to focus a hell of a lot of What To Do, and not much on Who You Are.

Tips and techniques are great – but relationships are really defined by what happens when the initial charm and best intentions of the first dates wear off, when people really start to see what lies behind the self you present to the rest of the world.

Want to keep a guy?

Forget lighting candles and wearing matching underwear. That’s just the neat, glossy cover that surrounds the book. And nice covers are great. They are the icing on the cake. They look impressive when you show them off on your coffee table. It’s much more pleasing to have a book with a beautiful cover than an ugly one.

But it’s the rich content inside that makes you never want to put it down.

- Stephen

The only thing I'd add to this is that women also should have a strong faith in the gospel of Jesus Christ. I know that being able to guide others onto the straight and narrow path, not forcing them to choose the right or making people feel guilty, but leading their life in a way that exemplifies righteousness.