How to Think Like a Cat - Stephane Garnier 2018

Your Cat Is Beautiful… And Knows It

’Cats never strike a pose that isn’t photogenic’

LILIAN JACKSON BRAUN

All cats are beautiful, which is really quite surprising. It is very rare to come across an ugly cat, except if they are never cared for or are old and sick. By definition, a cat is beautiful from birth to death, and suffers little the ravages of time. Do cats get wrinkled? Do cats lose their hair? Why do humans physically degenerate to such an extent? Are we really ’superior’ in that regard?

That cats are beautiful isn’t at all important in itself. But this confident attitude they have all the time is perhaps conditioned partly by this fact: a cat is beautiful and is maybe conscious of it.

Of course it’s possible that a cat has no notion of beauty as regards itself, in which case life is much easier for it. But for us poor humans, beauty is an essential element of our happiness and self-confidence, and we cannot sidestep it with a facile: ’It’s the inner beauty that counts.’ That’s not true, and we all know it.

It’s nature’s way that we are not all equal in beauty, in that natural grace which some people are simply born with. Still, just because you’re not the symbol of an aesthetic ideal doesn’t mean you’re a vision of ugliness either. There’s a huge margin between the two.

And it’s this margin which we all must employ in order to feel better in ourselves, a margin to be worked on through our bearing and our clothes. The aim is not to achieve a particular appearance in the eyes of others, but to feel good in yourself and in your wellbeing.

At the end of the day there is only one beauty rule to follow, and only one judge, who is impartial (except if they judge according to codes that are not their own): YOU. You in your mirror. That is all.

If you sincerely think that you’re beautiful when you look in the mirror, then your charisma, your aura and consequently your power of seduction will only increase tenfold.

Feeling beautiful is important, if not essential. But you won’t get there by following any old criteria. Wanting to look like a magazine cover — not to mention dubious codes governing thinness or anything else — means not wanting to resemble yourself, and above all not accepting yourself, not loving yourself. Who could ever truly love you through such a masquerade of dissemblance?

You are beautiful for what you are, and for what you can improve, not for what is agreed or displayed by others. Charm is the key.