Susan West Kurz’s new book, Awakening Beauty the Dr. Hauschka Way reflects her own transformation and discoveries about beauty from the many years of study and work with Dr. Hauschka Skin Care, Inc.
In her book, Susan gently dismisses the standards of beauty the media has marched in front of us for the last 30 years. She rejects the pursuit of beauty as a process of trying to make ourselves look like someone else or chasing certain images the media deems as the ultimate form of beauty.
The book does not reject our desire to be beautiful; it recognizes the attraction to beauty, but finds a deeper meaning to the pull of beauty. Susan finds the attraction of beauty lying in its origin, the nourishing and desired force of love. She states, “A beautiful woman or man, someone who fundamentally loves herself or himself, exhibits a special type of grace, balance, and integrity that demonstrates for all to see the human potential to be whole”. The book provides us with the necessary tools to achieve wholeness and ultimate beauty in our own unique way, which is the only way we can truly achieve a state of magnificence.
Susan infuses a sense of beauty in her writing and the images she has chosen to illustrate the path of beauty outlined in her book. Her writing incorporates the very tenets of beauty she encourages us to follow. We can take in the holistic splendor woven throughout the book and find a new sense of our inner and outer beauty just by reading it.
The book begins by explaining the importance of our own inner rhythm and how to find it. Susan points to very
simple, but surprising ways to achieve the rhythm we have lost due to the demands of living in the modern chaotic world. She unfolds our current way of life and exposes the major reasons for our loss of beauty. She reveals how most of us take for granted and really do not think about the very things that drain our beauty.
Physical beauty is not omitted from this book. Susan explains how the organ of the skin reveals outer beauty like no other. She provides guidance on how to understand our skin’s beckoning; its need for us to understand its nature and to support its renewal. Most books on skin offer laborious processes to revitalize our skin; however, Susan offers simple and practical steps to help restore its beauty and function in revolutionary ways.
The human face is highlighted in the book because it is the focal point where inner and outer beauty meet displaying a certain sense of who we are which is felt inwardly and visible to others in the outer world. We really get a sense of a person’s countenance; we glimpse into their feeling life and peek into their intentions by what is expressed through their face. This makes the care of the face much more complex than other parts of the skin, such as the hands, hair, or feet. The steps to restore or maintain facial beauty are a little more multifaceted because inner and outer beauty must be considered and addressed. Susan approaches the subject in a way that re-imagines our relationship and the true nature of our face. We begin to feel the dynamic integration of the interior and external nature of our face as a soft and gently moving vortex of living beauty.
The chapter on Alchemy magnificently unfolds beauty as a way of being. Each stage of life is discussed in seven-year cycles as a natural and delicate way of becoming instead of trying to defy the organic and inevitable process of aging. The book offers a twelve-step guideline on practicing beauty in our lives. The program is supported by a 7-day menu and sixty exquisite recipes to bring us closer to actualizing beauty as a way of life. Organic whole foods, the rhythm of meals and conscious living are stressed to help us transition from be dragged by life to creatively flowing with the tempo of our new found inner and outer way of being.
The book does not forget to address the impact of beauty in our world. Susan points out that our individual beauty and how we achieve it can change the planet. We can help the world transform by making conscious choices about how we live and who we allow ourselves to become.
She offers a gentle and practical look at how we view beauty, or better, how beauty is imposed upon us by the outer world. She offers us an opening to discover the deeper elements of beauty without forgetting the physical aspects that we usually equate it. This tender revolution on beauty provides us a real and magical way to reconnect with our splendor and journey toward our true human magnificence.
Awakening Beauty is available for purchase in The Network M store. Proceeds will benefit The Network M.
Susan West Kurz is a passionate advocate of Dr. Hauschka’s philosophy and practices. She began her career as an apprentice to master herb growing before becoming a sales representative for Dr. Hauschka products in the 1970s, and went on to become a licensed esthetician and the president of Dr. Hauschka Skin Care, Inc., in 1993. She lives in Jamestown, RI with her husband and three children.
