What Do We Lose When Things Become Easy?

@Unicole Unicron

Valeria Lukianova, the woman known as the human Barbie, believes that aesthetic perfection is spiritual purity. To look the way she does in person takes extreme dedication: a liquid diet, constant workouts, a lot of makeup, and probably surgery. Now you can get the same look by pushing a button on a beauty filter.

When it becomes that easy to look like someone who devoted their life to an aesthetic ideal, the meaning behind the look disappears. So what else disappears with it? What do we lose when things become easy?

The glow is real

I think Valeria is onto something, just not the way she means it. When you eat right, sweat regularly, and meditate, you actually start to glow. Your skin clears, your eyes brighten, and people take you in differently. True health and true happiness are attractive, and they always have been.

That glow comes from effort. It comes from moving your body, feeding it well, and being a good person inside and out. It's the visible result of an invisible practice.

The problem is that our society can't easily define the glow, monetize it, or sell it. And in a capitalist world, people understand reality through what's available for purchase. An idea that can't be bought struggles to find its footing. So we've traded the glow for something we can buy.

How we veered off course

What we bought instead is the modern beauty standard, and it's toxic. It's obsessed with youth to the point of prizing childlike features: poreless, hairless, ageless, tiny. It sets expectations no living body can meet.

And now we're measuring ourselves against digital avatars. A 2022 study found AI-generated faces had become so realistic that people couldn't tell them from real ones, and actually rated them as more trustworthy. A 2026 paper found the cost: when people believe AI faces are real, they rate real human faces as less attractive and less familiar by comparison.

The ideal we're chasing isn't just unrealistic anymore. It's literally not real.

Emulating the process, or covering it up?

Here's what strikes me. Look closely at what a beauty filter actually does: it smooths your skin, brightens your eyes, evens your tone, and gives you a glow. It's emulating the results of a spiritual process. Clear skin and bright eyes are what a healthy diet, regular sweating, and inner peace produce.

So when we reach for a filter, are we honoring that process, or skipping it? Too often, we're making it worse. We cover our skin with cosmetics, sit inside all day under fluorescent lights, and work jobs that don't fulfill us. Then we use technology to fake the glow that our lifestyle is draining away.

Two paths

The way I see it, the path is twofold.

On the first path, you use surgery, makeup, and digital enhancement to make yourself beautiful and fit the current ideal. It's fast, it's available, and it works, at least on the surface.

On the second path, you do the actual hard work. You experience what it's like to go through the process of health and internal purity, with a strict spiritual practice. And that practice has good boundaries: you don't do anything you don't want to do. This isn't about liquid diets or punishing yourself into a shape. Devotion without boundaries is just another way of chasing the standard.

The ego is here for a reason

I'm not here to shame the first path. It's fun to participate in society. Our egos are here for a reason, and 3D reality is all around us. I love a beauty filter, I love a good look, and I love pushing aesthetics to the extreme.

And let's be honest: success in this world usually comes from taking the easier way. The person who uses the filter gets the views. The person with the lip filler fits the mold. Playing the game often pays.

So what are you losing?

But if you forget the spiritual truth of internal beauty, you lose something the easy way can't give back. You lose the experience of the process itself: the sweat, the discipline, the slow change, and who you become while it happens. You lose the information your body is trying to give you. You lose the glow that can't be faked, because it was never on the surface to begin with.

So the real question isn't which path is right. It's which path is more fulfilling for you. Play with the filters. Enjoy your ego. Just don't let the easy version of beauty make you forget the true one.