What Is Your Inner Soul Aesthetic?

When we get up every morning and choose what to wear, it's all about aesthetics. When we start dating someone who may not have the best taste in fashion, at least in our opinion, it's also all about aesthetics. When we go to a museum and linger in front of a painting that evokes emotion in us, it means it's aesthetically appealing to us (via Medium). Even those who proclaim themselves nonjudgmental when it comes to beauty, there's still an inherent need to surround ourselves with aesthetics that we enjoy.

Aesthetics is a branch of philosophy that gives us the principles rooted in beauty, artistic taste, and the appreciation of all things related to such principles that spark an emotional response (via Dictionary). Because of this, aesthetics isn't just about the exterior of something but the interior as well. It may not define us, our take on what's beautiful and what's not, but it certainly plays a role in how we live our lives.

Because aesthetics are internal as well as external, it means everyone has an inner soul aesthetic — even if they've yet to know what it is.

Inner soul aesthetics are linked to your personality traits and what's most important to you on the inside. For example, are you creative or playful? Do you value fame or kindness more? Is your ideal date a museum or lunch in the park? Is your favorite movie genre romance or horror? All of these questions, when answered, can reveal our inner soul aesthetics (via BuzzFeed).

It doesn't take one question but a series of questions to find it. When we do, we might be surprised by what we find. From "dark academia" to "light academia" to "softcore" to "alternative," there are a lot of aesthetics out there, the latter being defined, by BuzzFeed, as "You're someone who positively refuses to lead a boring life. You definitely play by your own rules and hate nothing more than being told what to do ... You have a bold personality and a dark, ironic sense of humor." 

But your inner soul aesthetics can be discovered by responding to a series of paintings, artistic images, and songs too. From there, you can realize another type of aesthetic about yourself, like "golden hour," in which you're drawn to things golden like sunrises, sunsets, and sunflowers (via Style Bistro).

If you don't know what your inner soul aesthetic is, there are ways to find out. A Buzz Feed quiz, when answered honestly, can deduce your inner soul aesthetic. Another source is a QuoteTV quiz that asks a completely different set of questions, thereby adding another layer — you can have multiple inner soul aesthetics, just as you can have more than one external aesthetic. In fact, there are thousands of aesthetics in the world, and no one has just one inner aesthetic (via PlayBuzz).

Once you deduce your inner soul aesthetics, you can find out the definition and see how it applies to you. For example, one type of inner soul aesthetic is "cottagecore." While it may not seem very glamorous, its appeal, from an aesthetic perspective, makes sense for some people. "As a concept, [cottagecore] embraces a simpler, sustainable existence that is more harmonious with nature," founder of Wovn Home Davina Ogilvie tells Architectural Digest. "Aesthetically, it's a nod to the traditional English countryside style, romantic and nostalgic."

Although knowing your inner soul aesthetics won't change you and your aesthetic principles, it will explain why you find beauty and appreciation of it where you do. It also may reveal to you what you didn't know about yourself, giving you a chance to explore other facets of your inner soul aesthetic.