Mirror Mirror

Face to face

With our Self

A reflection

Looking back

Judging

Observing

Assessing

Scrutinizing

Appreciating

Loving

Connecting with the beauty that “is”.

I just wrote Thursday morning in my blog:  Expecting the Good how high doses of sodium are not kind to me these days as I wake up puffy eyed and my joints stiff from the water retention.  The morning after my midnight nachos I looked in the mirror and was startled by what I saw.  Yikes! was my response as I giggled finding the humor – always finding the humor in the divine comedy that is my life.  We have all had those moments judging, scrutinizing and even panicking over our less than healthy glow reflecting back at us.  But it is possible to love, appreciate and connect with the beauty that is within no matter what.

Working with people to reprogram subconscious patterns and beliefs, I always recommend the Mirror Exercise.  I first learned this from a workshop I did with Jack Canfield 20 years ago.  He instructed us to look at our Self in a mirror and say:  I love you repeating this 6 times each morning, 6 times in the afternoon and 6 times before going to bed for 21 days straight because it takes 21 days to form a habit.  He had learned this powerful exercise from Louise Hay, the author of You Can Heal Your Life and said it was the single most important daily practice he had implemented because everything starts with loving our Self.  And I agree.

Face to face with our Self, looking our Self in the eye and saying aloud with sincerity:  I love you…I love you…I love you is powerful.  Free of judgments and criticisms that we are comfortable with, that are habits we have adopted since childhood, saying I love you stirs so many emotions and thoughts.  We are conditioned to believe that this is arrogant, narcissistic, wrong or just plain silly.  We convince our Self that this is unnecessary because we already love our Self even though our life and our choices don’t reflect this. 

The first time I looked in the mirror and said:  I love you, tears welled up in my eyes and I felt intensely uncomfortable with the enormity of feelings bubbling up.  I felt ashamed, unworthy, ridiculous, childish, numb, happy, loved, and empowered – all at once.  The range of emotions and thoughts were vast, but I wanted more than anything to live a life that reflected Self-love so I stayed the course doing as Canfield had instructed.

What the last 20 years since learning this practice has shown me is appreciating, loving and connecting to the beauty that is within each of us creates a life of unconditional love.  It is truly possible to live without conditions where we can only appreciate, love and connect to our innate beauty when we do everything right, when we look perfect, when we are good and on and on and on.

The invitation this day is to look into the mirror, face to face with your Self (the essence of who you are) stare deeply into your eyes breathing fluidly in and out of your nose and say aloud to your Self:  I love you…I love you…I love you…I love you…I love you…I love you.  Repeat this morning, noon and night for the next 21 days and see if you experience a depth of Self-love far greater than you know right now.  Watch the miracles rise from within you.  Observe the emotions and feelings bubbling up allowing them all.  Stay the course no matter what as you are worthy of a life filled with GREAT LOVE for your Self.