Today it’s cold here in Oklahoma (we might even get SNOW tomorrow) but I’m staying warm with my soft, fuzzy, green blanket and blue, green, purple, and turquoise fuzzy socks. I love soft, fuzzy, things! It’s another Self Care Sunday and I want to share with you a very powerful practice of self love. I first learned about it in Louise L. Hay’s You Can Heal Your Life. (You can read my book review here)
One of my favorite exercises in this book is The Mirror. You take a mirror, look into it, looking at your reflection and you say “I love and accept you exactly as you are.”
Can you do this self-love exercise for me?
When you’re done reading this, go stand in a front of a mirror. If you don’t have a big mirror a little one will work, even a compact mirror will do. Look into the mirror, look yourself in the eye. Can you do this? If you feel uncomfortable at first it’s okay, it will get easier. Now say those three little words, you know the ones, “I love you”.
How does that feel?
Good? Awkward? Silly? It’s okay, it’s a good start, and if you’ve done it before then keep doing it! It’s a great practice and a great self-love routine.
I would do this before I went to bed as a little daily ritual. After a while, I wasn’t just saying that I loved myself. I was telling myself how beautiful I was, praising myself for that awesome thing I accomplished that day, how wonderfully silly I was, how wonderful, how beautiful, how rock-your-socks-off amazing.
It is now a daily dialogue of all the things that I love about myself. It’s my cheerleading time. My Dominee-is-awesome time. I think we all need that. We all need that rush of positivity, especially on our sad days.
I really used to hate looking in the mirror.
I avoided it at all costs. I’ve always been fat. My stomach is covered in stretch marks that have nothing to do with babies. My size made me feel so ashamed. I never tried anything on in the dressing rooms. I knew my size and I bought my size and if something didn’t fit? I’d shamefully tuck it in the back of the closet with a promise that I’d wear it when I lost weight.
I recall that first time I looked in the fitting room mirror as a young adult. I cried. What I saw disgusted me on every single level. The stretch marks, the rolls of fat, the lumpiness in the way the clothes fit me. The amount of shame I felt in that moment was completely unreal.
I’ve healed from it.
My body is very much the same as it was then and when I look in the mirror I see something completely different. I still have those rolls and those stretch marks and for a girl, a ridiculously hairy belly. And it is all glorious. I look in the mirror and those things I didn’t like before are small, inconsequential, blips on the radar. I love the curves of my hips and the color of my skin and I even love those rolls of fat and those stretch marks. When I look in the mirror I’m not shocked. I’m in love.
That happens by facing yourself. By seeing yourself. Look in the mirror and take it all in, even when it’s a little painful at first.
So get that mirror, look at the reflection there, and realize how beautiful, sexy, and sacred you are.
Hey nice post! Its so easy to find whats lacking in me but so difficult to see the good in me. I might feel silly first time, but gotta try it.
I absolutely LOVE your blog. Great topics, great posts!!!
Sounds like something we should have our children practice. Once I accepted myself and body, life became a lot easier.
Another great post! A more difficult one but still a good practice!
It's so much easier to tell another person how much we love and accept them and when it comes to doing it for myself such a huge resistance comes up. I'll try this though.