Love
Yourself
“Almost
always it is the fear of being ourselves that brings us to the mirror.”
Antonio
Porchia
I
wonder how many of us stand in front of a mirror and delight in what we see
there? Perhaps Wonder Woman does, or possibly, our first lady. Sometimes,
however, the most physically beautiful people are also the most critical of
their own appearance. And, almost all of us look at ourselves and see the flaws
first, or somehow feel that the smallest imperfection is the most obvious. I
laugh at myself sometimes because when I was younger, I was terribly skinny,
and that was the bane of my existence. Now, I look in the mirror and all I see
is the fat around my middle—the new bane of my existence. Almost never do we
look past our physical flaws to see what lies within our souls and love that.
In her
book Simple Abundance, Sarah Ban Breathnach tells of a meditation she uses
called the “golden mirror.” With her eyes closed, she imagines looking into a
large, gold-framed mirror and seeing all her hearts wishes. She sees herself as
she wants to be, imagines her ideal circumstances, all her goals fulfilled. In
her meditation, this mirror is surrounded by white light, and its glow encapsulates
her image as well. It is her way of visualizing what she wants her future to be;
of affirming what she wants to manifest in her life. It is one way of being definite
about what you want to have happen in your life, holding a clear image of it in
your intention, and then putting it out to the universe for fulfillment.
I have
had pets all my life. I have never seen a single one of them look into a mirror
and act disgusted with what they see. Whether ugly or beautiful, they are just
happy to be here and ready to have fun. Somewhere along the evolutionary way,
we veered off course, and began to put who we are, what we look like, on trial.
This led to dissatisfaction for most of us. We compare ourselves to others and
come up lacking. All it does is make us unhappy and envious, which is not a
good recipe for contentment. The first person we need to love in the world is
ourselves—especially if we want to be capable of loving others. Whatever yardstick
we use to evaluate our own worth will be applied to everyone else and they too
will come up lacking.
Let’s go to our golden
mirrors today and take a good look at the person standing there. Let’s show
that human being some love and acceptance. They are perfect exactly as they
are.
In
the Spirit,
Jane
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