Self Love — An intimate connection with oneself

Last month I spent a week in a place which had no mirrors and I know that it sounds bizarre. Believe me as soon as I realized that I would be spending a whole week without it I felt very lost. Imagine waking up in the morning and not greeting your most intimate friend- A Mirror.

But what happened after that one week without the mirror has been such a life altering experience for me.

We all have a very dysfunctional relationship with mirrors — an only object where we can see our own selves.

Have you ever wondered what we do right at the beginning of the day. We wake up go to the bathroom look at ourselves and probably make some comments like these- “ My eyes are too puffy today” “ Oh god I have a pimple” “ Why is my hair is so messy” “ and it doesn’t end there, the tirade continues as soon as we have a chance to even pass by a mirror. Mirrors are very symbolic yet the only relationship I and many of us share with mirrors is that of self criticism or self validation.

Subconsciously we have wired our brains to self critique or self validate ourselves in the only object where we can actually see ourselves — And begin our day with such unloving , unappreciative thoughts to our own self.

Our hearts are a very sensitive centre — It closes with grief, loss, betrayal, pain, no wonder so many of us find it so easy to connect to each other intellectually and not compassionately. And we convince ourselves that compassion is for the weak, compassion has no place today.

If I find it so difficult to love myself how can I be compassionate to others, how do I draw compassion to spill over to animals, trees an extension of my surroundings.

So what did I do? I begun changing my relationship with the mirror. Today I look at it and only say kind words of appreciation to myself and I feel a deeper, happier connection with myself. Would be really happy to hear your thoughts!