I’m going ask you a question. And I want you to be completely honest with your answer, okay?
I don’t want you to read beyond the question until you’ve taken a moment and answered it because everything after the question depends upon your honest answer. Ready? Okay, here goes:
Who do you see when you look in a mirror?
No cheating. Take a moment to think about that, if you haven’t already done it…
I wonder how you replied. Sadly, most people answer that question in a very negative way.
We’re so quick to do ourselves down, to see our flaws – or what we perceive as flaws – especially in a physical way – when looking in the mirror.
And worse, we forget who’s on the inside. We forget the beautiful Spirit that resides inside the vessel that carries it and allows it to experience all aspects of life in the earthly realm.
Many people don’t even like mirrors, and don’t like to see themselves at all. And it’s usually got much less to do with physical appearance than they might first think. It’s because they just generally don’t like themselves as people. They lack a healthy sense of self-esteem and they’re quick to criticise; they see only what they think is wrong with them or what’s missing.
Sadly, more often than not those painful beliefs have come from the hurtful opinions of others and from our society in general.
Our culture places too much emphasis on physical appearance. Plastic surgeons and cosmetologists love our obsession with looks, and our fear of ageing. There are even reality TV shows about people who hate the way they look, and they go off for a few months and have plastic surgeries and terrible procedures, and awful things done to their teeth.
They have facial bones broken, jaws wired shut, fillers injected here and there, implants of boobs or hair – fat sucked out, skin lopped off, they are lifted, tucked, tightened, snipped, reduced, enlarged, lasered, dyed, firmed, chemically peeled, blah blah blahed, all in the name of physical beauty.
And then they return to a gathering of loved ones who are eagerly waiting to see the New and Improved Versions of the formerly ugly ducklings. There are grand entrances with The Reveal, as it is called, showing off all they’ve been through surgically, chemically, procedurally before being stuffed into the perfect gowns or suits, having their hair perfectly coiffed and their make-up perfectly applied.
So with all of these fake, artificial, superficial, surgically altered procedures that were done, and a look at the “before and after” shots, we’re supposed to admire their incredible beauty. But really, we are admiring the work of the surgeons who lifted, tucked, removed, enlarged, enhanced etc., and the eye specialists who lasered away the “four-eyes” glasses, and the dentists/dental surgeons who did heaven-knows-what filing, drilling, refitting or building was necessary to create the perfect smile.
We’re admiring the work of the hairstylists who added fake extensions to produce long, flowing locks on short, unfeminine hair. We’re admiring the work of the make-up artists – an all-too-honest term, really, as it is like painting a portrait on a blank canvas; you can make a person look like someone else entirely. A “made-up” face.
But underneath all that great work that the professionals did, there will still be the little fat kid with the Coke-bottle glasses who was relentlessly picked on, or the skinny flat-chested gawky girl whose only noticeable protrusion was Grandpa Walter’s honking big beak of a nose that she inherited, and about which she was teased for years. No scalpel or chemical or bit of silicone or collagen could ever heal those scars, and no make-up brush can reach them and cover them either.
The only way to heal them is to elevate yourself from the human experience and remember that who you are is a pure and perfect Spirit. If you look in the mirror and all you see are your perfectly imperfect human flaws, both inside and out, then you’re missing a glorious sight, for there is nothing more beautiful or more perfect than your Spirit. It is flawless, shimmering, radiant, glowing, magical, compassionate. It is love in its purest, highest, and most perfect form.
If this is not who you see when you look in the mirror, you’re only adding to the scars that already exist on your soul because you’re missing the point of being here and you’re missing the beauty that you – and only you – can add to the world.
Do yourself a favour. Take a look in the mirror. Look at yourself for a few minutes. Yes, really. A few minutes. And yes, it is doing yourself a favour because I want you to get past Grandpa Walter’s beak or your chubby cheeks or your bumpy skin or crooked teeth – or anything else you don’t like about your appearance. I want you to get past the emotional wounds that have shredded your self-esteem and left you feeling worthless or unimportant.
I want you to look past Everything Human. I want you to connect with that pure and perfect Spirit that resides behind those eyes, the Spirit that expresses itself in your many qualities, your gifts, your talents and abilities, in everything that is good and beautiful and Divine. And once you’ve made that connection, you will see how very much about you there is to love. It won’t matter what the vessel looks like, how it dresses or how much plastic surgery it has had or has thought about having. The emotional wounds that have been inflicted upon your humanness will begin to heal.
When you look in the mirror and can finally see past Everything Human, you will see who you really are. And what a glorious sight that will be.