More On The Mirror Exercise
I talked about the mirror exercise a while back. I’ve used this quite a lot, & discovered a few extra tricks to really amp it up, which I thought I’d share.
I Love You
Paying yourself compliments is a good way to start, particularly if you’re feeling down on yourself, but the single most powerful thing to say is simply “I love you.”
This heals incredibly deeply. Even if you don’t believe it, say it anyway. Of course, the more feeling & energy you can put into it, the better. Shout it out loud if you like, it all helps.
pic by prozac74
Imagine It’s Someone Else
So how do you say “I love you” if you’re struggling to actually love yourself (like so many of us do)? Well, everyone has someone they’re comfortable saying (& meaning) I love you to.
So, look at yourself, but get yourself in a loving state by imagining (initially) that you’re saying it to that person. This’ll get you started with really feeling it. The more you say it to yourself, the easier it’ll get. The more strongly you can feel what you’re saying, the more powerful.
Smile
Remember how you act when you meet someone you really like. You smile, right? If you genuinely love them, you’ll smile even more. So definitely smile at yourself.
It sounds ridiculous, but there’s a definite physiological feedback loop. If you genuinely smile, you will cheer yourself up emotionally too (ie, the energy you’re pouring into yourself will increase). Ie, physical state affects emotional state. As nutty as it sounds, this is well recognised. See? Here’s proof:
One thing to note with smiles. Humans are very good at assessing the truthfulness of a smile. In other words, telling a fake smile from a real smile. What it comes down to is the very small muscles around the eyes (the orbicularis oculi). So, try to smile so it looks genuine to you. Even if you’re not feeling it internally to start with, do it anyway. Yes, you will feel like a crazy person, but it’s just you & the mirror, so who cares, right? If nothing else, laughing at how nutty you look trying to fake a real smile might set you off into genuine smiling. If so, great!
Tap While You Do It
Using EFT while you say “I love you” will do a hell of a lot of good. Don’t panic too much about the details, just tap on the various points around the body, saying “I love you” on each point. If you feel like something is shifting, feel free to stay on that one point, saying “I love you” over & over until it shifts. If not, no biggie.
I guarantee you, a few loops around your body & you’ll start to feeling significantly better about yourself.
Use Your Name
This will help you connect with yourself.
Even better than this, use a name or nickname you commonly used when you were younger. An awful lot of pain in our lives starts very young. Connecting with & loving our younger selves helps bring up, heal & remove this pain in the simplest, least painful way possible. You’ll feel it.
All these things help amp up the basic exercise. Simply use any (or all!) of them that resonate with you. I’ve been doing this every morning recently (my shower has a mirror opposite, so I get to tap & wash at the same time), & it gets each day off to a brilliant start.
