Since I was a little girl I struggled with my body image, as many people do (regardless of gender). I generally avoided looking into mirrors where I could see more than just my face. Don’t even think about being naked in front of a mirror. Oh Hell No! If I don’t look at it then I could suppress it in my mind. At my lowest points in life, even looking in the mirror at my face was unbearable. This is not a healthy way to live though. You can not improve your confidence until you face what you are not confident about. Just like facing and overcoming your fears, you have to do what scares you most. Mirror Therapy will help you accomplish this.
While trying to work myself, and a few of my friends, out of rough time in our lives, I developed what I call Mirror Therapy. This is a method of slowly building your confidence by facing yourself in the mirror on a daily basis. Mirror Therapy involves you getting comfortable with what makes you uncomfortable.
As I suggest with all progress in your life, take it one step at a time. Additionally, it’s important that you stay in front of the mirror until you can genuinely find something you like about yourself. The other side benefit my friends and I found was that by not avoiding what we didn’t like about ourselves, we were more likely to find motivation to do something about it and encouragement as we saw results in the mirror.
Here’s how it works:
- Week 1 – Twice a day, look at your face in the mirror. I encourage you to put on makeup during this, do something new with your hair, or maybe clean and moisturize your face.
- Week 2 – Continue with the previous progress and add looking at your full body in the mirror anytime you are about to leave the house, even if you are just wearing your pajama’s as you get gas at the corner store. Not that you should care what other people think of you, NO. This is so you can face what you think of yourself.
- Week 3 – Continue with the previous progress and add making faces at yourself when you look in the mirror. Maybe you start with just smiling and frowning. I encourage you to make silly faces too. We have to be able to laugh at ourselves to truly feel confident in ourselves.
- Week 4 – Continue with the previous progress and add taking a selfie everyday. If you are like me, I refused to do selfies completely. But I made it to this stage and forced myself to get comfortable with it too. At this stage, you should feel better about making silly faces and smiling in the mirror, so selfies will be easier to get used as well.
- Month 2 – Continue with the previous progress and add looking at your full naked body in the mirror before getting in the shower. I know this will be tough but you have a full month to get used to it. Yes, in the first week you may cringe or try to just look from your peripheral vision. But remember to find something you like about yourself when doing this. Even if it’s just complimenting your hands or that your knee’s look healthy. You WILL slowly get more comfortable with this throughout the month.
- Month 3 – Continue with the previous progress and add dancing and being silly while you are naked in front of the mirror. Here again, being able to have fun and laugh at ourselves is the only way we can become comfortable in our own skin.
Sticking to this Mirror Therapy is not easy but you can make it fun and positive. Think Amy Schumer! She posts pictures of herself in her underwear. In her most recent Netflix special she lifted up her dress and show the camera’s and audience her underwear and beautiful pregnant belly with a band-aide over her belly button.
Let’s get comfortable with the beauty of our bodies. Just because the three months is over with, doesn’t mean you should stop these activities. I recommend you continue to do these mirror exercises regularly to maintain your confidence and level of comfort within your own skin.