As I look in the mirror what do I see? A broken image looking back at me. I see my imperfections, faults, and weaknesses. I have spent the majority of my life comparing myself to others and finding reasons why I am not as desirable, lovable, or as good as someone else. I have also taken the teasing & mean things others have said about me to heart finding proof that those things are true. I am finding I am not alone. We are inundated by unrealistic images and standards that we strive to achieve. We have not walked in each others shoes, yet we think we want to be like someone else. I have often been said if we all put our problems and trials in a pile we would take our own back.
The sad part is we are judging ourselves against what we perceive about the other person. Often judging their best against our worst. As we see the status updates on social media it is easy to compare every aspect of our life to others. We see what they have & we don’t, what they are doing that we are not, yet we still only see what they want us too. The grass is always seems greener on the other side. How many times have you said, “I would be happy if I looked like Jane”? What we don’t realize is Jane is not happy with how she looks either, she wants to look like Sally who wants to look like someone else.
“It doesn’t matter what people think about you It’s what you think of yourself that really counts!” Abuse No More
In 2013 Dove films, Real Beauty Sketches explored the gap between how others perceive us and how we perceive ourselves. Each woman is the subject of two portraits drawn by FBI-trained forensic artist Gil Zamora: one based on her own description, and the other using a stranger’s observations.
What would life be like if was saw ourselves the way others did?
I am listening to “You Can Heal Your Life” by Louise Hay. This act of looking in the mirror and saying I Love You is more difficult then I thought it would be. Part of healing is learning to love ourselves exactly as we are. As we choose to love ourselves daily we can heal and change our lives.
Beyond Abuse Essential Healing 