By Pailey Gordon
I am going to ask you to do something that may seem a little crazy, but hear me out. I want you to get up from wherever you are reading this and go to the closest mirror you have. I want you to look in the mirror for at least a minute, tell yourself out loud all the things you love about yourself. If you catch yourself thinking about something negative just stop, breathe, smile, and go back to listing positive things you see. Do this for about one to two minutes the first couple of days or until you are comfortable with going longer, before long you will be doing it for five minutes without a problem.
For some, this may be very easy. For others, this may be a bit of a struggle at first. This is called the “mirror technique”; it helps you boost your self-esteem and helps reflect a good self-image.
Everyone has their own view on themselves and how you view yourself can greatly impact the lifestyle you live. If you have a good amount of positive self-esteem, it will lead you to have a healthier lifestyle because you will want to take care of yourself and you also tend to check in with your mental health more often. If you have a poor amount of good self-esteem, you will not be taking care of yourself as well as you could. Most people start to not care about how they feel about themselves or they beat themselves down to the point where it interferes with their mental health.
Not only can positive self-esteem make you feel happier, it can also can improve your communication skills, confidence, and motivation. You will be more decisive and set higher goals for yourself. According to letsreachsuccess.com, many successful people do this technique even after they have achieved so much. The reason why? They know that this little habit can help them and reaffirm that they are doing great.
A problem people run into with this exercise is they don’t know what to say, so I have a couple things to help you get started. You can start by reaffirming your good qualities that you know you have such as:
“I am kind.”
“I am proud of who I am.”
“I am friendly.”
“I trust myself.”
Another thing you can do is, if you feel comfortable with this, find the things about your physical appearance that you like such as:
“I like the color of my eyes.”
“My hair looks healthy.”
“My skin is very clear today.”
The other thing you can do is say positive things that will/did happen during the day, such as:
“Today will be great.”
“I deserve the best.”
“Good things will happen today.”
When you look in the mirror, what do you see? Soon you will see a confident, comfortable person looking back at you. It may take a while to get there, but you can and it can change how you see not only yourself but everyone around you.
Pailey Gordon is a student at Fillmore Central High School. She is one of eight area students participating in the Journal Writing Project, now in its 20th year.
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