"Mirror Mirror on the wall, Who is the fairest of all?"
Such a legendary question. We have all grown up hearing this phrase, And most of us have sometime or the other succumbed under the pressure of it. It may not have been fairest for you, maybe it was thinnest, tallest, prettiest or something else. But most women and even men have gone through a phase of confusion and self abasement.
I had my own roller-coaster ride. Having Facial Palsy since a young age, it wasn't easy to get a favorable answer from the mirror. It always felt like the others, even my mirror was mocking me. There were days I did not want my own reflection to spoil my mood. The words ugly, asymmetrical, different, they haunted me for years. I still remember coming home with a feeling of complete humiliation everyday, wishing for somehow some miracle to happen so that I would be just as the others. And would get dishearten everyday as I saw myself staring at my reflection with disgust.
For years it seemed like my mirror was my biggest enemy. It only made me feel worse. Little did I know, the mirror was reflecting my emotions, not my image. So one day, out of the shear frustration of feeling bad about myself, I decided to do something to fix it instead. Reading a lot of self help books gave me some respite. I started believing that it was possible to feel better about myself, even when I didn't know how. Studying psychology and getting a better understanding about emotions helped too. And so after many years of working on myself one day my mirror spoke back to me. And this time, it wasn't to tell me how ugly I looked or how I was worthless. But rather, it spoke about how perfectly imperfect I was.
If there is one thing I have learnt through this journey, it is to embrace imperfections. To learn to look at them as gifts. The world would be extremely boring and unidentifiable if everything looked like a certain set standard. But the very fact that I have Facial Palsy, puts me at an advantage of standing out in a room. Being noticed. Before it made me feel humiliated, now it makes me feel seen. A little change in perspective can help see yourself in a different light, And that way others look at you differently.
The mirror replies, reflects back what you project. Be conscious of what you project, True beauty is the love that you exude. The mirror is always on your side. You just need to love your imperfections.
Comments