Seeing Your Reflection For The First Time
By Jennifer Alexander
Anyone struggling with body image issues, will know what it’s like to avoid their own
image. Even when you do accidentally catch your own reflection in the bathroom mirror, you mentally photoshop yourself – you see yourself only as a heap of “problem areas”, rather than a whole person.
In the body-shy community, there is a trend called mirror fasting. Mirror fasting is taking time off from looking at yourself in the mirror for a day, a month, or even a year. This activity is said to decrease insecurities, increase confidence, and free up the mental space usually occupied by doubting thoughts about your appearance. Divorcing yourself from your own reflection seems to say, I don’t look like what I think I should look like, so I’m going to avoid myself.
There’s nothing wrong with wanting to change aspects of yourself, but before you begin
to build yourself up, you must first lay a foundation. The first step in the road to self-love is accepting yourself as you are now, wholly and completely, imperfections and all.
You would never try to body-shame someone into changing their appearance, so why do you do it to yourself?
Understand that every part of you, every seeming imperfection, is a distinguishing
feature that tells your story. Your body, your looks, and your shape are a badge of honor,
it is a reminder that you have lived your life, a life uniquely your own. So the next time you catch your reflection in the mirror, take yourself in completely, cellulite, stretch marks, rolls and all, and say hello for the first time.
Biography: Jennifer Alexander is a published writer, curve model and entertainer living in Toronto, Canada. She studied English literature at University and began her career life writing for the stage. Later performing at The Second City and being an advocate for the representation of diversity within the media, Jennifer often uses humor and other accessible art forms to shed light on some of the society’s more weighty issues.