And let’s be honest—you started thinking about everything you
aren’t and everything that everyone else seems to be. You wanted to have a peek into your friends’
mirrors—the ones who are going on fantastic vacations, the ones who are having
babies, the ones who are the superheroes of the neighborhood, the ones who take
care of perfect yards, the ones who run marathons, the ones who are blogger
extraordinaires, the ones who are so talented there’s nothing they can’t do, and
the ones who do all that and more and still manage to be the mom every kid
wishes for.
And there you are seeing just about the opposite of
everything you want to see in your own mirror…
~
One of my favorite movies, My Big Fat Greek Wedding has a running joke about Windex--the plain blue glass cleaner-- fixing
“any ailment from psoriasis to
poison ivy.”
“Put some Windex
on it,” Toula’s father is always saying in his thick Greek accent.
Well my friend, it’s
time to put some “Windex” on it—the kind for the soul with five simple
ingredients:
1. Kindness
Do something nice that
you don’t have to do. Pick up some
trash, leave some nice comments on Facebook, make a phone call to an old friend,
send a text just to say hi, take the neighbors cookies...Wait—don’t get
overwhelmed. Just deliberately do one
nice thing per day and see what happens.
2. Remembrance
Remember who you
are—not just now, but remember who you were like 100 years ago. Try –really–
hard. There you go…that’s it. Can you believe that’s who you are?! And
remember, in a moment when you feel like no one loves you, and it’s hard to
even love yourself—remember that you are the result of the love of thousands. Think
about that next time you look in the mirror.
3. Enjoyment
Spend time doing
something simply because you enjoy it.
Play the piano—not to perfect a song, but to feel it. Write—not to be published, but simply to
bring peace. Read, listen to music, watch TV, color, paint, go shopping, or cook. Just find something to do every day for even only
a few minutes for pure enjoyment.
4. Recognition
We all love praise and
recognition and there never seems to be enough of it. It’s okay to give it to yourself! A powerful form of self-affirmation is writing
down all of those good little things you do that no one else knows about—just keep
a journal. Or simply write a ta-da list
at the end of the day even if it doesn’t include everything you started with on
your to-do list.
5. Nature
Watch a sunset, listen
to the birds, look at the sky, feel the grass between your toes, stop and smell
the roses, go for a hike, drive through a canyon and stop at an overlook. Take
a little time every day to enjoy this beautiful world.
~
And then you realize your mirror is dirty. All those
imperfections and shortcomings are actually smudges, splashes…and who knows
what.
So my friend,
spiffy up your mirror and smile.
