Photo courtesy of Pavel Danilyuk / Pexels

Have you ever been to one of the funhouse mirrors or carnival mazes where there are many types of mirrors that distort how you look? You will see yourself super-fat, super-skinny, twisted, your upper body enlarged while your lower body is tiny; ugly, covered in mud, beautiful, normal and so on. What do you think when you are faced with this distortion of yourself? Do you think you have changed, or that you are flawed in some way? Does it scare you that you can be ugly or even beautiful?

You have one advantage going into the maze. You know what the original really looks like! No amount of distortion in the mirrors is going to change the outcome of reality when you leave the maze. Something interesting happens, though, when we start to fantasize about “what if” I really looked like that? Then you start thinking about how it would feel if you were huge, ugly, skinny, contorted, twisted, or more beautiful.

Experiment: Picture a steak, doughnut, or something else you love to eat. Visualize the smell, the texture. Is it hot or cold? Next thing you know, your mouth is actually salivating at the thought of that food. Do you have the food in front of you? Are you eating it? No. So how can you be salivating over it? That’s the power of suggestion. The power of your thinking. Now, picture something you don’t like the taste of. Or think of biting into a lemon. You can literally imagine your lips pursing up at the thought of the tartness. Just that fast your thought can suggest a reaction to something that you aren’t even physically experiencing!

“Life is a mirror and will reflect back to the thinker what he thinks into it.” — Ernest Holmes

So it is with images of ourselves. We don’t need to ever worry about what others are thinking about us—we do plenty of self-judgment all the time, without giving much thought to the outcome. Like the examples in the mirror maze, we can feel like any one of those “false” images on a given day. Here’s the higher thought, though: if you know what the original really looks like, feels like, acts like and actually is like, why would you entertain a self image that you know is not you?

Keep thinking higher now. To turn the “stinking thinking” around you simply focus on what you know to be true. Other thoughts will try to come in and steal the show and try to boom louder in your mind. You must resist those thoughts, close the door on them, so to speak, and continue to replace them with the truth of who you are. Look in the mirror again. It isn’t what’s in the mirror that is you at all. You are the original. The mirror is only doing what you tell it to do. Just like your mind. It believes what you tell it.

“How others see you is not as important as how you see yourself!” — Bohdi Sanders

So, what will you tell your mind? That you are ignorant, lazy, lonely, deprived, unworthy? Or will you tell it that you are capable, strong, resilient, lovely, funny, disciplined and so on? Remember, no matter how all the maze of mirrors try to suggest you are something you’re not, you are never changed by them. Not even a little. Just remember this when you are having doubts. Another thing to note is that the thoughts you are looking for are the ones that feel good. They are light, bright and inspiring. If you are feeling anything less than that, continue to replace those thoughts with what is good about you. Do you feel like you have to dig really deep to find something good? That’s okay. Keep digging. I guarantee there is more good.

Another mental example of unchanging value and worth: take a new crisp dollar bill. What is it worth? A dollar, right? Now write the words ugly, dumb, worthless on it. Crumple the bill up. Drop it on the floor and step on it. Put it in the mud and squish it around. Now pick it back up. Looks a lot different than it originally did doesn’t it? How much is it worth now that it’s been through the wringer? Yes, a dollar. It has not lost its value or worth no matter how much outside forces tried to change it.

Your value and worth are always intact. Nothing outside of your thought can disrupt that fact.

“If you’re searching for that one person who will change your life, take a look in the mirror and SMILE.” — Jennifer Durand