3 + 1 Ways to Look in the Mirror
By Theresa Shay
This is the second part in a series on body image and scoliosis. Read Part 1 here.
In the conversation about body image, let’s head to a beautiful, natural, peaceful place like the great outdoors and find inspiration. That’s what this conversation is about: being our beautiful, natural, peaceful selves.
The scoliosis and spinal fusion community have been passing around wisdom regarding the hurdle of loving a body that is atypically designed, physically imbalanced, structurally challenged, and medically categorized as a “deformity”. Given that scoliosis often appears amidst the turbulence of adolescence when everyone is hyper body-conscious anyway, the search for healing has many layers to penetrate. What can we do to make looking in the mirror a little easier?
Practice putting your body forward as if you had all the confidence in the world.
Know that you look with the most critical eye of anyone. You are your harshest critic.
Realize that people don’t even see you. A friend who is a dancer shared on Instagram that even standing on stilts and dressed in sequins, people still bump into her and say, “Oh, I didn’t see you.”
These approaches can help you think differently about your body and help you act more freely.
Let’s leap from here. Place yourself in another beautiful, natural, peaceful place of inspiration: the inner realm of being connected. Reach into the breath, Flow, source, the universe, whatever name settles well with you. This is not thinking about how to look in the mirror with more compassion. This healing has to do with becoming the mirror, able to reflect the ultimate light.
When you close your eyes, connect to your breath, and settle your awareness here and now – without reviewing what came before or imagining what lies ahead - you touch the source of Presence. You tap into the truth that this body has been given as a gift. It’s here right now, alive. This body is the only way you can experience and participate in your physical existence. This is a miracle.
When you make a connection to that inner landscape, to what exists and flows beneath and beyond any thought, you feel the sun emerging from behind the clouds to flood you with light and glow.
You are a ray of the eternal sun. You are here to shine, here to share your light. Your body is the means for that expression on earth.
If you can’t yet do that for yourself yet, find the people who shine and stay close. Light reflects and soon enough you’ll realize, that light is in you too.
You have become the mirror.
Theresa Shay is the founding director of TriYoga of Central Pennsylvania, where she teaches weekly yoga and meditation online and trains others to teach TriYoga®. Each week, she shares wisdom cultivated from decades of TriYoga study and practice.
Learn more about her here. Theresa can be reached at Theresa@PennsylvaniaYoga.com. Find her on Instagram @theresa_of_triyoga for more inspiration and light.