The Me in my Head

When you look in the mirror, do you see reflected back the image you keep of yourself in your head? So often I feel that somehow time has raced ahead and left the “me” with whom I seem to personally identify, locked securely in image, thought and feeling, frozen in my mind. I look at my current reflection and barely recognize the person looking back. When did the disconnect occur between now and then?
Perhaps we latch on to ourselves at a time when we really felt connected in mind and body. We actually may have liked the image reflected back: body slim, trim, flexible, shapely. A favourite outfit, perhaps, in a colour of just the right hue; fabric that flattered; we stand taller somehow more in control; fewer lines on our face or grey in our hair. Others smile and compliment easily effortlessly…meaningfully; not scanning then straining for the words that fall short of hopeful desires and expectations…words that fall very short of the me in my head…or with qualifiers like “for your age”.
Age begins in the mind. Time marches on for the body but the me in my head has stopped where I liked me. I am still young, vibrant, sensual, sexy, witty, intelligent. Have I held on to this image so tightly that this disconnect happened so easily without me noticing? A sort of losing grip with reality?
The reality is in making the reconnection to feel and be ‘whole’ again. The me in my mind is an image, true, but it is also the sum of the emotions that embody it. The mind is powerful as witnessed by the fact that I was able to keep one me firmly fixed in it while time created a sort of exterior version of its own. Upon viewing it critically, I see bulges, wrinkles, grey hair and swollen joints I could wish away. But I feel like the internal image. So now, as the saying goes….accept the things you cannot change and change the things you can! It is all in your mind and your perception. My wrinkles and grey hair are the lines or markers of a life well lived…a person, me, who embraced the act of living. Sometimes my choices and judgments were questionable, but they were made with gusto and determination. Highs and lows, ebb and flow but I didn’t play observer, I dove in and savored every moment.
Now my thoughts are changing as I begin to connect to the me in the mirror. A champion…a warrior smiles back. Should I hide these markers of a life well lived to fit societal expectation and acceptance of false beauty and the façade of youth? I really don’t want to be young again…it strikes me now as too much drama and too overstated. Age has its wisdom and I savour this viewing advantage. So many try through surgery etc because they see the me in the mirror as a failure from the me in the mind. I see, feel, hear my own uniqueness. There is not a single soul in this Universe who is exactly like me….lines, bumps and all! Why not celebrate the accomplishment? Take those emotions of the me in your mind and allow them to percolate, infuse and colour the me in the mirror. Time guarantees you will certainly age, but you can refuse to grow up! Change what you can if you still feel the need….your powerful subconscious mind can certainly trim off the bulges and motivate you to fitness through hypnosis. It is through your feelings that you truly connect inside and out and therefore truly LIVE! When was the last time you belly laughed…danced…or acted silly…or played…for no reason at all? Is this why Grandparents so often appreciate their grandchildren? They give us a ‘reason’ to play and be silly again.
So the lesson here is one of reconnection, passion and embracing. Reconnecting with the real you and all of the emotions that create your life’s tapestry and embracing a life lived without making excuses, hiding behind false images or embarrassment. No one need feel compelled to justify or explain. Hypnosis is not just to change…it is the means to connect. I AM the me in my mind and truly happy with it…it just so happens that it is also, now, the me in the mirror!