Mirror Work: 21 Days to Heal Your Life

It’s so important to love yourself. Mirror work can help you build the most important relationship of your life: your relationship with yourself.

When you begin your mirror work, you may think it’s too easy or even silly. A lot of things I suggest that you do over the next 21 days may at first appear too simple to make a difference. But I have learned that the simplest actions are often the most important. One small change in your thinking can lead to huge changes in your life.

Each day we will address a different theme. I will begin with some thoughts on the theme and then give you a Mirror Work Exercise I would like you to practice throughout the day. You can begin in the morning by doing this exercise in front of your bathroom mirror, and then during the day you can repeat it whenever you pass a mirror or see your reflection in a window. You can also carry a pocket mirror with you and use it to do mirror work whenever you have a few minutes to spare.

I urge you to keep a journal as you do your mirror work. Jot down your thoughts and feelings so you can see how you are progressing. Each day I will give you a Journaling Exercise, suggesting a few questions to help you get started. I believe that each of us has a power within us, a higher self connected to the Universal Power that loves and sustains us and brings us prosperity of every kind. Journaling will help you connect with this force. You will see that you have within you all that you need to grow and change.

Each day I will also provide you with a Heart Thought to support your mirror work and an affirmation to help you put the day’s theme into action. Finally, I offer a guided meditation. I suggest that you sit quietly before you go to bed and reflect on how these ideas can make your life a little easier and a lot better. You can read the meditation in the book or, if you prefer, listen to the audio version from which it was adapted.

Your Day 1 Mirror Work Exercise

Stand or sit in front of your bathroom mirror.
Look into your eyes.
Take a deep breath and say this affirmation: I want to like you. I want to really learn to love you. Let’s go for it and really have some fun.
Take another deep breath and say, I’m learning to really like you. I’m learning to really love you.
This is the first exercise, and I know it can be a little challenging, but please stay with it. Keep taking deep breaths. Look into your eyes. Use your own name as you say, I’m willing to learn to love you, [Name]. I’m willing to learn to love you.
Throughout the day, each time you pass a mirror or see your reflection, please repeat these affirmations, even if you have to do it silently.

At first when you do your mirror work, you may feel silly or stupid repeating the affirmations. You may even be angry or want to cry. That’s all right—in fact, it’s quite normal. And you’re not alone. Remember that I’m right here with you. I’ve been through this, too. And tomorrow is a new day.

The Power Is Within You: Your Day 1 Journaling Exercise

After you finish your morning mirror work, write down your feelings and observations. Did you feel angry or upset or silly?
Six hours after finishing your morning mirror work, again write down your feelings and observations. As you continued to practice your mirror work formally and informally, did you start to believe what you were saying to yourself?
Keep track of any changes in your behavior or your beliefs over the course of the day. Did the exercise get easier, or did you continue to find it difficult after doing it awhile?
At the end of the day, before you go to bed, write down what you learned from doing your mirror work.

Your Heart Thought for Day 1: I Am Open and Receptive

If we do mirror work to create good in our lives but there’s a part of us that doesn’t believe we are worth it, we are not going to believe the words we are saying as we look in the mirror. We will reach a point at which we start thinking, Mirror work doesn’t work.

The truth is, the perception that mirror work doesn’t work has nothing to do with the mirror work itself or the affirmations we say. The problem is that we don’t believe we deserve all the good that life has to offer.

If that’s your belief, then affirm: I am open and receptive.

Your Day 1 Meditation: Loving Yourself
(Day 1 of the audio download)

Each one of us has the ability to love ourselves more. Each one of us deserves to be loved. We deserve to live well, to be healthy, to be loved and loving, and to prosper. And that little child within each of us deserves to grow up into a wonderful adult.

So see yourself surrounded by love. See yourself happy and healthy and whole. And see your life as you would like it to be, putting in all the details. Know that you deserve it.

And then take the love from your heart and let it begin to flow, filling your body and then moving out from you. Visualize the people you love sitting on either side of you. Let the love flow to those on your left and send them comforting thoughts. Surround them with love and support, and wish them well. And then let the love from your heart flow to the people on your right. Surround them with healing energies and love and peace and light. Let your love flow around the room until you are sitting in an enormous circle of love. Feel the love circulating as it goes out from you and then comes back to you multiplied.

Love is the most powerful healing force there is. You can take this love out into the world and silently share it with everyone you meet. Love yourself. Love one another. Love the planet and know that we are all one. And so it is.