Day 5: The Mirror Is Not the Enemy

What if your reflection didn’t need fixing—just softening?

Welcome back to Day 5 of Coming Home to Your Body.

Yesterday, we borrowed the gaze of someone who has never doubted our worth—our child.

Today, we step back to the mirror. Not as a battleground, but as a meeting place. Not to dissect or perform, but to pause.

You don’t have to love everything you see.

Curiosity is enough.

Kindness is enough.

Presence is enough.

Photo by Annie Spratt on Unsplash

🪞 The Mirror That Stopped Being a Weapon

For years, I thought the mirror hated me.

It always seemed to catch me at the worst angles—harsh light, bloated belly, skin I didn’t recognize.

I’d stand there frozen, cataloging flaws, reciting punishments:

“Starting Monday, no more snacks.”

“You can’t wear that again.”

“You’re letting yourself go.”

The mirror became a place of shame. A place I braced myself to enter. A place I avoided unless I needed to “fix” something.

But one morning, something shifted.

I was brushing my daughter’s hair when she caught my eye in the mirror. Her face lit up. She giggled and said, “You look like sunshine when you smile, Mama.”

I didn’t feel like sunshine. I felt tired. Puffy. Worn thin.

But her words pierced through the fog.

Because in her reflection, I didn’t see flaws.

I saw joy.

Warmth.

Aliveness.

And for a moment, I believed it.

Not because the mirror changed.

But because I did.

That was the first time I realized:

The mirror wasn’t the enemy.

It was simply holding the story I brought to it.