October 11, 2024

Mirror Mirror…Off the Wall

“12 months of no reflection, left plenty of time for reflection.”

Could you go a year without looking in the mirror?

Me either.

But a 29 year old, sociology PhD candidate named Kjerstin Gruys did just that. She decided to embark on a personal experiment to refrain from looking at herself in a mirror for an entire year – which she documented on her blog, Mirror Mirror…Off the Wall.

As a teenager, Kjerstin struggled with body image and an eating disorder, which she eventually overcame after years of therapy. Once engaged and the wedding dress shopping began, she realized that many of those same insecurities she felt as a teenager, began to resurface.

…I have a very normal body, but I compare myself to women who are photoshopped, so they don’t even look like the actual women…

To fight those self-deprecating thoughts, she made the decision six months before her big day to begin her year long journey of avoiding her own reflection. This was not without struggle but in her interview with 20/20, she talks of the tricks she used to avoid looking at herself in mirrors and reflections.

“I do see myself out of the corner of my eye everyday, because reflective surfaces are everywhere, but I don’t look.”

All in all, the experiment was a success. It helped improve her self esteem and focus her efforts more on how she views the world vs. how she views herself.

“…because I’m not looking in the mirror, I think a lot more about how I feel, then how I look… It’s kind of opened up a new way of thinking about myself as a whole instead of just my looks.”

I commend her efforts and can only imagine the change that you feel when you take yourself out of the picture and focus your attentions on something more important, something less selfish and pride stricken. We should all strive to focus our attentions outwardly, rather than focusing on something we can’t necessarily change anyway. Be confident in the person you ARE, not the perception you might see in a mirror. Express your best and you will always be beautiful.

How long could you go without looking in a mirror?

To see the whole interview, visit abcnews.go.com/2020/

 

 

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