High-Fiving…Me!
I’ve been reading Mel Robbins new book called the High 5 Habit and oh my gosh, it’s SO GOOD!
SO GOOD that I knew it was a must to hand letter!! I love it when that happens!!
Basically, it’s a game changer for how you look and FEEL about yourself in the mirror, at least, it was for me.
I’ve tried mirror work in the past (Louise Hay’s affirmations) and it’s SO great, and I love her so much, but I’d never stay consistent with it.
Because, looking at myself in the mirror, especially as I’m growing older, isn’t anywhere near as fun as it used to be when I was younger.
I mean, gosh! Kids!
I LOVE them SO much, because they can look at themselves for hours in the mirror and all they think is GOOD thoughts about themselves the entire time.
I mean…I’m sure you’ve seen this video called, Jessica’s “Daily Affirmations,” on YouTube right!?
I LOVE it SO much!! It’s a must watch if you haven’t seen it.
I always wish I could BE a kid like that again so I can look at myself in the mirror and say those AMAZING things about myself again…because I used to…we ALL did…because that’s how little kids are wired!
Seriously…kids are the best and our number one teachers!!
Because now, all I do is talk negative to myself about how I don’t like how I look…like all the new wrinkles and gray hair I’m getting as I’ve gotten older, the bags under my eyes from all the stress and exhaustion and sleep deprivation that comes from having SO many adult responsibilities that fill my day with not enough time to do them all AND, oh my gosh, let’s not forget about all the newly added weight gain that is filling out my cheeks and adding to my double chin.
Gotta love it! Ha!
My thoughts can be absolutely brutal when I look at myself in the mirror…and that’s only when I look at my face.
You don’t even want to know the thoughts I think when I look at myself from head to toe in a full length mirror. Not good! Not good at all!
And that, honestly, has always made me SO sad.
But I never thought I’d get to the inner-kid place of loving what I’m seeing in the mirror again, that is, until I read Mel Robbins book.
Instead of looking at yourself and saying affirmations to lift yourself UP, she says to look at yourself in the mirror and give yourself a high five to lift yourself UP!
I thought, really? Give myself a high five in the mirror? That sounds super weird, but then I tried it.
And yes, at first, it was super weird.
But the second I raised my hand to the mirror, before even touching it, I immediately FELT that FEELING a high five gives.
You know the feeling…when you give someone a high five…it’s SO UPlifting!!
It raises your vibration!
It makes you smile!
It makes you laugh!
It makes you feel happy and energized!
I mean, heck, when I start high-fiving my kids, our dog can be sleeping on the couch and then he hears us and he gets right up and comes over to us and starts jumping up on us, wanting to join in, because he can feel all that HAPPY energy going on and wants to be part of it too! It’s SO amazing and SO cool!!
That’s exactly how I felt when I did high-fived myself in the mirror!
Instead of looking at myself…
Or, shall I say, trying not to look at myself so my thoughts won’t immediately go down the negative-rabbit-hole of pointing out all the flaws on my face and how they look horrible and how I wish I could travel back in time to my 20s when I looked vibrant, well-rested, super glowy, skinny and YOUNG!!!!!
I actually SMILED at myself.
Because the second I FELT that high five FEELING, it made me smile!!
Just like it ALWAYS does when I high five someone.
Like my kids…I give them high five’s all the time!!
We LOVE it and we ALL immediately smile while doing it…and when we’re done, that FEELING lasts for some time after, too!
High five’s truly LIFT UP energy levels!!!
Like it literally pulls me out of my negative funk in a nano-second.
And because of that FEELING I was feeling, I told myself….
Keep high-fiving yourself!!
Because it’s time to stop avoiding mirrors and it’s time to stop pulling myself down with negative thoughts when I see myself in a mirror and it’s time to START thinking better thoughts about myself!
So from now on, when I see myself in a mirror…any mirror, I’m giving myself a high five and celebrating ME!!!
It can still feel a bit weird not feeling someone else’s hand hitting mine while doing it, and I can still struggle with the negative thoughts that come with the looking at myself in the mirror, but the way in FEEL on the inside, and that smile that comes on the outside, is SO worth it.
And the way I’m not avoiding mirrors as much anymore is SO worth it.
And the way I’m using this time, like Mel Robbin’s says in her book, to have a moment with myself in the mirror, is SO worth it.
Because, really, when do I ever get to have intimate moments with myself like this? Never!!!
I’m too busy racing around taking care of everyone else all day that I don’t ever really take the time to truly stop and look at myself and tell myself motivating thoughts, like “YOU GOT THIS, Renee!”
But that moment with myself in the mirror…I see now, thanks to Mel Robbins, I can definitely do that!!
And I can do that a few times a day and night, too…any time I see MYSELF in a mirror!!
The mirror has now become a place to look at myself and LIFT ME UP…instead of looking at myself and bring me down!
But, check this out.
The more I started FEELING better about myself in the mirror while high-fiving ME, something even bigger happened to me.
Before even getting to my high five…while brushing my teeth, rolling my jade roller on my face, putting my make-up on, blow drying my hair and then waving it or straightening it with my curling iron or diffusing it on natural curly days, I started to think about all things I AM SOUL GRATEFUL for about my face.
I have EYES that I can SEE with!!
Beautiful green eyes!!
That allow me SEE everything in this world!!
Yes, I may need glasses, but I still get to SEE everything in this beautiful world that I get to live in!!
My kids…mother nature…movies…TV shows…watch my favorite band…look at yummy food I want to eat…allow me to see roads so I can drive all over town and long distances…watch my kids school performances…watch my dog run around and do his zoomies, sunsets, sunrises…AND…that even allow me to shed happy tears when I’m super happy about something or shed sad tears when I’m sad about something.
I have a NOSE that I can SMELL with!!!
A beautiful nose!!!
That allows me to smell EVERYTHING in this beautiful world that I get to live in!!!
Sometimes the most yummy smells…vanilla scented candles, the aroma of chocolate cookies my daughter made that are baking in the oven, the smell of fresh flowers, sunscreen that smells like the beach…and, sometimes, not-so-yummy smells…like the smell of fire telling me danger is near or the smell of gas from the kitchen stove telling me I need to turn it off and get outside as fast as I can so nothing bad happens to me and my little family.
I have a MOUTH!!
A beautiful mouth!!
That I get to taste SO many different delicious flavors with…like AMAZING food and drinks with!!
I have TEETH!!
Beautiful teeth!!!
That I get to try every kind of food with and that shine bright when I smile!!
I can eat anything I want (as long as I’m careful and not breaking any teeth…ha!) because I have teeth!!! And when I smile, all my pearly whites are all there, helping my smile be even better!!
I have LIPS!!
Beautiful lips!!
That I can put my favorite lipstick on, kiss my kids cheeks with to show them I love them, kiss my husband with to show him how much I love him AND most of all…lips that can SMILE and FROWN!!
I have EARS!!
Two BEAUTIFUL ears!!!
That I can hear everything with!!
So far, after blasting music in them for, let’s say, about 44 years…I’ve been doing it basically all my life and I’m SO thankful they’re still working well!! But I can HEAR music, my kids laugh, my husband tell me all the reasons why he loves me, my dog play with his LOUD squeaky toy that can drive me crazy but also make me laugh, a rain storm, wind blow through the leaves of the trees and the ocean crashing on the shoreline!!
I have HAIR!!
BEAUTIFUL hair!!!
Hair, that yes, is aging, but I have hair!! I still have hair!! That I can cut short, grow long, color any color I’d like or leave it natural and that I can style any way I please!!!
And, I have SKIN!!
BEAUTIFUL skin!!
That allows my face to show expression. That moves when I smile and when I laugh and when I frown. And it protects my bones and keeps my inner body protected!! And it soaks up the best Vitamin D nutrition from the sun!!
My FACE!!
My BEAUTIFUL face shows EVERY expression that I FEEL!!
Whatever I’m FEELING inside of me…happy, sad, fear, joy…every single FEELING gets expressed through my face!!
And I can’t even imagine not being able to do that.
Not to be able to smile at my kids, laugh with my husband, see my kids performances at school, listen to my kids sing and laugh or read my kids notes they write in cards to me…now that would be awful…way more awful than my aging looks, that’s for dang sure!!
And because of that wake up call and new found awareness, I start to FEEL SOUL GRATEFUL for my entire face as I looked at myself in the mirror!!!
I started saying all those GRATITUDES to myself while looking at my reflection in the mirror…before I high-fived ME!!!
And it moved me to tears.
Because I was sad, that all these years, while looking at myself in the mirror, all I’ve done is thought the most negative things about myself because of the way (I think!) I look.
And when I started looking at myself in the this GRATEFUL and CELEBRATORY way…it was pretty dang powerful and oh, SO moving!!
And then I felt happy and energized and absolutely motivated to change!!
Because, again, I woke the F**K UP!!! and I was like…
OMG!
Really, Renee!
If it wasn’t for my face!!
My beautiful face!!
I wouldn’t be able to experience all that this BEAUTIFUL LIFE has to offer and that just breaks my heart.
Because some people in the world…they can’t see, they can’t hear, they can’t smell or taste anything (and many now because of Covid), they’re missing teeth and can’t chew certain foods that they’d SO love to try. But me…I have everything…and all I’m doing is thinking negatively about it and not appreciating it at all.
I’m focusing on the WRONG things!!
And that is when I told myself that thinking negatively about how I look is NOT OK anymore!!
Because, man, the way I look in the mirror, it doesn’t matter at all.
And what does matter the most is that…
I CAN see! I CAN hear! I CAN smell! I CAN taste! I HAVE hair! I HAVE skin! I CAN smile! I CAN laugh! I CAN cry!
And, best of all, however I AM feeling inside of me about life CAN be expressed on the outside of me…through my face!!!
I AM a human being that gets to BE here (because it’s not easy to become a human being!!) and SEE and FEEL ALL the EXPERIENCES that is LIFE has to offer and that nothing…absolutely NOTHING…is stopping me from doing so!!
And that’s truly is a miracle in itself .
And that’s what I need to be focused on!!
BEing GRATEFUL to be ALIVE and BEing GRATEFUL that I get to experience ALL of what life has to offer here on plant Earth!!
Which is way more important than how I look…and which is definitely something to HIGH FIVE about every single day!!
I AM ALIVE!!
And, I AM SOUL VERY GRATEFUL for that!!!
And nothing…and I mean…NOTHING!!…is stopping me from experiencing ALL the things that come with BEING ALIVE and expressing myself!!!
HIGH FIVE!!!!!
WOOHOOOO!!!
So if you find yourself avoiding mirrors and hating to look at yourself in one like I was, get yourself Mel’s book and start high-fiving yourself!
I think you’ll BE absolutely AMAZED at what will come through for you as you start lifting your inner vibration with a high five to YOU to in the mirror.
Like BEing GRATEFUL for everything YOUR beautiful face reflects back to you that allows YOU to do and experience while getting to LIVE LIFE here on planet Earth!!
It was an absolute game changer in the way I SEE and FEEL about myself for sure!!
Thank you, Mel, for opening up these NEW doors in how I feel and SEE myself.
You ARE just absolutely AMAZING and I AM SOUL GRATEFUL I found you and connected with you and your message!!
And I AM SOUL GRATEFUL that I can now pass by any mirror and BE SO happy with who I SEE reflecting back to me.
It can still be hard at times to do this, but with this new way of looking at myself with SO much GRATITUDE, it’s getting easier and easier!!
It FEELS so much better to FEEL UPLIFTED and think GRATEFUL thoughts about myself when I look at myself in the mirror now.
Because, man, those negative thoughts about myself, that played over and over, like a broken record, for YEARS!!, truly were a waste of my life!!
So no more wasting my life on negative thoughts like that anymore when there’s SO much to BE GRATEFUL for and SO much to BE HIGH-FIVING about when I look at ME in the mirror!!
So now, instead of looking at myself and thinking, oh my gosh, my eyes look SO tired…I now immediately say NO..when they pop up and instead, I immediately say, I AM SOUL GRATEFUL I HAVE EYES AND I CAN SEE!
And instead of thinking, I look SO old…I say, I AM SOUL GRATEFUL I CAN SMILE and LAUGH and KISS MY HUSBAND and FEEL all the things life brings me…like smiling when I’m happy and crying when I’m sad!
I AM SOUL GRATEFUL that EVERYTHING I get to experience in life is shown through my face…my beautiful, BEAUTIFUL, face!!!
Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!
And then, of course, I give myself a BIG HIGH FIVE!!!!
WOOOOOOOHOOOOOOO!!!!!
Until next time….
Why do I hand letter uplifting words? Because it easily calms the negative and stressed-out thoughts my mind, ignites my inner kid joy and slows me down so I can connect more (and share more!) to my inner gifts, talent’s and CREATIVITY (something that's hard to do when my mind is running 100 miles ahead or behind the present moment...especially during a global pandemic!) and truly focus on what matters most in my life (my kids and my husband!) and all the GOOD that fills it!
Creativity CALMs my mind, ignites my JOY and slows me down so I can SAVOR everything I LOVE in my life.
Who I am is what I love...SAVOR it!
