Mirror Mirror

Children are impressionable. They soak in everything they hear and believe almost all of it. Even during the years of “WHY?” their subconscious minds store the information as facts – most notably negative statements and insecurities. We bury these and run on them unconsciously.  Our inner child holds them as we mature.

We find it more challenging as we age to believe kind words. We both crave them and look for the ulterior motive for why someone would think great things of us. Our self-doubt surfaces easiest because it resonates with that inner child’s beliefs. We have to work hard at believing great things about ourselves – it would come more naturally if the inner munchkin already thought it too!

Wouldn’t it be great to connect with that inner munchkin and set them straight? Tap into your subconscious or implant positive thoughts and self-care early on in our children’s lives to empower their inner child as they grow?

It might be as easy as using that Mirror Mirror on your Wall!

Mirror work has integrated itself into many practices since Louise Hay first used this method to connect to yourself, learn self-love, and heal inner-child wounds. And let me be clear – it seems like a simple tool, but the older we get, the harder it is to stare yourself in the eyes and declare, “I LOVE YOU.” Believe me – tears. It very well may feel downright foreign – unbelievable – and more emotional than you would imagine.

I find teaching mirror work is an important part of building daily routines, and routines of self-care.  We practice one of our social-emotional tools daily in our classrooms to build great habits from a young age.

Having done this work with children over the years, they may feel silly, laugh, and still not believe what they are saying – but they get comfortable with the practice much more quickly. The younger they start, the faster they accept the power of kind words. You can see them carry the kind words as they soak the statements in as truths.

We like to introduce children to the practice to empower them, teach them self-respect, and perhaps immunize them against inner-child wounds!

Though we do this as a group during circle time in our classrooms, modeling this for your child and making this a practice builds incredible connections with each other, and yourselves.

This is an important thing to practice – I’m still learning the art. However, it is more important to teach your children – here is our ritual using a handheld mirror.

We use 3 sentence starters as we gaze into a mirror and let the child finish the sentence.

I AM…

I LOVE THAT …

IT’S OK THAT…

We say one of these sentences 3 times to our reflection before we pass the mirror to the next person. We say the second sentence the second time around the circle. And we recognize our mistakes and faults in the last sentence as we go around the ring a third time. We don’t always have time for all 3 – some days, we may choose just one.

However, we always end with the statement: I LOVE YOU. This may be the hardest of them all. Repeating it 3 times while staring into your own eyes. This is where the power lies.

“Mirror, Mirror on the wall, who’s the fairest of them all?”
Well…This isn’t even a question anymore.

Mirror, let me tell you –

I AM Powerful. I AM Kind. I AM Creative

I LOVE THAT I try hard. I LOVE THAT I see humor and joy in the world. I LOVE THAT I love to learn.

IT’S OK THAT I miss deadlines, that I procrastinate, and that I get scared.

But most importantly, Mirror, Mirror on the wall …

I LOVE YOU!

Be sure to visit our YouTube channel where you will find creative how-to videos in our discovery lab for making your own mosaic mirrors, and follow our feemons where you can practice affirmations and mirror work with our animated characters!