In learning to love myself without condition or expectation, I've come to be comfortable with letting go of all the things that I learned to use to try and fill myself up with: expecting others to give me what I needed to give myself, surrounding myself with other people, keeping my head filled with thoughts, driving myself like a slave to gain the approval of others, believing the world would not turn without me, thinking that if I could just do enough I could maybe feel enough, shrinking so that others did not have to be so afraid. 

I was playing Simon Says with my ego as the leader. Eventually my heart could not cope alone so my Soul sent me mirrors to open my eyes-people who spoke to me and treated me the way that I unconsciously did.  Of course, I didn't know then what I know now so I blamed them for my terror, pain, confusion and grief and they blamed me right back. 

That's how mirrors work, they simply go on reflecting whatever we project onto them until we make the change within ourselves. Our egos will have us hating the mirror so we can stay securely in the comfort zone our brain has created for us. When we try to look into the mirrors we may see distortions, cracks or missing pieces and these support our belief that mirrors are not real. Each time we see a mirror and don't learn from it, another will come, and others, and others until eventually we become surrounded by people, events and experiences that all mirror back what we most dislike in ourselves. The great part about it is that as we learn to love ourselves, we create nicer mirrors to project into and they get reflected back too.  

Now I love myself enough to love the mirrors in my life and I know I can choose love over fear every chance I get.

- June Parkin