Dr. César Lara
Mirror, mirror on the wall – who is the fairest of them all? This is a question from a lady who wanted validation that she was, indeed, the fairest in the land. This childhood fairy tale demonstrates something that we all need – someone to tell us that we have value. For her, it was a mirror talking to her. For us, it’s a little different. We need to talk to the mirror.
Talking to the mirror may be, at first, a little uncomfortable; and the conversation we need to have can be a little difficult until we get accustomed to having it on a daily basis. After all, how many of us truly feel like we are the “fairest in the land”. For many people, there are instead, these old tapes that play over in our head that say we’re not good enough, we’re not attractive, we’re not as good as others. It’s time to re-record those tapes, and the mirror is the tool to help us.
As you look into the mirror, take an objective look at who is looking back at you. There are some really nice features about that image; a nice smile, good complexion, gentle eyes. Now let’s focus on the eyes a little more deeply. On old proverb states “the eyes are the window to the soul”. Let’s look in the window and see what is in there that we really want.
As we are window shopping, there may be many things we would like to have, but we need to focus on those things that are most important to us. Try to find five things. Once we identify five, we begin to bring those things into our personal universe and learn how they are achievable.
At first, the old little voices plant seeds of doubt and tell us that we are silly to even think about it. But we have identified those five things and the old tapes have already lost their power to keep us feeling badly about ourselves. Now our daily exercise routine is to look in that mirror, in those eyes, every day and say “I want…..” whatever the five things are. Always keep the statement positive – do not use “I don’t want”. For example, you may say “I want to weigh 130 pounds, I want to be healthy, I want to feel more joy, I want to be more successful, I want to appreciate what I see in this mirror.” Once we get past the stage when we feel a little silly talking to our reflection, we find that just this simple exercise can empower us to achieve!
During the day, we can look in our car vanity mirror, the workplace restroom mirror….anyplace where we can look through our eyes, into the windows of our soul and touch those things we want. The more we verbalize those wants, the faster those old tapes completely disappear and we find that looking in the mirror is not the negative it once was. In fact, we have learned the power of positive thinking. Now when we wonder “who is the fairest”, we can feel in our heart that we are worth the answer we get in return – “YOU ARE”.
Dr. César A. Lara
César A. Lara, M.D. is a Board Certified family physician and a leading expert in the field of medicine, the treatment of obesity, and weight loss management. For more than 20 years, it has been Dr. Lara’s passion to become a positive force in America’s ever-growing obesity crisis…one patient at a time. Dr. Lara’s dream of helping men and women overcome diabetes, hypertension, high cholesterol, and other chronic conditions related to obesity was realized with the emergence of the César A. Lara, MD; Center for Weight Management as a premier weight loss center in Tampa Bay. A graduate of the University of Iowa, Carver College of Medicine, Dr. Lara is known for his strong personal faith and his generous contributions to the Tampa Bay community. Dr. Lara regularly appears on television as a medical contributor to Brighthouse Network’s Bay News 9 en Español and WTSP-TV Studio 10. He frequently participates in corporate health fairs promoting an active lifestyle and healthy weight loss options. He is the founder of St. Michael’s Free Clinic and Weight Away Tampa Bay, charitable organizations that provide free medical treatment to those who cannot afford it.
