I’m dancing. I do random things, don’t I? Okay. So tonight I want to talk to you about an exercise, correct english Samantha Mary Leith that I recently did. Now, I made it up from other people’s exercises. So I want to go through where I picked up all the tips about it, but mirror exercises are quite popular. This is probably one of the most woo-woo things I’ve ever done. So I call myself analytical with woo-woo rising. I’ve got a bit of the left brain, right brain thing happening. So I’m strategically trying to think about how to meditate. So analytical with the woo-woo rising is me, but I’ve done this exercise recently that hit me like a truck, really. It was really powerful.
I’d listened to a couple of people talking about different mirror work. And then I did a mish-mosh of what I thought. So if you’ve never done mirror work before it can involve you standing in front of a mirror and saying things to yourself, or repeating an affirmation or doing acceptance on body, or there’s something that’s going on while you’re looking at your own reflection. And then I heard this, what I was, “Oh my God, that’s genius,” was actually about talking to yourself. So grab a picture of yourself as your younger self and talk to that. So that’s what I wanted to concentrate on because as a kid, we grow up and by the time we’re 21, let alone 45, the crap we have said to ourselves is vile, vile. Okay. And one of the easiest ways to completely quash your confidence is all that crap that goes on in our heads. We’re nasty. We wouldn’t let other people talk to us the way we talk to ourselves.
So to go back and talk to a picture of ourselves and be kinder and undo maybe a little bit of that harshness that we’ve said over the years to ourselves internally is really powerful. Yeah. I was crying, but I have been a bit of a sook lately, I’ll give you that one. So what I did was I got a photo of myself as a child and I meant to have the photo with me to show you, and I don’t. So I could hold up a mirror ball. Where’s a photo of me. Oh my God. Ah, what do I do with a photo of me. Oh, here we go.
We’ll just pretend, shall we? So I’m standing there with a photo of myself. That’s hilarious. Not that photo, but I had the photo of me and I stuck it on a mirror. Okay. So I wasn’t looking at myself. I was looking at the photo of me and yes, you can buy these beauties on my website. Shameless plug. And what I did was four things. Okay. So four rounds of three. So I picked three negatives that I’ve continually said to myself over my life. Random, I’m not going to give you what I said to myself, but let’s go with your nose is too big. Okay. And you might flip it and go, you breathe so well through that nose. I breathe so well through that nose, rather. You never get anything finished is that inner dialogue that goes on and you flip it and you say, I finished X, Y, and Z, you finished X, Y, and Z.
It took me a while to get the hang of the I, you thing, because it was like talking to somebody, but it’s me. I’m, “Oh, which person am I doing this in?” So play around with what feels right to you. So it’s the three negatives that you want to flip. The three negatives that you’ve continually repeated. And you want to say to that younger you, that’s not true. Okay. This is the truth. The truth is that more positive thing. The truth is, you know what, you’ve got legs that help get you from A to B, don’t think you’ve got thunder thighs. That kind of thing. And then three more compassionate ways of talking about three mistakes, three cockups that have happened, basically. And to be more compassionate to that younger you about those mistakes that, that younger person might not even have made yet.
Okay. Because they’re going to go down a road and make decisions. And then we beat ourselves up for that decision. So to show ourselves a little bit of compassion for those mistakes, because remember every single one of those mistakes that you make in life gets you to where you are right now. And I know for me, I like where I am right now. I like me. Yeah. There’s good stuff. There’s bad stuff. There’s great stuff. There’s shit stuff. But it’s life and that’s awesome. So all of those mistakes help get you there. So you need to give yourself compassion now because when you’re looking back on it, it’s easy. But when you’re in the thick of those mistakes, “I’m just to hopeless.” All that maniacal stuff that goes on in their heads. Again, just chipping away at our confidence. We can’t have that. Our confidence is so precious. It’s so, so, so precious. We have to protect it at all costs.
The third one was to give yourself three tips, give that younger you three tips. Floss, wear sunscreen, don’t don’t do the whole Romeo and Juliet poem unless you got a lot of time. But wear sunscreen kids. But three tips to give that younger self of you. Okay. Mine were probably sensible. Yeah. Mine were sensible. And I’m going to keep it during this exercise, because I really liked it. So I’m going to do it again. Maybe I’ll share with you what I say to myself. Do you want to know? I don’t know. No. I think you need to do your own.
And then lastly I want you to instill, you know how in the daily journaling practice we do our power statements. So I am enough for, I am ambitious or I’m generous, whatever you want to feel that day. Whatever you want to feel. I’m energetic. I’m committed. I’m strong. I’m loved. I’m rich. I’m any of those things. Okay. So I want you to give your younger self three of those power statements as well. Okay? So you are enough. You are loved, you are safe, you are sexy. You are funny. You are whatever those three important power statements are to you.
So let’s run through that again. So I want a picture of your old self, younger self, when you were blonde, whatever. Stick it up on the mirror so you’re literally… I know that you’re looking at my hand, but trying to… So your looking at yourself. Okay. Don’t look at my profile, look at yourself. And then I want you to do these four exercises, three times each. Okay. So the first one is flip three negatives. Then I want you to give yourself compassion for three mistakes that you’ve made. Then I want you to give three tips for goals or life for yourself. And lastly, the three power statements that you want to instill in that younger version of you. Give it a go. Let me know how it goes for you and how you feel. Send me a message, comment here, head on over to samanthaleith.com. Join me somewhere, I’d love to hear from you. Have a great night. Stay safe, stay well. And I’ll talk to you all tomorrow. Bye.