Break That Mirror, Then Find Another
“You’ve got the wrong picture of yourself, Elsa. No matter how far you’ve come, you bring that mirror with you. Break it…remember, I’m a mirror too.” This fictional conversation in Kristin Hannah’s “The Four Winds” has stuck with me for the past 6 months since I first read it. I’ve found myself re-visiting it recently, so I thought I would write about why I find it so uplifting and so difficult at the same time. Last week, my squats were a lot tougher than usual. I had accidentally packed the wrong shoes (too squishy), my legs were tired from a same-day bench workout, and I find it very hard to watch myself on video when it comes to how my legs and hips move. As much as I know that watching myself is helpful for correcting my form, sometimes it makes me want to jump out of my skin. This passage reminds me that when I start to feel that way, I am looking at myself through a mirror that is broken–one where my muscle weakness gets warped into a character flaw, even though my lo...