Face yourself every morning

Waking up in the morning, depends from person to person. Are you still half asleep? Are you annoyed to be awake? Are the birds singing too loudly? Whether you are happy, grumpy, angry, tired, excited, motivated or just meh! You cross a mirror somewhere. What happens in mirror time?

You find two eyes staring back at you. What are they telling you? Or more importantly, what is your head telling you about those two eyes?

You might look like a sleepy panda or a disco queen, you might want to crawl back into bed and die a slow death, or you might want to grab your running shoes and run 10 kilometres, which ever route you choose to take, smile at that human. Easy when you are a morning person, harder when you are not.

I woke up to yet another morning of grey, drab and dull clouds in the sky, thinking to myself “It might rain in a few minutes”. I got dressed in my “gym” clothes to go running. Woke up my son, who had a bad morning, he was late… Again. And then drove to school.

First problem was, a minibus taxi who stopped 1 meter away from a stop street on a 3-way crossing, blocking all the other cars while he picked up his paying customers. Everyone blowing on their horns, throwing signs and trying to pass each other and missing each other by mere inches. I tried to stay calm, but I was annoyed at how brainless some people can be.

After a few minutes of driving, a woman in a small white car, just drove out of her driveway into a large road with 4 lanes. Nearly hitting me and two other cars! I don’t know what she was thinking, but clearly she wasn’t. Probably still fast asleep. More cars horns and signs flew around, not from me but other oncoming cars, but I was livid! I think these people were still fast asleep, hasn’t had coffee yet, or maybe they were just stuck in their daily routines.

Made it to school in one piece, dropped my son off, just as the school bell rang. I was off to the sports grounds, thinking maybe I should just skip, since the weather was turning darker and less predictable. But I thought to myself, just do one lap, see what the weather is like, and add another and so on, if it starts raining, I will just head to my car and go home.

I started running, and I went 3 rounds around the field without stopping or feeling like I am dying. I was out of breath, of course, but I felt strong and the motivation and determination that gave me was euphoric. I pushed a little more and soon ended with 2.6 km run. I felt amazing, and the effects lasted longer than my previous anger. I also remembered reading somewhere – “If it is not going to matter in 5 minutes, don’t let it affect you.” I think it depends on the situation. Positive things we remember much longer, and the negative we forget and move forward.

If you don’t like the person you see in the mirror every morning, you are the only one with the power in your hands to change it. And it is not about having a powerful magical wand like Harry Potter, or to use “abracadabra” to change, you have to work for it. You have to face the person in the mirror to become the best version of yourself. Or change until you like looking at yourself in the mirror before your first cup of coffee.

It is not always about what people think about you, but the way you see yourself. You have to think positively about yourself and love yourself, even the parts that scare you.

Then after staring and smiling at yourself in the mirror (do it in secret, people might think you have gone bonkers), have the steamy cup of coffee and turn into the majestic, wonderful and unique person that you are and whom everyone adores.