LOOK BETTER INSTANTLY!

Gena Gilcrease
2 min readAug 20, 2021

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Photo by Sanibell BV on Unsplash

Yes, it’s possible.

We think that to look better means changing your image.

We might start trying to fix up that image, in whatever way we do — arranging hair, applying makeup — blush, mascara, lipstick - shaving, eyebrow tweezing, tattooing.

Or get help from haircuts, facials, or more drastic face arrangements.

This is looking with “YOU” as the object.

When we look in the mirror, we see the picture we expect, as though this reflection was a static thing.

When really, this reflection is an ongoing depository of our thoughts and feelings.

What we see is an interpretation.

So here’s the idea:

Switch to focus on “LOOK” as a verb, an action.

So, to look better, we SEE ourselves better.

Stop the criticizing, fault-finding, disapproving.

And look with compassion.

For seeming mistakes, or issues, or problems.

Look with the eyes of love. Unconditional and boundless love and affection.

Look with gratitude.

Thank you for this body, this earthly vehicle.

It’s been great to ride around in it!

My dear you. It’s been great being you! We’ve had such a good time.

Here we are in this time and place, this solar system, this planet, this earth realm, this physical being.

Such a strange thing, this life!

So much we don’t know — where we were before we were here, or where will go after here.

But right now, there’s just here. Being you, you being me.

Thank you for health, that all my bodily systems are in working order.

That I can stand up and walk.

Something that Michael J. Fox has trouble with. And thousands more.

Like my brother with ALS, my mother with a broken hip.

How easily we forget how lucky we are, how blessed.

Today, as I look at you, and “you” look back at me, I fully know how lucky, how abundant, how loved I am.

So begins this day, this great gift.

Thank you!

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Gena Gilcrease

Love writing in many forms. Essay writer since winning the Knights of Columbus contest on Texas History at 14. Humor writing. Educational training films. Poetry