I Don't Know But I Believe In Yesterday

Ok, so I lied when I said I would talk about the podcast yesterday, but I'll talk about it today!

The reason I found it intriguing is because the guest on Two Fit Chicks was talking about learning to love yourself by looking at yourself in the mirror. One of my goals (#55) is to practice looking at myself in the mirror and stating things I like about myself, and making that a regular practice. But this podcast gave me a slightly different variation of that. The idea is to stand with your back to the mirror first with your eyes closed and conjure up the thoughts and feelings of someone/something you love unconditionally (spouse, child, puppy, whatever you need to think about) until you literally physically feel the love and emotion for that person. Only when you physically feel this do you turn around and slowly soften and open your eyes to transfer that visceral feeling of love onto yourself. It sounds a bit hokey, but somehow still powerful.

The argument is that it's relatively meaningless for me to stand in front of the mirror and force myself to think something like "Wow, I love my eyes", or "My wrists are great". If I don't believe it, if there is no meaning in me saying it, am I really providing any benefit in the exercise? If I continue to say it, the hope is that I will eventually believe it, but will that really work? This slightly different approach assumes that feelings and emotions are much stronger than just logical thought in your brain. If you feel the love directed at yourself, an association will develop, and eventually you actually will believe that your eyes are beautiful and that you have wonderful wrists, and that the rest of your body is open to be truly loved as well. Not to mention the rest of your being!

Anyhow, it gave me some food for thought in how to approach that particular goal. And speaking of goals, I watched another movie from my list last night, Gentlemen Prefer Blondes. It was my first introduction to a real live Marilyn Munroe (of course I've seen pictures) and it was actually a cute movie. Sometimes hard to remember that songs just naturally appear in movies of that age, but a refreshing change really. I really have no idea where they got the title from, it really should have been called Diamonds Are A Girl's Best Friend, or something along those lines. The title just made me feel bad for her equally pretty and talented brunette friend. Overall, it was a good movie, and I have 4 more 'classic' movies to watch to complete Goal #11. And yes, classic by my own definition!

I wish I found it easier to get up early; mornings are so beautiful! I hit the farmer's market this morning for strawberries, raspberries, cherries, asparagus and baby potatoes, then went for a run. I've really been feeling like a legitimate runner lately; I just feel lighter on my feet, there's more bounce in my step, even when I'm getting tired. So I was rather saddened to calculate that I only covered 5.55km this morning in 55 minutes. And I thought I had done quite well and was improving. But it is what it is, I need to keep focus on finishing the 10km race, not worrying about how fast I do it.

Nick* and I are headed out today for mini-golf, batting cages, rock-climbing, Ribfest, and Bad Teacher. I love date days! Oh, and Wag-Jag too for providing the first 3 activities at a low cost =)