Let’s walk through a typical morning for me really quickly. I wake up when my dogs start whining, normally around 6:50. I let them outside and crawl back in bed for a few minutes to check my phone. I look at my instagram feed, look at my profile which hasn’t changed since the day before, and send a few texts. I crawl out of bed and go into my bathroom, turning on the lights and shocking my system to be ready for a new day. I am faced with an almost wall-to-wall mirror that I look in while I tie my hair up, wash my face, brush my teeth and change out of my pajamas. I let the dogs in and feed them, then pause for a second in front of my full length mirror in my room to double check if I like my outfit. Already I’ve spent more time looking at myself than I was ever supposed to.
I mean, what do you think people did before mirrors were invented? The only time they saw themselves was if they were walking past a lake and had a second to catch their reflection before jumping in to clean themselves off. Mirrors aside, we live in a digital age where we are constantly looking at ourselves. Thank God I deleted snapchat so long ago, but I still catch myself going on instagram and reanalyzing pictures I posted of myself to see if I actually like the way I look enough to keep it up on my feed for everyone else to see.
The world now has created a route to one of two options. Vanity or insecurity. Now, you might read this and say “Raylee, I’m not vain or insecure. I fall right in the middle and have a healthy relationship with how I look!” To this I would say you fall into that 10% of the population that doesn’t struggle with one of these two issues. Don’t believe me? In one year over 9 million Botox treatments were administered globally. Plastic surgeons are reporting a 75% — yes you read that right — 75% increase in patients under 30 requesting cosmetic surgery or injections. Procedures aside, an estimated 28.8 million Americans will have an eating disorder in their lifetime, and 69-84% of women claim to be dissatisfied with their body image. Vanity, on the other end of the spectrum, may be harder to statistically measure but it exists nonetheless. There are 4.1 million creators on OF (if you know you know) who sell their bodies for money. Using your body as a marketing tool seems like vanity to me. I’m not a doctor or psychologist, I don’t have a data research project to support my assumptions. But if I were asked to place my bets, I would confidently say it has something to do with how long we all just look at ourselves.
So then, what is the defense to this trap? In my experience, it is to remind myself I am so much more than just the body that carries me. Within the fleshy vessel I live in each day I am creative, emotional, knowledge-seeking. I love walks with my (not-so-great-at-walking) dogs, I love trying new foods or watching the sunset. Sometimes I just need to disconnect — from the phone and the mirror and the reflection and just exist in my mind. Somehow, that makes me more human to myself and less of an object to be manipulated. Scripture is so clear in its warning against idols, and I think in a lot of ways we can make our images an idol whether we think we are amazing and worship ourselves or are expecting more and feel disappointed in appearances. Taking an intentional break from seeing myself is an intentional removal from an unwelcomed idol in my life, and a refocus on God and who I am in relation to him.
So set the phone down, snapchat can wait. Leave the bathroom lights off and the door closed, your outfit looks great! Go for a walk, or sit by a lake. Journal in a notebook or reread a chapter of your favorite story for the 100th time. Eat at your favorite restaurant or get ice cream with your friends. Whatever you do just do it with the intention of remembering your soul is God’s, not just some secondary unimportant part of a skin-shell. You’re more than how you look, and if we all just embraced the mantra “out of sight, out of mind” we might just find that it is true.