I’m surprised I liked this little book, since initially I thought was rather hokey. I avoid the mirror and it was good for me to face it squarely and release some negative self-talk about what I see there.

This book has daily exercises and meditations– both in front of the mirror and in your journal– that are uncannily beneficial if you actually do them. She uses mirror work not only to clean up our self-talk, but to quiet our inner critic, forgive those who have hurt you, let go of past fears, to release old beliefs and negative thought patterns, and tap into childlike joy and permanent abundance.

I came away with many affirmations I can tell myself looking in the mirror. You can check out my cheat sheet of them in the first photo below, as I wrote them in my journal. I hope you can zoom in and read them okay; it saves me from typing them all out here. Below that, you can read Louise Hay’s 12 ways to learn to love yourself, which I thought was a great summary.

Here are some other pithy quotes from the book:

• “It bears remembering that others’ approval was based on their ideas of what was worthwhile and had nothing to do with your self-worth.”
• “Let us remove the word should from our vocabulary forever. Should is a word that makes prisoners of us. Every time we should, we are making ourselves wrong or someone else wrong. We are in effect saying: not good enough. Replace the word should with the word could.”
• “Everything in your life is a mirror of who you are.”
• “I find that most of the problems in our lives are caused by what I call the Big Four: Criticism, Fear, Guilt, and Resentment.”
• “Think of the people in your life who are the most challenging for you. What are the traits that bother you the most about them? Write those down. Now write down how each of these traits mirrors a belief that you have about yourself.”
• “If you deny good in any way, it is an act of not loving yourself.”
• “Let’s make a vow that we will no longer criticize ourselves for anything.”
• “No matter what the problem is, the best way to resolve it is by loving yourself.”
• “Every time you feel scared, realize that it is the child within you who is scared. “
• “We cannot reject a part of ourselves and still be in harmony within.”
• “Love is the biggest eraser I know.” (sounds like the title of a poem to me!)
• “Life is an endless opportunity to love yourself–past, present, and future. Loving and accepting every part of yourself is healing. How can you possibly be whole or healed if you are rejecting any part of yourself?”
• “The body is a mirror of our inner thoughts and beliefs.”
• “Think about ways you can create optimistic and cheerful patterns and beliefs.”
• “Select one place on the planet as a place you would like to help heal. Concentrate your love and light and healing energy on this place and see it come into balance and harmony. Take a moment everyday to send you love and light and healing energy to the particular place you have chosen.”
• “We can approach fear from a position of power or from a position of helplessness. The fact that we have the fear becomes irrelevant.”
• “Think of your fears the way you would view images on a movie screen: what you see on the screen is not really there. The moving pictures are just frames of celluloid that go by in a flash. Your fear will come and go just as rapidly, unless you insist on holding on to them.”
• “The mind cannot hold two opposing thoughts at once, and the other end of the spectrum from fear is love. When you are frightened, remind yourself that it means you are not loving and trusting yourself. The belief that you are not good enough is often at the root of your fears. When you love and approve of yourself completely, you begin to overcome your fears.”
• “Envision a world where everyone has dignity, where everyone, no matter what race or nationality feels empowered and secure.”
• “One of the biggest spiritual lessons you can learn is to understand that everyone is doing the best they can at any given moment.”
• “What you give out always comes back to you.”
• “Stress is a fear reaction to life and to the constant change that is inevitable.”
• “Imagine you are wearing your tension and fear as an overcoat. Imagine undoing the buttons and pulling the coat off your shoulders, sliding it over your arms, and dropping it on the floor.”
• “Affirming, declaring, deserving, and allowing are the steps to attracting riches.”
• “The Universe is a generous, abundant giver, and likes to be appreciated.” (hence the power of gratitude)
• “I was not taught in school that my choice of words would have an effect on my life. No one taught me that my thoughts would literally shape my destiny. No one ever taught me that I was worth loving or that I deserved to have good things happen to me. Certainly nobody taught me that life was here to support me. We can change all that for our children now.”

If you actually do what she says here you will have some epiphanies and will make progress in your life and in your relationship with yourself. I know many people who could be blessed by this if they took this process seriously and kept the practice up. Maybe one of them is you. You might want to read Mirror Work, which I give 4 stars, or you can just start affirming what I’ve written down in the first photo below.