The mirror always lies. It shows you what you want to see. Some days you’re beautiful. Some days, you are intense. Some days you have a good hair day and some days its just bad.
Some days you congratulate yourself for all the weight you’ve lost. Some days you chide yourself for the weight you’ve gained. Some days your curves make you smile. Some days your curves depress you beyond control.
But if the mirror is lying, who do you trust to show you how you look? Who will tell you if you look pretty or obnoxious or pretty obnoxious?
Friends? Family? Lovers? Children?
Why do we need someone else to tell us what we look like? Its all in the head. At the cost of sounding like a beauty pageant contestant, i’d say if you feel good you look good.
Its foolproof. I have tried and tested it. On days that I feel miserable and days that I look gorgeous, nothing much changes. My facial features are the same, the hair isn’t drastically different and most often the clothes are also the same. What changes, is the way I’m feeling.
And while I cannot feel good about myself every single day, I realise that I can do one thing every single day that could make me feel good. The list is long, but it works for me. Try it?
1. Roll-up the windows, play your favorite song, sing and dance while you drive: There’s something liberating about exercising your vocal chords in public without giving a damn! My song list: soak up the sun, lemon tree, dancing queen, radio GaGa and almost any Disney, Michael Jackson or Beatles song.
1. Eat something sinful: this is a tricky one. When on a diet, this could boomerang very badly. So make sure you don’t overdo it. Get that pastry, cookie or whatever it is that you’ve been avoiding. Look at it for a full minute. Yes, one full minute. Close your eyes and take in the smell. Feel the aroma. Now, take a bite. Feel your teeth sink in, let your tongue roll, let the flavours dance a merry salsa in your mouth. And then swallow. Rinse, repeat. The joy of eating can fix anything. Trust me!
1. Give a compliment: Making someone smile is highly underrated. If you’ve walked in NYC, you’d notice random strangers come up and compliment you. Notice how you feel? Elated! And in that happiness you send happy thoughts to the compliment-giver. Be generous. Tell someone you love their earrings or tell your cubicle mate how you love their new bag. But make sure you give a genuine compliment. I guarantee you, You will smile!
1. Call up an old friend: in the world of BBM, Facebook, twitter and whatsapp, its nice to call and talk just like that. Pick the friends wisely though. I always tinker up my special girls for a few minutes on a bad day. They don’t even know it, but talking randomly to them lifts my spirits three flights up!
1. Play with a puppy or a kitten: if you like animals, This is the.best.thing.ever. and no, I’m not even explaining why!
1. Dream: yeah, sit at your desk and daydream. You can dream about your dream vacation, your dream home, your dream boy/girl, dream dessert. But don’t do it all at the same time. You don’t want to get fired, do you? For 5 minutes dream, imagine and you’ll be in your happy place. Naturally, you will smile!
So those would be my favourite things to chase away the blues, feel good and therefore look great! What are your feel-good actions. Share na?
11 comments for “How to feel good in under 5 minutes”