Joy Jot #30: I’m Beautiful!

My son is currently serving a church mission in Korea. For context, he is 6 foot 3, blonde, and blue-eyed—he sticks out in Korea. A couple of weeks ago, in our family phone call, he mentioned that he had moved to a new area and that people on the street were calling him “handsome boy”. We giggled and laughed over this because of a funny one-act play from his high school days.

The play told a short story from multiple viewpoints—each character experiencing the series of events differently. My son played the family dog. Most of the show, he was in a dog costume, jumping around on the floor like a dog would, which in itself was goofy. After the story had been told by the mother, the father, the daughter, and the son, it was finally told from the dog’s point of view. I don’t remember the particulars, but in the final scene of the show, the dog decides to become human, he sheds his dog costume, and yells, “I’M BEAUTIFUL!”

We laughed and laughed because it was so unexpected, and my son emerged with such gusto!

I understand you may not be giggling like I am while writing this, but it was very funny.

Anyway, the point of this story is to invite you to consider…

What would happen if you started your day yelling to yourself in the mirror, “I’m beautiful!”

I guess that you would believe it. And you are beautiful, by the way.

Our words have power.

A few years ago, I watched the movie Devotion. A Black pilot, Jesse Brown, repeats negative, rude, hateful things to himself in the mirror every day. It is disturbing to watch. He thinks this is motivating to himself.

Negative self-talk does not motivate. But self-acceptance and kindness do.

Carl Rogers, the father of Person-Centered Therapy (PCT), taught “The curious paradox is that when I accept myself just as I am, then I can change” (1995). Rogers learned in working with individuals that when the counselor-client relationship was warm, accepting, and safe, his clients had space to work on what they wanted to change. It’s true for therapeutic relationships and true for personal relationships.

What if you said to yourself…

I accept myself unconditionally right now.

I am enough.

I’M BEAUTIFUL!

With love, to all you beautiful people,

Amy

References

Dillard, J. D. (Director). (2022). Devotion [Film]. Black Label Media; Columbia Pictures.

Rogers, C. R. (1995). On becoming a person: A therapist's view of psychotherapy. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt