Perception is a funny thing (and by funny, I mean evil and wrong). For instance, yesterday, I thought I was doing a gangbuster kind of workout. I pictured myself on the elliptical machine making magic happen. I pictured myself being athletic, svelte, prepossessing, or sweaty-chic.
Then I looked in the mirror.
I’m fairly sure your ass is not supposed to move that way. Seriously, the cellulite undulation was making me seasick. Like any rational person, it just inspired me to work out more.
Oh, wait… no.
It inspired me to stop every activity that could elicit jiggling of any kind. Because really… no one should see that, not even me.
A friend of mine told me a story about a recent trip to Blockbuster. She noticed several people looking at her. She knew she looked good. She was having a “that girl” moment (you know, the fantasy where people are looking at you and whispering “who’s that girl…over there… that charming creature”). At least, that was her perception.
Then she caught her reflection in the window.
Note to self, when you get your brows waxed make sure that all the wax and the bright red marks, from where the technician ripped off your skin, have faded before renting ‘I Want to Believe” at your local video store.
Every day I get up at 5 am for work. Yea. I suppose I could blame the darkness for the ensembles I put together, but that would be a lie. I think I look good when I leave my apartment. I mean, no one is going to mistake me for Gillian Anderson, but people won’t hide their children from me to avoid the horror.
So, why is it that the look that works so well at home before I leave is suddenly ill-fitting and somewhat south of chic when I see my reflection at work?
Perception is deeply misleading.
Then again, maybe reality is really the problem.
Kate
Los Angeles-- Where Dating comes to Die. No one dates in Los Angeles. Ok, no one that isn't a supermodel or actress or 21 or blonde. But I haven't given up entirely-- at least not this week.
3 comments:
See, this is exactly why I never work out. The gym in my apartment building has a wall of mirrors and no TV. I'd be forced to stare at myself sweating and red-faced and unable to run for more than four minutes at a time, and let's face it: that's just plain sad.
And I have also learned recently that the lighting in your office is NEVER complimentary. It doesn't matter how good you think you look at home, in the dark, or under the heat lamp in your bathroom, when you get to the office in the harsh fluorescents and the bitterness of hating the cubicle world, you start to see all of the imperfections that were fuzzy before-- from the stray hairs you forgot to pluck to the weird red bump that's not quite a zit but too small to be a rash, and you know you didn't eat strawberries, so it can't be a hive...
I say get rid of the mirrors. Live like Kiefer Sutherland. We wouldn't judge each others' appearances so harshly if we couldn't say for certain if we looked any better or not. And also, then we'd be free to eat all of the ice cream, guilt-free, that we could ever want.
LMAO!!! Yeah...have SO been there!! It's never pretty when one leaves the magic-mirrored castle we all call home..! We never ever look as good or young or thin as we think we do. I think perception should be reality...If you THINK you look a certain way, then you should!
Perception is reality. Or as my friend Bill Shakespeare said "there is nothing either good or bad, but thinking makes it so." If I could just get everyone else's perception to match mine, life would be great!
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