School officials have not decided how long they will implement the mirror ban, but the head teacher, John MacNally, explains that the policy (along with a make-up ban) has done wonders to help get girls out of the bathrooms. While some girls complain because they felt more confident wearing make-up, other girls are relieved to feel less pressure to look perfect. Teachers believe that the make-up and mirror ban will help girls to focus on their studies and to pursue more worthwhile past times. 

Would you have enjoyed a make-up/mirror ban in high school? How would your life have changed?

To read more about this school’s policy, click here.

The line I always use when I explain why I always wear comfortable shoes and never wear heels is,”I have bad feet.” Yesterday I was sitting next to a similarly gowned woman who had on great shoes! What went through my head? “I wish I could wear shoes like that! Ah, but, I have SUCH bad feet!” Where did that come from? How could I have gone through over 50 years without realizing that I have an automatic thought that is completely disrespectful to the feet that have done so much for me. They have taken me up mountains, allowed me to dance and skate, and basically held me up for half a century and I have the audacity to call them bad. Whoa! I am the one who stuffed them into toe shoes and ice skates since I was a little girl. Foot envy aside, I slapped myself into reality and said, “There are women in this room with breast cancer and I am thinking about this woman’s shoes and my shoe envy!  Cindy, snap out of it!”

If I am being gracious with myself, perhaps I just didn’t want to be thinking about all of the pain around me or my own anxiety about my own test results. But I got out of my head and off of my computer and joined the conversation. It was one woman’s birthday (not her preferred way to spend it) and her mother-in-law had just turned 101. Another had been waiting for three hours and was hungry, and her sweet husband brought her food to the waiting room. Old or young, Black, white, Hispanic, we are all there for the same reason. Communities of support can form very rapidly and once I got my mind off of my feet, I joined the community rather than being an observer. Women are amazing. I was lucky to walk out with a pink slip, but others weren’t so fortunate.

Interestingly, there were no mirrors in the changing rooms. That was a smart move on someone’s part.

What do you think? Could this new attitude be permanently adopted?

La globalización en los tiempos modernos nos ha enfrentado a la diversidad y reclamamos tolerancia ante las diferencias. Sin embargo, muchas veces no reclamamos ni somos tolerantes aceptando nuestra propia diversidad, la cual es finalmente nuestra identidad. No tenemos que ser igual al otro para ser aceptados o amados. Somos libres cuando no tenemos miedo a ser únicas, con nuestras similitudes y nuestras diferencias. Es desde un posicionamiento de amor incondicional hacia nosotras mismas que podemos ser capaces de aceptarnos y, que los demás nos reconozcan por lo que somos y no por el reflejo de un espejo, que al fin al cabo es sólo un reflejo y no la realidad en sí misma.

The telescope will consist of a central mirror and six surrounding mirrors that create an “off-axis” design.  The entire structure will be approximately the size of a basketball court.  Each mirror must be completely smooth to prevent light from scattering.  In addition, because these scientists are trying to create the first-ever asymmetric mirrors, the cooled mirrors must be delicately polished.  As they attempt to perfect the technique, scientists anticipate that this first mirror may take up to seven years to polish properly!

In the end, the GMT will be placed in the Chilean Atacama Desert for use in the year 2020. Project Director Patrick McCarthy explains that he “believe[s] the GMT will be one of the defining instruments of how science will be done in the 21st century”. As scientists use the GMT to view the farthest, oldest stars in the galaxy, we will have our trusted mirrors to thank.

To read more about the GMT, click here.

For years, scientists have been curious about self-recognition in other animal species. Chimpanzees, elephants, dolphins and orangutans are all able to self-recognize. In contrast, when researchers at the University of Goethe in Frankfurt, Germany focused on birds, they ultimately determined that flamingos, grey parrots, and jungle crows do not self-recognize when looking in a mirror and react as if they are seeing another member of their own species. Now, these same researchers are focusing on a “smarter” bird: the magpie.

Researchers placed five of these cognitively advanced birds into a two-compartment cage with a mirror on one side. Experimental birds were marked with a red or yellow dot on the back of the throat, while control birds sported a black dot. Overall, the birds reacted to the mirror aggressively, indifferently, and emotionally (one bird began performing mating rituals to his/her own reflection!). Three of the five birds exhibited some self-directed behavior, with two birds actually removing their red or yellow dot. Overall, lead researcher Helmut Prior and his colleagues determined that “‘magpies are capable of understanding that a mirror image belongs to their own body,’ but they do not claim that ‘the findings demonstrate a level of self-consciousness or self-reflection typical of humans.’”

In other words, magpies are able to recognize themselves but have no emotional attachments to their reflection. Couldn’t some of us benefit from this mentality?

To read the full article, click here.

Never one to think small, I am aiming for 1000 faces (at the rate I am going it is going to be many more than that). The goal is to develop a new relationship with yourself by developing a new relationship with the mirror…starting with The Mirror. We’ll develop great graphics and use the pictures to promote the message in the book and help separate out your self-esteem from your body esteem. On a more basic level, to develop a more respectful relationship with your own reflection, which will reflect a more respectful relationship with yourself. Click the link to see some of our first People in the Mirror ! People in The Mirror Version 1

What makes parents so reluctant to talk to children about the risks of being overweight? Many don’t think it’s a problem until their children are obviously overweight, says family psychologist Susan Bartell, PsyD, a consultant to WebMD on the surveys.

“But the next issue I see often is parents are really afraid they will trigger an eating disorder,” Bartell tells WebMD. “And then the other thing is they don’t know how to talk to kids about weight. They think they will hurt their kids’ feelings or damage their self-esteem.“

And kids aren’t making this talk any easier. Nearly three-fourths of them (72%) say the discussion would be more embarrassing to them than to their parents.

Bingo. Afraid they will trigger an eating disorder and  damage their self-esteem. We’re not afraid that a discussion about sex, drugs, cigarettes, or alcohol will damage our children’s self-esteem, in fact the opposite is true. Conversations about those topics could actually protect our children from situations that could be deeply damaging to their self-esteem. Why is weight so different? Alas, Freud was right: The first ego is a body ego. Our body esteem is part of our self-esteem. The problem arises when our body esteem defines our self-esteem. On another note, it’s not the kids’ fault that the topic would be embarrassing to them. Neither parents nor their children have a blueprint for how to talk about weight without engaging all of the peripheral topics that make it so electric like self-esteem, personal responsibility, mood, affect regulation, stigmatization. It’s easy to stand back and say we should just be able to have non-emotional, objective conversations about weight; but we all know that’s not going to happen. Talking about weight is not like talking about the weather.

We need more data on what conversations to have and how to have them. Opinions we have; data, we have not. We need evidence-informed guidelines about how physicians should discuss weight/BMI with parents (with younger patients present and with adolescent patients either present or out of the room), and how parents can discuss these topics with their children. Just as an aside, I had a conversation with a pediatrician colleague and friend of mine yesterday about this topic and she reminded me that there is no opportunity for a pediatrician to talk with a parent without the child in the room unless the child is an adolescent—so whatever is said about weight or BMI is heard by the child. Sometimes, she said, they need to speak in code with the parent. But we know how attentive little ears are in that situation.

So we tell parents just to focus the conversation on healthful eating and physical activity. There is a lot of merit to that approach, but what if our children want to talk about weight? Do we have an obligation to discover a way to discuss weight without engaging all of those peripheral electric topics that make it such an uncomfortable and embarrassing topic? The fact that the first ego is a body ego lies at the root of this conundrum. The fact that our culture socializes us to conflate self-esteem with body esteem perpetuates it.

There are going to by myriad individual differences in how best to approach this topic with children, but that should not thwart our investigations into the topic. Our research agenda should be driven by neither opinion nor fear, but rather by the overarching need to determine how best to advise physicians and parents on this important topic.

And once again our militaristic language needs to be pointed in the right direction—no more wars on childhood obesity or fighting fat—those aren’t the enemy. Save that language for the battles against Big Food, Big Beverage, Big Media, and Big Diet that contribute massively to why we even need to have this conversation.

Math on Window

So today’s post about mirrors has little to do about self-image, but more about self-preservation. This is a story about inheriting a family heirloom mirror that really, well, doesn’t so much go with modern design and a clever idea about how to transform that ancient eyesore of a mirror into a daily planner. Titled Drab to Fab : From Ugly Mirror to Gorgeous Weekly Planner in 8 Steps. Read more on this fun decorating tip here.

I came upon another transformative idea for mirrors after a recent visit home by my son the math major. Hopefully you can see it here, but every available glass surface in his room—every window and, yes, the bathroom mirror became targets for math problems. Now that he’s back in school, at least I have this mathematical reminder of his visit! So a couple of dry erase markers can turn your mirror into a big white board, a todo list, a platform for poetry, or a glass canvas for artwork. Whatever it takes to change your relationship with the mirror! Just make sure you invest in Windex!

Don’t forget to visit www.womaninthemirrorbook.com or grab a copy of The Woman in the Mirror at your local bookstore.