The alarm clock propels me out of bed at 5:30 to turn off its grating tone. Having to actually get out of my warm cozy bed to stop the maddening sound forces me to choose between continuing the forward progress to a more productive day, or making the deliberate and guilt producing choice to retreat and actually get back in. Needless to say, a half hour later I am in the gym, “running” like a gazelle on the elliptical, trying to lose the uncomfortable fifteen pounds that four years of stress and emotional eating helped to add onto my five foot six inch frame. I actually enjoy exercising as I’m able to go deep within, past the verbal and into the wordless music pouring out of the headphones to invigorate my soul. I thrive off of the live, improvisational and impeccable musicianship of the Grateful Dead or Phish, as they consistently remind me how empowering and rewarding authenticity and taking risks can be.

Back to the gazelle on the elliptical, and after forty-five minutes I climb off the machine and then up the stairs to stretch. Mirrors on every wall of the room reflect back the reality of the situation. Personally, I love mirrors; my childhood home on the outskirts of Philadelphia had a floor to ceiling mirror in the living room, in front of which my brother, my friends and I would perform lip-synched music videos (this was the 80s when MTV actually provided and inspired artistic and creative video expressions of music; I’m not bitter.)

Rather than avoiding them, I actually like looking at myself in the mirrors at the gym. And I don’t believe it’s as much ego-based as it is reality-based. Over the years, I have learned to be accepting of who I am and how I look without honoring, too much, the self-depreciating voices of judgment. Having done yoga for many years, I am pretty aware of and in touch with my body, (that doesn’t mean that I’m not also aware of how delicious ice cream, pizza and french fries taste), but looking straight on at myself today, I am seriously caught off guard by what is reflecting back at me…My sweat-stained shirt. Some audible expression of awe effortlessly escapes my lips as I see my sweat-stained shirt, which is in the perfect shape of a heart. Not a shape that kinda-sorta looks like a heart, but a full-on perfectly formed beaming out of and through me heart which instantly creates a sense of true clear understanding of so many things on so many levels, none of which will I even attempt to explain because any word would diminish the experience. What I can tell you is that in that moment, I tapped into my truth…and my truth was love and calm and compassion and peace. This was not as much a revelation, as it was a reminder. I was raised within unconditional love, and, understanding that I am one of the lucky few in this world to have experienced that for so many years, I have done my best to pass it forward in both my social and professional worlds.

We all are worthy of being loved and accepted for the beautiful creatures we are. We all are capable of inspiring others with our words…our art…our selves, but so often we get walled off behind our fears, our doubts, and our can’ts, usually set solidly in place by our family and our peers at a young age and reinforced by the false realities our society embraces. Everywhere we turn we’re bombarded by propaganda on billboards, magazines and television to make us feel not as beautiful, not as intelligent, and not as important as the (fantastical and fraudulent) images they project. Which brings me back to the gym. For, instead of filling my brain and consciousness with the negative and materialistic images on all eight televisions, I look straight ahead, into reality…into, the mirror.

Jeff Winston owns Tap Your Truth, a company located in Western Mass and dedicated to empowering individuals through their own written and spoken words. For more information on his Spoken Word Workshop and his private tutoring services please visit www.TapYourTruth.com