The Mirror Teaching: Releasing Old Reflections and Claiming Your Truth

Our First Wisdom Talk from Born For This 2026: What Came Through When We Asked the Mirrors What We Needed to Know

What Happened This Morning

This is our first wisdom talk from our Born For This (Feb 18 - March 18, 2026) morning practice. Each day in Born For This, after we move, breathe, meditate, journal, and pray in community, I offer a wisdom talk. These are teachings or conversations that arise from what the circle needs in that exact moment.

Every morning we also practice with mirror affirmations. These affirmations are not the same each day. They are channeled fresh, responsive to what our circle needs. Each day brings new wisdom, new medicine, a different reflection.

This morning, we held our mirrors and spoke our affirmation together three times:

I am safe, protected and guided at all times.

I trust the flow of life.

And then the wisdom teaching came through about mirrors. About what they reflect. About which ones need to go.

Before You Were Born

An elder once shared something with me that felt like the ultimate truth. She said: Before your spirit chooses a body, it looks at the one it thinks is the most physically gorgeous it has ever seen. Your spirit has access to past, present, and future. It sees your entire journey from baby to aging. And in that knowing, your spirit is in awe of the beauty of your body, your face, your existence. That's the one I pick, your spirit says. That's the body I want to live in for this lifetime.

This means: Your spirit thought you were the most gorgeous being it had ever witnessed.

Now sit with that for a moment. If mirror work makes you uncomfortable, that discomfort comes from looking at an outdated mirror. Because now, every time you look at your reflection, you're not looking at a random face. You're looking at the most gorgeous face your spirit has ever chosen.

What Happened Along the Way

When you were born into this beautiful body, your parents and guardians became your mirrors. As children, we don't have the capacity to understand ourselves through our own vision. We don't yet know who we are. So we understand ourselves through the eyes of those who raise us. We understand who we are by the way they look at us, treat us, and love us.

Sometimes those mirrors are beautiful. Sometimes they aren't.

Sometimes our parents and guardians were incredibly loving people. But then life threw a challenge at them. Sudden loss. Illness. Poverty. Trauma. And that mirror broke. What was once a loving reflection became something painful. Maybe it became criticism. Maybe it became absence. Maybe it became the message that you weren't enough.

Here's the truth that most of us never examine: Many of the insecurities we carry as adults are not real. They're reflections from broken or distorted mirrors we stopped looking into years ago, yet we still carry them as absolute truth.

The Logical Truth Behind This Work

For those of you with logical minds who need this explained in practical terms: When we are children, we cannot understand ourselves independently. Our sense of self is formed entirely through our caregivers' reflections. We internalize their beliefs about us as fact. Over time, we grow up and develop our own capacity for self-perception. But here's what happens: We often don't realize that old mirrors are still in operation.

A mirror from 1995, from 1975, from when you were seven years old still shaping how you see yourself today. And the problem with these old, outdated mirrors is simple: They are lies. They're like the distorted mirrors at a fair that make you look comically tall or impossibly wide. They're not showing you reality.

The paradox of being human is this: You are perfect and endowed with everything you need for this life. And you also come to this planet to experience many things in unperfect, messy ways. You are perfect, and you are messy. That's not a flaw. That's the design.

But when you were messy as a child, and your guardians couldn't hold space for that messiness, you were made to believe, through the mirror of their response, that you were not right. Not enough. Not deserving. None of this is true. But it's what the mirror reflected.

The Work: Identifying and Shifting Your Mirrors

Step 1: Identify One Insecurity

Begin with something real. Don't make it philosophical. What is one thing you feel genuinely insecure about? It could be:

Something physical about your body

Your abilities or intelligence

Your financial situation or earning potential

How others perceive you

Your lovability or worthiness of support

Notice: That insecurity is your access point to the mirror. It's showing you where an old, distorted mirror is still in operation.

Step 2: Recognize the Outdated Mirror

Ask yourself: Where did this belief come from? Can you trace it back? Often you'll find it comes from:

Your parents or guardians and what they reflected back to you

A specific moment of criticism or rejection

Life circumstances (poverty, trauma, loss) that became internalized as 'proof' of what you believe about yourself

This mirror is old. It was created in a time when you didn't have the capacity to see yourself clearly. It's not the truth about who you are now.

Step 3: Write Down the Old Mirror (What to Burn)

Take a piece of paper and write down everything the old mirror has been telling you. Be specific. Don't hold back. Write down all the things you've believed about yourself that no longer serve you:

I am not good enough

I am not worthy of financial abundance

I need someone else to save me

I am too much

I am not smart/pretty/capable enough

Write it all down. Get it out of your mind and onto paper.

Step 4: The Ritual – Burning and Burying

This is where transformation happens. You're not just thinking about changing your beliefs. You're performing a sacred act that signals to yourself, to the universe, and to your ancestors that you're ready to release this old mirror.

Take the paper where you've written your old mirror beliefs. Safely burn it, over a candle, in a fireplace, or in a fire safe container. As you burn it, say something like: 'This is no longer mine. I release this old mirror. It served a purpose, but it is no longer the truth of who I am.'

Once the paper is burned (or as the ashes cool), take those ashes or the burnt paper and make a small hole next to a beautiful tree you love. Bury it there. As you do, ask the tree and the earth to take this old mirror and compost it, to transform it back into fertile soil. The earth doesn't reject anything. She receives it all and turns it into nourishment.

This is sacred reciprocity. You are giving the earth what no longer serves you, and she will alchemize it into nourishment for the earth.

Step 5: Create Your New Mirror

Now comes the real power. You get to consciously create a new mirror, one that reflects the actual truth of who you are.

What is the new mirror you want to look at? Not what sounds nice or spiritual, but what is actually true about you? What have you proven about yourself despite the old mirror? What do you know about your capacity, your gifts, your worth?

Write down your new mirror affirmations. Examples:

I am resourceful and capable of creating abundance

My gifts are enough, and the world needs what I have to offer

I am worthy of love and support

I trust myself to know what's best for me

Everything I want is on the other side of allowing myself to be seen and not minding what other people think

This last one changed everything for me. I discovered it three years ago during a hike when I was meditating on my own insecurity: I really want to be seen, but I don't like to be criticized. That paradox showed me the mirror, a critical parent reflected back in my fear of visibility.

So I created a new mirror: Everything that I want is on the other side of allowing myself to be seen and not minding what other people think. Now, whenever I feel that old insecurity rising, I remember: That's the old mirror. That's the child who was criticized. That's not the reality. The reality is that I am safe to be seen, and what people think is not my concern.

This Week's Practice

We're in such a powerful moment energetically. We're still under the new moon, and there's an alignment of holy days. Chinese New Year. Tibetan New Year. Ramadan. Ash Wednesday. This is potent energy for transformation and release.

I invite you to do this work this week. Don't wait. Don't analyze it to death. Feel into which mirror needs to go, burn it, bury it, and plant your new affirmation.

Every time the old mirror tries to show up, and it will, you get to pause and say: 'Oh, there's that old, distorted mirror again. But that's not the truth. The truth is [your new mirror affirmation].'

You have the power to shift what you see when you look in the mirror. Not by denying reality, but by recognizing which mirrors are showing you the truth and which ones are just old reflections that no longer belong to you.

Ready to Go Deeper?

This mirror wisdom is what happens in Born For This every single day. Each morning we do this work together in different ways. We move, we breathe, we meditate, we journal, we pray, we receive fresh affirmations channeled for what we need.

If you felt called to this teaching and want to join a community of people doing this sacred work together, we're extending registration.

Born For This is a 21 day journey (Feb 18 - Mar 18, 2026) with daily live sessions Monday through Friday at 6:30 AM PST, plus all sessions recorded for on demand access. Each morning includes movement, breathwork, meditation, journaling, prayer, and ancestral wisdom designed to help you step into your full power and manifest your truest life.

If this blog resonated with you, if you've been wanting to join, now is your time. Message us. Tell us you read this and you're ready to begin.

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About This Offering

This circle was created as an offering to support my healing journey and business as I navigate breast cancer treatment and recovery. In turn, the proceeds from Born For This directly support not only my healing, but also the wellbeing of our entire morning practice community. We believe in sacred reciprocity. As I heal, we all heal together.

We want everyone who feels called to be able to join us. There are no barriers here.

We are grateful to offer folks:

50% scholarship for low income BIPOC LGBTQIA members of our community (message us to apply)

Flexible payment plans

If cost is a barrier for you, please reach out. We will find a way to support your participation. Message us.

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The mirrors you look at don't have to be the distorted, broken, old ones. You have full permission, and power, to create new ones.

You were born for this moment of transformation.

With deep love,

Xochitl