自信女博士注重内在美 坚持一年不照镜子

女博士一整年不照镜子

　　Kjerstin Gruys, a 29-year-old PhD student in sociology, has gone mirror-free for an entire year, avoiding her own reflection in order to boost her self-esteem and inspire others to stop focusing on their physical appearance.29岁的社会学女博士柯基丝汀-格鲁伊斯度过了一整年不照镜子的日子。避免在镜中看到自己的影像，这是为了增加她的自尊，也是为了激励别人不要过于关注外形。

　　Can you imagine not checking how you look for an entire year? Most women can’t go a day without looking in the mirror, whether to check how their clothes fit, or if their make-up looks good, but one ambitious young student managed to avoid looking at her reflection for a full year. If you think about it, it’s hard not looking at yourself, when you’re surrounded by mirrors and all kinds of shiny surfaces, but Kjerstin Gruys somehow made it work。你能不能想象整整一年你都看不到自己的样子？大多数女性连一天都过不了这样的生活。她们要看看自己穿得是不是合适，妆容好不好看。但这位野心勃勃的年轻学生却做到了：一整年都没照镜子。想到这个，你可能会觉得很难做到完全不看到自己，特别是你周围有各种镜子或者光滑的表面，但柯基丝汀-格鲁伊斯就做到了。

　　For months, she covered the bathroom mirror so she could wash her face and brush her teeth without accidentally catching a glimpse of herself, she learned how to apply make-up by touch and not by sight, and she even learned to use her car’s mirrors so that she didn’t have to see her face in them. It was hard in the beginning, but she quickly adapted and says the experiment made her realize looks are really not as important as most people think。这段时间里，她把浴室的镜子遮了起来，这样就避免了她在刷牙洗脸时会不小心看到自己。她学会了靠触觉而不是视力来替自己化妆。她还学会了如何使用汽车上的镜子而又不照到自己。在刚开始这么做很难。但她迅速习惯了，还说这个实验令她意识到，外形真的不像大多数人想得那么重要。

　　As a teenager, Kjerstin struggled with insecurities about her appearance and suffered from anorexia. She was obsessed with the way she looked and how much she weighed, and would restrict her food and liquid intake, which led to serious health issues. She developed kidney stones, the lack of body fat started affecting the density of her bones, and she found herself battling an eating disorder. After years of therapy, she overcame anorexia and began volunteering for About-Face, an organization that tries to help women with their physical appearance problems。在青少年时期，柯基丝汀一直对自己的外形不自信，还遭遇了厌食的困扰。她看上去怎么样，体重多少，这些事情一直缠着她，也令她不敢过多摄取食物和液体，最终导致了严重的健康问题。她得了肾结石，体脂肪的缺失导致她骨密度下降，她发现自己患上了饮食紊乱。通过几年的治疗，她克服了厌食，还为一个帮助女性解决外形问题的机构About-Face做义工。

　　Gruys started her mirror-free project back in 2010, when she was preparing for her wedding with then fiancé Michael Ackermann. She had always dreamed of going wedding dress shopping, and in her mind the experience itself was like a dream come-true, only reality was much different. Trying on different dresses became a source of stress, and the young woman started being critical about her body again, and thinking about losing some weight before the wedding. She realized it was wrong, but she wasn’t afraid of relapsing into her eating disorder, but rather she felt like a hypocrite, thinking about how far she had come.2010年，格鲁伊斯开始了她不照镜子的计划。当时她正在和未婚夫迈克尔-阿克曼准备婚礼。她一直梦想着去婚纱店挑婚纱。在她想象中，这个过程本身意味着美梦成真，只是现实并非如此。不停地试穿令她倍感压力，这个年轻姑娘又开始挑剔自己的身材，考虑要在婚礼前减个肥。她意识到了这样是不对的，但她害怕不是饮食紊乱复发，而是觉得自己之前太伪善，她开始思考自己之前的举动。

　　Luckily, while reading a book called “Birth of Venus” she stumbled about a paragraph about nuns　in Renaissance Italy and their restrictions against vanity. ”They didn’t have mirrors in their lives. They were forbidden to look at each other when undressing. They were actually forbidden to look at themselves while they undressed,” Kjerstin remembers. ”This idea of living your life experiencing the world for itself instead of constantly reflecting, you know, pun intended, on how you looked…. It was a life where you could get away from yourself。” This inspired her to start this project where she would get rid of mirrors so she could focus more on everything else in her life。幸运的是她读了一本书叫作《维纳斯的诞生》。偶然间她读到一个章节，讲的是文艺复兴时期意大利的修女，和她们对浮华虚荣的约束。“她们一生都没有镜子。当她们脱衣服时，她们也不可以互相看。事实上，当她们脱衣服时，她们甚至都不能看自己。” 柯基丝汀还记得，“感受这个世界，而不是无止境地照镜子看自己怎么样，这样的生活理念能令你脱离原来的自己。” 当她远离镜子，她可以更多地关注生活中的其他所有，正是这样的想法激励她开始这个计划。

　　During the first month of the experiment, Kjerstin Gruys remembers there was a 50/50% chance she would go out with mascara on her nose, but realized that didn’t affect her life very much. She learned to avoid all kinds of reflections and turned to her friends and her husband for shopping advice, instead of looking in the mirror. She would buy a bunch of clothes, try them on for her friends and rely on their opinions about which ones fit her best. She even avoided looking at herself on her wedding day, and says it was one of the easiest days to be mirror-free. ”I’m getting my focus back to thinking about the real meaning of the day, which isn’t how I look but marrying the love of my life,” she said. Fittingly, she and Michael danced to a song called “I’ll be your mirror”。在实验的第一个月，柯基丝汀记得有一半的机会她会在鼻子上沾着睫毛膏的情况下出门了，但她也意识到这也并没有怎么影响到她的生活。她开始学会避免一切反光物体，并在逛街时向丈夫或朋友咨询意见，而不是照镜子看自己。她会买一大堆衣服，试穿给她的朋友们看，根据他们的意见来了解哪件最搭。甚至在自己的婚礼当天，她都避免看到自己。她说这成了最轻松的一天。“我把注意力重新放在了那一天真正的意义上，不是我看起来怎么样，而是我与我这一生的挚爱结婚了。” 她这么说道。当天，她和迈克尔也非常应景地挑选了《我愿成为你的镜子》这首歌作为跳舞伴奏曲目。

柯基丝汀结束了她长达一年的实验

　　On March 12, Kjerstin ended her year-long experiment and finally looked at her reflection in the mirror, surrounded by friends and family. ”I had a little ambivalence, and at the same time, pleasure, because I was happy with what I saw,” she told ABC News. Gruys says the experience has helped her pay more attention to how she feels, rather than how she looks. ”There is nothing wrong with enjoying, um, looking at yourself in the mirror, … but it’s important for every woman, and man, I think, to really think for a few minutes about whether there is a point of diminishing returns,” she said. “Because we have so much more to offer the world than just our looks。”3月12日，柯基丝汀结束了她长达一年的实验，最终在家人和朋友的簇拥下看到了镜中的自己。“我有点矛盾。同时也很开心，为我在镜子里看到的感到高兴。” 她这么告诉ABC新闻。格鲁伊斯说这次实验帮助她更加关注她的感受，而不是她的外表。“照镜子没什么不对。但不管是男人还是女人，对每个人都很重要的是：我觉得要花几分钟考虑一下有没有关注错了重点。” 她说道，“因为除了我们的外表，我们还有更多别的能够给予这个世界。”