People as Mirrors

Have you ever noticed that the people around you are just like mirrors? They tell you so much about yourself. It maybe difficult to admit, especially if there are traits that you dislike in others, but if you really look closely, you may discover similar traits in you that you hadn't appreciated before.

Su Zhen used to have problems with some of her family members. She disliked their poker faces, the way they treated others and even themselves. Sometimes she saw facial expressions that looked like the world was owing them a million dollars. So it was no surprise that other people kept their distance whenever her family members were in that mood. But then one day she discovered exactly the same facial expression in herself. It was then that she discovered that she had to acknowledge the same issues in herself. So if you ever spot a strong dislike, observe yourself carefully. Most likely, you are sending an important message to yourself.

The other way to experience the world as a mirror is to observe how you treat people. The way you are treating people often tells you about your relationship with yourself. If you don't trust other people, you probably don't trust yourself. If people you work with have little confidence, you may lack confidence yourself. If you are harsh with others, you most likely are harsh to yourself. If you cannot connect with others, you may have difficulties connecting with all of your personality aspects yourself. If you can't forgive other people, most likely you haven't forgiven some of your past mistakes.

Make this approach your working hypothesis for a while. Try to internalize everything that you have treated as external events beforehand. Take all the obstacles that come your way as an opportunity to heal yourself. If you can recognize this link, it will be easy to make the right adjustments in your life and peace will penetrate you with every step along your healing path. If instead of expecting changes in others, you change yourself, you will observe how the world is changing with you. Try it, you can run little experiments with that concept and see for yourself whether it works. The world you perceive is a function of your own internal world - as you adjust internally, your perception of the world will change with it.

When you are in front of the mirror you have a choice to look for wrinkles and you can look for your beautiful smile. This choice is entirely up to you. In the same way, perhaps you can experiment with our theme and experience the concept of oneness for yourself in that you look for the good side in people. Sure it is a process, but it is so much more fun than looking for 'mistakes' in others. If you lift others up in this experiment, you are in fact lifting yourself up. Christian started running these experiments at his work were he endowed colleagues who weren't very confident with more responsibilities and always looked for the next opportunity to make them excel at. He found over and over again that by lifting other people up, he in fact raised himself up. You can gain confidence by encouraging others to gain theirs. Fact of the matter is, if you give others the wings to fly, you realize that you are flying yourself. We have coined this approach the Christian power of positive thinking. Try it for yourself. The concept is about looking for the smile in your mirror instead of the frown. Try it and see what you will find.

The Course in Miracles claims that there is a good way of measuring your spiritual progress. See how much the people in your vicinity smile and laugh. Sometimes you yourself don't understand where their merriness comes from. It is the healed part in you that communicates with your environment at that moment. Have fun, be merry and if you catch yourself occasionally with arms crossed and a frown on your face, use the opportunity to reposition yourself. The Tao always extends Her hand to you moment by moment. Just use this priceless opportunity to dance with Her instead. Life is so much fun and so exciting if you can don't take yourself so seriously. There is only one thing that is important, make sure that the soul siblings standing next to you participates in the joy and laughter. Enjoy!

By Christian and Su Zhen