What Mirrors Do You Have in Your Life?

I’ve known about the concept called “mirroring” for a long time. I used to teach a class on it. However, I haven’t applied it to my own life in a long time…until recently. What a surprise I got when I looked closely in the mirror.

Now, the mirror about which I’m speaking is not the one in your bathroom. It’s the one represented by the people around you–and sometimes even the situations or the environment around you.

The concept of mirroring says how we feel about our relationships with people and the world show us the things we either lack or possess that need improvement. If you look closely at the things you feel strongly about (either negatively or positively) in your life, you will most often discover that these things mirror something back to you about yourself. They show you something either lacking in you or that you possess which you don’t like or need to improve for some reason.

In my case, I’d been complaining about someone close to me feeling angry all the time. When I looked closely in that “mirror” (the person), I realized I actually felt a lot of anger about many things related to that relationship. Each time this person expressed  anger, I became upset…not only because I didn’t like being around anger (my reasoning) but because I, too, was angry and just wasn’t expressing it.

I have also been complaining about the fact that my spouse has “fallen off” the spiritual path. Yet, due to the fact that my partner no longer shares this interest with me and our life has made it difficult to find time to go to religious services, I, too, have “fallen off” the path in many ways. While I have not lost my beliefs, I don’t practice my religion formally often or do much that is or feels spiritual in anything but small ways. His lack of spiritual connection and practice, as well as his lack of belief–and my upset over this–mirrors my own lack of spiritual connection and practice–and my great sense of loss over this fact.

It’s important to stop and look in the mirrors provided by the people and situations in your life and to take responsibility for your own reflection. Confess to what you see of yourself in others and in the world around you. In that way you can begin improving yourself and your relationship  with the people and situations in your life.