Look at Yourself
Don’t Turn Away from the Mirror
Perhaps the hardest thing for any of us is to look at ourselves. But to advance, you must master the art of self-examination and see yourself without the rosy filters your ego uses to prop up it’s self image.
Even when you do and whatever you see, there’s always more. It’s like you’re an onion with another layer always waiting to be peeled back, another nugget to uncover, another inner condition to explore and work with.
It can be exhausting because your inner work never ends. But you must be tireless in your effort to know everything about you, especially to discover that which makes your life the way that it is, even if it means going into the dark shadows of your subconscious where the light rarely shines.
What do you see?
When you look at yourself in the mirror, what do you see? Do you love and appreciate all that you are, or do you judge yourself deficient in one way or another?
Not just in the ways of beauty or physical appearance, but also in how you see yourself.
Is your life all that you wanted it to be? Or do you live in the gap between what is and what you want, forever discontent and unable to find true peace that lasts?
What do others see in you?
This is a mystery to many, even though we often live our lives seeking recognition and acknowledge for who we are and what we’ve accomplished. Yet that desire gives valuable clues to the personality that holds it, and the areas of self that demand love and attention.
What do others see in you? The good? The bad? Or both? Which do they reflect back to you? What do they engage with or reject out of hand? What do they criticize or judge.
How do you react when they do? Do you use it to reinforce your insecurities or feelings of rejection? Or do you let it wash over you like water off a duck’s back?
Family sees what they want to see.
When we get together with family, we are at our most vulnerable. Our guards are down and we seek love and acceptance.
Yet family and friends don’t see you as you want to be seen. They see that part of you that they have known and relate to. Often it is as they have seen you as you were in your younger days, throwing back in your face all of the things you’d rather leave behind.
They offer you a mirror into yourself, to realize that you are not all that they see you as, nor all that you do, either. You are something greater that waits to be discovered, that has chosen to put on these different garments to change your appearance in different situations.
Look into the mirror. Don’t turn away.
God bless you indeed.