Here’s How To Love Yourself and Feel Great!

I stumbled upon this gem from Bryan Reeves this morning…

Have you heard the expression, “The world is your mirror”?

I originally learned that means whatever I saw in the world/people around me only reflected something within me. More interestingly, whatever I rejected in others, in the world “outside” me, only pointed at the same quality within me.

At first, that idea pissed me off.

I despised my father’s obvious arrogance; there was no way I was arrogant like him. I despised my then-girlfriend’s shallow judgmental thoughts; I didn’t judge people like she did. In fact, I was awesome, possibly even headed for sainthood. After all, the only way I could see the judgmental and arrogant nature of others was because I was so wise and insightful, so unusually compassionate and loving (it made sense at the time).

So, saintly being that I was, I would use “the mirror” as a spiritual weapon to vanquish the unseeing. For example, at the slightest provocation by that former girlfriend, like when she made a judgment about my character, I would just smash the “mirror” over her head (metaphorically speaking). It generally went something like this:

“Say what? You think IIIIIIII am selfish, disrespectful and immature?? …. Weeeeell, what does that say about you??? … After all, I’m just your mirror!!” [SMASH!!!]

It was basically the spiritual version of “I’m rubber, you’re glue, whatever you say bounces off me and sticks to you!” Obviously, I sensed wisdom in the idea but just couldn’t figure out how to make it work for anyone.

One day, a friend reacted angrily to news of a child being murdered. In discussing the “mirror” idea, he refused to accept that his angry reaction to the story meant that he also was violent and could do such a thing to a child.

I understood his objection. It seemed a solid refutation of the idea. So I went home and meditated on it.

Then it popped.

via Here’s How To Love Yourself and Feel Great!.

Go to the source if if you want to know ‘what popped’!