It’s difficult for us to see our selves. Our heads don’t swivel around so we can see quite a bit of our backsides and our eyes aren’t on stalks so we can aim them at our own faces. That could either be cool or creepy, I’m not sure which. To see ourselves we have invented mirrors, an easier way that going to find a body of water that will hold still enough for it to be reflective if we have the right weather conditions and light. But that only solves half the problem.
The phrase “seeing is believing” is true for those who actually see and are willing to accept what they have seen. For some people they don’t trust what they see. They don’t believe in what the image is reporting to them, so they ignore the information they are seeing and act on their own internal knowing, which has nothing to do with the reality of the image in the mirror.
This can happen with identities as well. How we see ourselves can be completely different and possibly even opposite of who we really are. The world can be reflecting all of our hard work, our unique abilities, our wisdom and joy and positive impact on the world around us, yet we refuse to see it. Instead we see the image we have constructed for ourselves which has little connection with the physics of what is going on around us. We ignore the kudos we get for the work we do and instead work harder because we’re afraid of losing our job. We enter into multiple relationships trying to feel loved and happy and finally good enough when we already have a loving partner at home. We acquire skill after skill, technique upon technique, career after career but never seem to accomplish anything because we drop them just as they begin to create demonstrable success.
We will never achieve our dreams if we can’t even see ourselves properly. Take a moment to look in the mirror and actually see yourself without imposing on the image. Breath for 5 seconds and resist the urge to do what you always do when you look in the mirror: criticize, evaluate, recite negative judgement… Just be with the image and feel the magic as you are gently released from the mirage.