I was on a dinner date years ago having a lovely time. Great conversation, great food. We talked on and on. Hours passed. Finally I excused myself to the restroom, and what did I see staring back at me in the mirror? A big ol’ piece of spinach, dead center in my teeth.
It was HUGE, too big not to notice from three tables away, and it had been there for hours. I had no idea all that time. Lovely. Oh how I wish I could see my own teeth! But hey, to be human is to have blind spots. We’ve all got them. Without a mirror, there are many things we can’t see on our own; our eyes and forehead for example.
Part of being human is that there are parts of ourselves that are impossible to see on our own.
But our blind spots are not limited to physical appearance. No matter how much we have accomplished or know or developed, we are often blind to our own ways of being. One of my favorite questions is, “Does a fish know it’s wet?” We can be so in our own stuff, what we’ve always known, that we never even consider there could be something else. Part of being human is that there are parts of ourselves that are impossible to see on our own.
Does a fish know it’s wet?
So we need Life Mirrors to help us see things about ourselves that are outside our line of sight. They may show us things that are present and things that are missing. They can reveal what’s working for us and what’s working against us. My experience has been, however, that we like to argue with these particular mirrors, because they usually come in the form of people and situations.
When was the last time you told the bathroom mirror it was wrong and bad? Now I get that you may not LIKE what you see in the bathroom mirror, and maybe you have a few choice words for it, but you tend to acknowledge and accept that what it’s showing is a reflection of you. This is not how we relate to our life mirrors. Usually when people and situations reflect back to us what’s in our blind spots, we like to blame and judge them as wrong or bad instead of paying attention and learning from them.
When was the last time you told the bathroom mirror it was wrong and bad?
Today’s post is really an intro on the matter of blind spots. It’s very general. So a first step in applying this to your life is simply to notice the messages you’re hearing and seeing in your work, relationships, finances and health. These are all life mirrors. Without calling them wrong or bad, what are these experiences showing you? Your experience is always an honest reflection of your unconscious beliefs (and usually not an honest reflection of reality). If you can be open to this, you will begin to see what you have never seen before.
Your experience is always an honest reflection of your unconscious beliefs.
This is the first in a series of future posts on specific blind spots for money, a lot of money, relationships, health and more. They won’t be back to back, but ongoing. If you have one you’d like me to address, let me know!
Becky
