When one of my clients is going through challenges or changes in their life a technique or rather an approach I teach them to help reveal underlying beliefs about their life and ways of behaving called the Mirror of Life and I will give you the basics today so that you can start using it for yourself.
The mirror of life is the recognition that what you see outside yourself is a direct reflection of what you believe about your self on a deep unconscious level. Often termed Projection I like the definition from A Course in Miracles and that is we push outside ourselves our secret sins and hidden hates that we may begin to face them.
I like to think of the world as a stage on which actors act out our deepest lessons and help teach us where our focus is in this moment. If you think of the stage as your mind and the people and experiences you are having as the deeply held beliefs you hold about your self, by recognising the different aspects of your life in these terms you then have the ability to make powerful changes in your life.
Imagine that you have set conscious goals of having a certain level of wealth and yet your life is riddled with debt and every time you get ahead financially massive bills seem to appear or you lose income because your hours are reduced at work. What is the mirror of life telling you and how can you use it to make changes? Perfect questions and I will answer them in a moment.
First let me go even deeper and suppose I was to tell you that we operate with both our Conscious mind and Unconscious mind working together to bring about the life we desire. Your Conscious mind is the place where you think about stuff, it is the place which notices that you are looking around and decide that you want more out of life or more abundance flowing freely or even a better relationship. The conscious mind gathers information to feed to the Unconscious mind and it then falls to the Unconscious mind to make it happen.
Think of the Unconscious Mind as an amplifier that gathers all the information from our senses, our conscious thoughts, our past experiences, our deeply held beliefs and then forms a single picture based on all this data. Suppose this picture is then projected out on the world, what would you see?
If you see or are experiencing what you consciously desire then the two parts of the process are in alignment - you think you want wealth, your conscious mind plugs it into the Unconscious Amplifier which compares it to your deepest feelings and then shows you its findings by projecting a life with wealth out onto the world.
What if you do not believe you deserve unlimited wealth? Or you need to punish yourself because of something you did as a child? Or someone told you that you wouldn't amount to much - how would this deep belief's change the projected experience?
As you are reading this you may recognise that you have some limiting self-beliefs and already be noticing how they are being played out in the world. This is the Mirror of Life.
So how do we use it?
Using the Mirror requires a willingness to be honest and explore your deeply held beliefs about your self and your life. Remember as the Course said we see our secret sins and hidden hates so being willing to explore is the first step.
Exercise
Using the example above where you have set a goal to gain more wealth and yet you are not experiencing it in your life. Ask yourself the following questions, write them down to enable clearer reflection. Write as much as you can and continue until you feel empty and cannot find anything more to write. Have a brief break (2-3 min) then come back and write some more. Write down the answers even if they do not make sense. Have another break and come back to complete the question.
Do this for both questions.
- If you were to know what would having wealth mean to you? Why is it important? What will it get you or allow you to do?
- If you were to know what does it mean to not have money? How does it impact on you as a person? What does it mean for you as a person?
By asking and answering these questions you begin to reveal some of your deeply held thoughts and beliefs directing your current experience. Once you have the answer look for a pattern or a common theme.
What is the theme or pattern? How would you like it to be? Suppose you knew how to make the changes what would be different?
As you work your way through the exercise you can notice that the questions can be used for other areas of your experience - career, relationships, love, happiness. If you find the exercise challenging and may need help to get to the heart of the matter this is why we have a variety of coaching options designed to get the outcomes you want. If you would like to know more go here or contact me at