This is one of the long term benefits of using the true mirror – getting an accurate sense of how you are doing at the exact moment you look into it. In your current situation, in your relationships, in your personal challenges, in all sorts of other things that are present in the current moment. The biggest fault of the backwards mirror is its missing the mark on accuracy in these moments – much of the depth, nuance, degree, temporal nature, and implications of how you are doing are altered, sometimes significantly. Yet because it is close enough to real, and been that way for your whole life, you believe what your backwards eyes are telling you. Its amazing that this state of affairs has gone completely unchallenged. Until now.
With the true mirror, when you make that same eye contact, the surprise is sometimes the normal-ness of what you are seeing. In other words, it matches what is going on, and you can believe in and interact with this version much more effectively and easily. The accuracy essentially can tell you what is really going on, if you look in your eyes, you will read emotions that match what you were feeling just before making eye contact. You can continue the emotion, and actually continue to read what your eyes are saying about it. Instead of the instantaneous dichotomy that mirrors create, your experience is one of unity with yourself. Not just once, but continuously, every time you look in the true mirror. Pretty wild!
I believe, long term, this can only be a good thing. I was prompted to write this post, because I am in the workshop making True Mirrors for sale, and I was feeling particularly emotional about the roller coaster ride this project represents, and I wanted to check in. I don’t usually need to – maybe once every few months I will ask myself “what’s going on?” I caught myself looking in one of the (backwards) side panels and noticed that what I saw was matching my internal stress dialog about the hard parts. But I usually don’t look – I don’t need that feedback. When I looked in the True Mirror, the first thing my eyes said was “whew”, because it really has been stressful. But right behind that, again in the time it takes to think it, I was seeing how much I’m still supremely happy to be doing this work. Instead of “god this is stressful and I’m in pain from it”, what my eyes said was “god this is stressful, but man o man, what a trip!” Now more than 15 minutes later what I see is me being grateful that I’m verbalizing what is so valuable about the true mirror. And 15 minutes from now, I might see something else. The point is, my true reflection and who I see in it, is as dynamic as I am. It is something we are all graced with as humans, now you can see it as it is happening, and continues to happen.
To see my true reflection in action, to learn from it, and stay present with the “me” I know this way is such a miracle – it feels like drinking pure water in contrast to what the backwards mirror serves up.