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Looking within: Are you an obstacle to your dreams?

reflection

Do not change the reflection in the mirror, change yourself. FILE PHOTO | NMG

“What you see in the world is a mirror reflection of your own thoughts, if you have ugly thoughts the world becomes ugly.”

A dog once ran into a museum where all the walls, ceiling, door and even the floor were covered by mirrors.  On seeing this, the dog froze in surprise in the middle of the hall. A whole pack of dogs surrounded it from all sides, from above and below. 

Just in case, the dog bared his teeth and all the reflections responded to it in the same way. Frightened, the dog barked frantically. The reflections imitated the barks and increased it many times. The dog barked even harder and the echo kept up. The dog tossed from one side to another, biting the air as his reflections also tossed around snapping their teeth.

The next morning, the museum security guards found the miserable dog lying lifeless and surrounded by a million reflections of lifeless dogs. There was nobody who would harm the dog. The dog died because of fighting with its own reflections.

Your life is not by chance or coincidence. It is a reflection of who you are, of your own thoughts, decisions, actions and your doings. The way people, situations and life around you appears is a reflection of who you are.

Experiment, explore and discover: If you keep doing things the same way, you are going to get the same results. You can’t keep longing for something that you want. Be bold, experiment, explore, discover yourself in ways that reflect who you are. When you are open to experiment, your options to explore widen, and with a positive attitude you can discover so much about yourself, your potential and true calling.

When in doubt, question everything

When you are in doubt over what is happening in your life, take a minute to pause and question everything that’s happening. That doesn’t mean you turn out to be suspicious over every single thing, but when things that matter are in doubt, question and seek clarity if not answers.

Questions may not always lead to the answers, but sometimes questions may lead to the right questions or to the right understanding. Those are enough to find answers and find solutions to problems that haunt you.

Shift your perspective: Not everything is going to be the way you designed it in your head. People, situations and behaviours change based on very many things, especially in relation to how you behave in certain circumstances. So before you start a blame game, reflect and shift your thinking, shift your perspective inward.

Reflect on what you have done to bring circumstances or people to behave in this manner or what you can do to allow people to react in a certain manner or how you can mend the relationship. Simply said, put yourself in the shoes of others and think from their perspective.

Observe the outer, change the inner

Do not change the reflection in the mirror, change yourself. It is not always others who is the problem, your perception of others is a reflection of yours. When you make peace with the mirror (read the circumstances), you change the reflection (read your own self). Constantly look for what can be changed in the outer, but begin the change with the inner.

For instance, say you have been rejected in a job interview, you can spend the next year blaming the ‘unfair’ interviewers were, but do they really matter? What really matters is how you react or conduct yourself in the interview, how could you have done better, how could you have cracked the interview?

You cannot change the interviewer, you cannot change the traffic that delayed you in the interview, you cannot change the way the receptionist delayed your turn. If there is something you can change, it is you, your attitude towards the interview, the receptionist and the interviewer.

Don’t judge others: Unless you learn to face your own shadows, you will continue to see them in others, because the world outside you is only a reflection of the world inside you. What you see in the world is a mirror reflection of your own thoughts. If you have ugly thoughts you see an ugly world before you, but if you have beautiful thoughts you see a beautiful world before you.

So when you see an ugly world, don’t blame others, don’t judge others, instead turn inside and see how you can start having beautiful thoughts.

Take a minute to look around yourself, look at the people you like, and the people you dislike. Think over what you like in a few and what you don’t like in the other few.

If you look deep within, you realise you have many things in similar with those you like, and many uncommon things with those you don’t like. So it all depends on what you see in yourself and what you connect with others.

So reflect internally and see the beautiful parts, there is so much more beauty, happiness and life around you. The world doesn’t bring good or evil on its own. Everything that is happening around us is the reflection of our own thoughts, feelings, wishes and actions. The world is a big mirror. Strike a good pose! Smile from deep within. Life is beautiful.