14 - In the Mirror when you smile

A dose of God is in the Mirror when you look at yourself and smile

Transcript

Current Episode Introduction

This episode is informed by the verse of the poem representing the letter:

• M

• A dose of God is in the Mirror when you look at yourself and smile

It includes a brief description of the verse, a personal reflection demonstrating how the verse has facilitated my own resonance with Doses of God in my life, a statement of gratitude, and a few guiding questions that may be considered for your own reflection.

Description

Here is description of the verse:

• A dose of God is in the Mirror when you look at yourself and smile

• When you smile at your reflection in the mirror, you recognize the true love that you have for yourself. You accept and appreciate yourself exactly as you are. You know that you have purpose in the world, that you are beautiful inside and out, and that you have the opportunity to contribute your beauty to the greater good. When you truly love yourself, you can express genuine love toward others. Smile when walking by a mirror. Let yourself know that you love, accept, and appreciate yourself just the way you are. As you remind yourself of the love that exists within you, the love within you magnifies and generously emits through your presence. Those around you can feel the immense love that emanates from your very being. Your loving impact on the world becomes greater and greater.

Reflection

Here is my personal reflection on the verse:

• To me, this verse is about acknowledging, accepting, and appreciating various attributes of myself. It’s about liking the things that make myself me. I used to feel contempt for many things about myself, often getting caught up in obsessively peering into and dwelling upon my weaknesses and deficiencies. I actively sought to see what I perceived to be inept or otherwise grim in my life. This was apparent whether I saw my tangible attributes being illuminated to me through my reflection in a physical mirror or my intangible attributes -- such as my visions and worldview -- being illuminated to me through self-reflection prompted by current or past observations or interactions. Anything that prompts me to see and resonate with my own values can serve a mirror-like purpose for reflecting my intangible attributes toward my scope of awareness. Several tangible and intangible reflections of myself were painful to see. For example, I did not like being taller than most people, despised being skinny, detested my outwardly protruding sternum, and loathed my monotone voice. In terms of attributes that are a bit less tangible, I abhorred being anxious and depressed, as well as my emotional volatility. I felt disconnected from what I did for work and hated the absence of a vision for my future. Seeing the reflection of these tangible and intangible attributes in a negative way resulted in intensified feelings of pain within myself.

• I have since begun to realize that I only seem to know and resonate with what I pay attention to, whether it is good or bad, and such resonance is made manifest in how I project myself unto the world. For example, if I pay attention to that which is beautiful and loving among my tangible and intangible self, I am inclined to resonate with that beauty and love and, consequently, am more likely to demonstrate beautiful and loving behaviors through my interactions with others and the world in general. If, instead, I pay attention to that which I perceive to be ugly and spiteful about myself, I tend to resonate with that ugliness and spite and, therefore, am more likely to demonstrate ugly and spiteful behaviors through my interactions. By allocating attention toward identification of beautiful and loving attributes of myself, I am able to expand the ways in, and extent to, which I utilize, nurture, and sustain those attributes while simultaneously dissolving my ugly and spiteful attributes or, when applicable, reframing them through a more uplifting lens. Now, I am much better at identifying and building upon things about myself that I like, which seems to have had a positive effect on my relationships with myself, family, friends, colleagues, and others. Here are a few things I currently appreciate about myself:

  • I like that I generally have an optimistic outlook on life and am usually able to tactfully maneuver through positive, negative, and neutral experiences.

  • I like that I have sufficient social skills to communicate with people in my personal and professional networks.

  • I like that I am receptive to feedback and generally open to, and appreciative of, other people’s perspectives.

  • I like that I exercise moderately through a somewhat regular routine and have a healthy enough diet to support adequate performance of the required and optional physical activities in my life.

  • I like that I am intellectually capable of solving problems, being creative, and performing other tasks in my professional and personal roles.

  • I like that I generally live my life in a passionate way as my days often comprise activities that I like, find important, and want to put time and energy into. For example, I work most days and enjoy my career, including my projects and interactions with colleagues. I enjoy my time and interactions with my family every day. There are many days when I also enjoy working on side projects beyond the scope of revenue generating tasks. Writing a reflection like this is an example of a side project I like. I enjoy interacting with friends, typically on a weekly basis, as well as interacting with others in my community periodically.

  • I like that I seem to be better at being present, aware and accepting of the moment in a way that positions me with heightened inclination to do what’s right at the right time.

  • I like that my actions and behaviors are guided by both a logic of observable evidence and a logic of instinct. I often interact with the world through a tangibly logical lens with a weighty emphasis on observable evidence as my career is heavily focused on planning and pursuing disciplined inquiry processes to inform decision-making, including methods of evaluation, research, and assessment. I very much appreciate how I am able to engage in processes marked by tangible evidence. However, over time, I have gained a much greater appreciation for the intangible logic of instinct, realizing that when intuitions and inspirations are inundating my field of consciousness, it often, perhaps always, makes sense to act in accordance with those invisible instincts even if they are not supported by tangible logic marked by observable evidence. Previous experiences have repeatedly taught me that acting on inspirations will likely lead me along more rewarding paths than suppressing them or allowing them to evaporate. Any perceived burdens of extra work and potential anxieties associated with acting on inspirations tend to be far more enjoyable than burdens of distress and regret that may accompany inaction as a response to an inspiration.

  • I like that I engage in self-reflection as a means of better understanding who I am at my core, my place in this world, and the types of identities I may demonstrate in different contexts. I periodically engage in contemplations informed by verses in the poem, The ABCs of a Dose of God. I often also find myself reflecting through lenses of capacity, passion, relevance, and presence, which seems to have resulted in expanded opportunities and improvements in my ability to consciously do things that I can do well and enjoy doing in ways that positively impact myself and others.

• This somewhat captures the essence of attributes I like about myself. There is certainly room for me to improve in all of these areas; however, I feel reasonably good about their current state of development and am hopeful that continued attention and gratitude toward their existence will allow them to be sustained and further nurtured as needed.

Gratitude Statement

I am immeasurably grateful for:

• being able to see things about myself that I like and will attempt to remain aware of opportunities to acknowledge, accept, and appreciate various attributes of myself.

Guiding Questions

Here are a few guiding questions to consider that might facilitate your own personal reflection upon the verse:

• A dose of God is in the Mirror when you look at yourself and smile

Take a moment to reflect on:

• things you see in yourself that you like

For example:

• What are examples of tangible or intangible things that you like about yourself?

• How do you feel when you recognize things in yourself that you like?

• In what ways do you express gratitude for the things you like about yourself?

• What strategies could you implement to maintain awareness of, and act on, opportunities to identify and nurture attributes of yourself that you like?

Closing Statement

In closing:

• when you appreciate the genuine love that you have for yourself, whether you are smiling at yourself in a mirror or recognizing it through another means, you receive a Dose of God.

Next Episode

The next episode in this series will focus on the verse representing the letter:

• N

• A dose is there when the weather is Nice and you can run that extra mile

Positive Vibes

Thank you so much for listening. May you consistently position yourself to accept and resonate with the Doses of God that are ever-presently here for you.