One of the gardening tools used in Tending to Your Garden Within is mirroring.  It is a mechanism to look at experiences in our daily lives and investigate their deeper meanings.  Many times, what we feel and experience in the outside world has meanings for us inwardly, and can be used to know ourselves better.

A couple of months ago I met a very nice lady who was an associate minister at a local church.  I then attended two programs outside the church setting which the lady also attended; but I did not recognize her.  At the last meeting, during an informal conversation, she described her work as an associate minister; then I remembered.  I was totally shocked that I was blind-sided by my expectation that an associate minister would not attend such a meeting; therefore I ignored my previous knowledge of knowing her due to my thought process and expectation.

This experience made me think about an important issue.  What other things do we “not see” when it does not fit our expectation?  What are our beliefs doing to limit our “seeing” what is out there?  What if our belief in happiness is limited?  What if our belief about prosperity is limited?   What if our beliefs are limiting our experience of what is really out there?

Mental Trap

Look in the mirror.

Observe a man

like you and me.

The man is educated and logical.

The man is searching everywhere.

He has a common mental trap.

The mental trap says

prosperity has a golden color and special sparkles.

To quench his thirst for prosperity

the man only looks for something golden.

The mental trap says

love has a certain logo.

To quench his thirst

the man only looks for a certain logo

he cannot see anything else.

The mental trap says

angels and guides can only have wings.

To get connected

the man only looks for something with a wing.

The mental trap says

  God has a white beard and a deep voice.

To quench his thirst for God

the man only looks for someone

with a white beard and a deep voice.

The man may be exhausted.

The man may not be joyful.

The man may be frustrated and disappointed.

The man has eyes but does not fully utilize his eyes.

The man has ears but does not fully utilize his hearing.

The man is trapped by his mind and expectation of his beliefs.

Prosperity was all around him

but he did not see.

Love resided around him in many forms

but he could not recognize love.

Angels and guides followed him like a shadow

but he did not recognize them.

God appeared to him in many forms

but he did not recognize Him.

God whispered in his ears

but he could not hear the faint voice.

Man’s belief and expectation

may act as a veil

blocking his hearing, seeing, and feeling.

Personal journey is not

about new landscapes,

but a new way of seeing, hearing and feeling

free of the shackles of limited beliefs .

Copyright . 2010 by Shervin Hojat