Re: [BardonPraxis] 'positive' soul mirror

["Rawn Clark" <rawnclark@...>]

Dear Martin,

>> Having (without too much difficulty) finished my negative soul
mirror a little while ago, I decided today to move on to the
positive soul mirror. When I say down to write some positive traits
I quickly came to a realization about myself and my self-image.
I easily came up with just short of 200 traits for my negative soul
mirror, yet I am struggling to get 80 for the positive mirror.
This is something which is quite revealing for me and has meant that
working on my positive soul mirror has actually been somewhat more
upsetting than working on my negative one. <<

What you've recounted is a common experience. I think this stems from
our modern culture in which it's more acceptable to be self-critical
than it is to be self-praising, so we hardly ever take the opportunity
to analyze our positive qualities. When we're suddenly faced with
having to do so, we draw a blank and struggle to see the good amidst all
the bad. Part of this is because we're so ingrained to shun
self-praise; but the thing is, the positive soul analysis is NOT about
self-praise, boasting or egotism -- it's about taking honest stock of
the good parts of our own self. This requires just as radical a degree
of self-honesty as does the analysis of our negative traits! The soul
mirror is not an exercise in self-deprecation, false humility or
self-debasing. It's an exercise in *honest* self-examination and
analysis.

Often, when it comes to the positive traits, a person who has done a
very thorough job of the breaking down the negative traits in almost
microscopic detail, will suddenly be listing very broad terms like
"kindness" or "joy", and forget completely about the need to be
specific. :) The result is a very lop-sided view of themselves as an
overly negative creature; whereas, in reality, this is seldom the case
with someone who is capable of having so deeply penetrated their
negative side.

Some will think that the negative mirror is the most important, but this
is only partially true. Granted, the focus of the character
transformation work is upon the transformation of the negative traits,
but the positive traits are *essential* to that process. They are our
allies, so to speak, in that they point the way to success. So,
ferreting out as many as you can, proves most beneficial during the work
of character transformation.

My best to you,
:) Rawn Clark
07 Jan 2003
rawnclark@...
rawn@...
http://www.ABardonCompanion.com
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/BardonPraxis