Would someone be able to give an example of a trait (either positive or negative) that is at the 'right' detail level? As Bardon's examples seem way to broad... Thanks in advance Jon Rawn Clark <rawnclark@...> wrote: 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 Yahoo! Groups SponsorADVERTISEMENT To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: BardonPraxis-unsubscribe@yahoogroups.com Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to the Yahoo! Terms of Service. --------------------------------- With Yahoo! Mail you can get a bigger mailbox -- choose a size that fits your needs [Non-text portions of this message have been removed]