TEDx Talks have become one of my favorite internet tools for inspiration, motivation, and learning. I encourage you to find one that speaks to you. Caroline McHugh did a talk about the art of finding yourself. The statement below stuck with me.
When you look in a real mirror, you look for reassurance that you are beautiful… But when you look at a true mirror, you don’t look at yourself. You look for yourself. You look for revelation, not reassurance. TEDx by Caroline McHugh
I believe these words stuck with me because I am that person that is always thinking about whether I truly know who I am. Do I know and use all my potential? What am I missing that God wants me to know?
So what would you do after reading this statement? I got a mirror and looked at my reflection. And of course, this is a “real” mirror, so the first thing I look for is how does my make-up look. But then I thought…stop, look deeper. What do you see?
It was hard for me not to look on the surface. It was difficult for me to look for myself while looking at myself.
I started to think about this. Have I ever looked at myself? Looked at myself in a mirror for revelation, not reassurance that I looked beautiful or attractive in some way. I could not remember one time in all my years that I looked at my reflection for a better understanding of the person that I had become or wanted to be. I would think about these things emotionally. But I did not look myself in the eyes. So I knew I had to start looking in a “true” mirror and know the person looking back better than I had ever known her before.
Who is this person that stares back at me each day?
If you have tips or experienced the art of knowing yourself through reflection, please feel free to share with us. If you have a special TEDx Talk, share.
-TanyaG
© 2017 All words by Tanya Graham unless otherwise noted.
Creative-Writing, Photography & Blogging -TanyaG 
It’s interesting that you’re writing this… often I had this thought: what would I think of THAT person in the mirror if I didn’t know that it’s me… and the whole way I started “looking” (really and figuratively) at me changed and gave me a sensation of strangeness…
great article!
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Thank you so much. I believe that we grow each time we can look at ourselves pass the exterior.
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Hi Tanya,
Caroline was discussing the magic way that a “True Mirror” works to show you who you are. It really is possible to go past the physical self and see the true/real self underneath. She is talking about a special construction of two mirrors at right angles, such that you are not backwards when you see yourself.
Turns out that your face works properly when you make eye contact this way. You really can look into them and see the You that you are. It’s so different than regular mirrors, because the regular, backwards mirror flips your left and right sides. Within a couple of seconds your face stops working, and you tend to stare at yourself. You can try to dig in further, but there’s always a filter that is scrambling the meaning behind your expressions, which is why its so hard to understand ourselves this way. It’s simply not you looking back, and so we end up looking “at” just our faces, not our selves.
Visit truemirror.com and you can get a sense of what this is all about. At the core, the message of all the healers, including Caroline, is that we are ok underneath, we are beautiful human beings and finding and then expressing/being our truest self is our biggest and most important job we have!
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Thank you so much for sharing this information. I am definitely going to look up the web site you provided. I am very interested in seeing this mirror. I am always trying to look deeper than the surface.
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