Mirror Magic

“My kids didn’t know how bright the stars really were!”

Mirror Magic

Preconceived notions seemed to be the order of the night.  I know I walked in with them.  As person after person, from the large crowd, got up to make a comment it became perfectly obvious to me that every person in the hall had also come to the meeting with the same.

I say the same because each individual had their own preconceived notion.  Of course that was to be expected, since we were all looking out of our own eyes.  But what I didn’t expect was to see how those preconceived notions would magically change over a five-hour period of time.

As time ticked forward, with comment after comment, the magic pattern began to gradually appear.  It is a pattern we can all use to our benefit.  I call it Mirror Magic.

Mirror magic is something we’ve all witnessed many times in our lives.  In fact, it is so common it’s a yawner!  When was the last time you were in a conversation, or simply in proximity, to another person who yawned?  Did you notice that as soon as another person yawned that you had a natural impulse to yawn as well?  That’s because humans are biologically predisposed to mirror each other!  Since we’re mirroring predisposed, the same principle holds with all of our behaviors.

When someone smiles at us, we naturally smile back.  When someone extends their hand to shake or makes a graceful bowing motion in greeting, we automatically respond in kind.  We’re all connected in a magical way.  Just knowing and understanding this principle is more important than knowing all of the science around it.  I don’t even pretend to understand the science.  I just know the principle is true because I’ve experienced it over and over again.  And, my experience has taught me about its duality.

Giving people a genuine, warm smile automatically paves the way for an in-kind response.  Giving another person a genuine, hateful scowl paves the way for an in-kind response.  Our behavior paves the way for an automated response from others.

Being in this large public meeting allowed me to watch this automated response on a massive scale as hundreds of people were interacting with each other.  The hall was filled with people holding differing, emotional opinions.  In this situation holding the right mirror up at the very beginning of the meeting made all the difference in everyone’s experience.

“We’re here to listen to each other.” The Chairman said.

And listen we did!  Listening revealed that we had more in common than we expected.  Perhaps most importantly, we learned that the people holding a conflicting point of view were, “not the conspiracy driving, evil people I thought you were!”  It also revealed that our preconceived notions are often not accurate, and that mirror magic is always exact.

When we want our kids, and others around us, to know exactly how bright the stars really are, we can simply show them.  The stars lighting our darkest hours are always a reflection of the genuine and welcoming smile on our face.