Reflecting on Reflection

From the moment we are born into this world our minds begin categorizing and organizing (building neural pathways) for the information that our receptors (5 senses) receive. Our minds begin distinguishing patterns in our everyday lives so that a person can learn the appropriate responses to situation and begin to establish a baseline of what normal activity is.  This is accomplished through the baby/child reflecting and reflecting on situations and the more the situation is rolled over in the mind it becomes simpler and more compacted much like folding a piece of paper over and over again it begins taking up less surface area in our minds but carrying more mass.   Then as a person ages the brain has crystalized knowledge and has a base line enough to where it begins to not  need to organize the information in  similarities but in what makes each thing unique.  This is why when you stop to think of a person you know you don’t think of them in terms of what makes them like everyone else but in terms of what makes them different than the rest.  This is also why for the normal person we tend to remember our past in of coarse the best of times and the worst of times blotting all the days that fall into our baseline together.

A few of Webster’s Dictionary definitions for Reflection are as follows.

Reflection: : an instance of reflecting; especially : the return of light or sound waves from a surface: the production of an image by or as if by a mirror

a : the action of bending or folding back  b : a reflected part : for: something produced by reflecting: as

a : an image given back by a reflecting surface

b : an effect produced by an influence <the high crime rate is a reflection of our violent society

In many senses our minds are mirrors of what we have seen and what we are looking for in life.  In being such a person can reflect on anything in their lives, which is however a double edge sword.  As was stated before every time we think over a memory we gain not only a greater understanding of the information but we form more of an opinion of the situation and become more pulled into its mass.  For instance if a person were to think of a lost loved one or someone who had wronged them they are more and more pulled into the emotion of whatever the situation they spend time thinking of in their minds.  This can also be thought of as using two mirrors to reflect the same light onto themselves the closer those two mirrors come to each other the more magnified the light becomes and the more heat it gives off.  This is of coarse what leads people to depression and anger problems, emotions and memories magnified.  The more and more it is reflected and magnified the more these thoughts begin to spill into and affect our lives. The more heat which is given off the more likely the mirror is to shatter or crack.    Unfortunately for some people the only way they can leave the mass of those memories and thoughts is for their mirror to crack which leaves some more grounded in reality and others to lose their touch with that reality altogether.

 If one can learn to take a step back from their own thoughts they can gaze at themselves from the mirror that reflects none other than themselves which is their mind and even find its cracks.  Becoming One with Oneself is being able to know that your pain is yours, and that you’re the only one who can both feel and heal that pain.  Things that numb the pain can be given, things to mask it, however only you can decide when you have had enough and choose to move past it.