Have you ever noticed that people from noisy or loud families are often noisy or loud themselves? If you love nature you will find ways to be in nature because you resonate with it. As a kind and compassionate person you are likely to seek out others who are kind and compassionate. If you love money and are into outward expressions of wealth you may drive a big car and live in a large house. Get it? What you resonate with shows up in your life and mirrors itself for you to see and think, "ah, yes indeed," and perhaps draw a lesson if it's not a Peach Melba experience.
Author and spiritual teacher Byron Katie does this mirroring work, actually called The Work, with our judgments, which are based on beliefs, and in turn create feelings. All of the feelings on the negative spectrum arise from self-inflicted stress caused by untrue beliefs, which we use to create judgments. Negative feelings make us miserable. Unearth and dissolve the beliefs underneath, see them as reflections of your own state of mind, and the stress goes away and life just is.
The other night my teenage daughter came and suggested that my husband and I might want to go out on Friday night. She loves an empty house - to cook and be by herself. But my husband was on his way home from a business trip, delayed two days due to weather. My reply was quite forceful, indicating that her suggestion might be insensitive to his needs, that all he would want is peace and quiet, a hot shower and clean clothes instead of going out. My daughter was taken aback by my reaction because I had called her insensitive to her dad's needs and raised my voice. So, about getting back to the mirroring and my own lesson. I turned my belief and judgment of, "You are insensitive to his needs," around like a mirror reflection to, "I was insensitive to your needs." Yes, I was actually insensitive to her needs; I didn't even consider them. It is amazing what you learn about yourself when you begin this Work. The world may revolve around me, but only in so far as I recognize everyone and everything around me as my teacher and mirror (consider reading an earlier post "mirror, mirror.") Someone famous already said long ago something about turning the other cheek.