From the author: published Kingdom of Mirrors Primitive man saw his first reflection on the smooth surface of water. Later he began to use smoothly sharpened stones for this. Then he invented the mirror. Perhaps you cannot find a more mysterious and magical object that is in every home. We meet with a mirror several times a day. In the morning, they passed by disheveled. Then who will shave, who will put on makeup, and off to work. And if you forgot something and returned, again to the mirror, so that there was luck. What is the mystery of this object? A mirror is not a simple object, it is not for nothing that they say: “If you break a mirror, you will face 7 years of misfortune.” And scary stories about killer mirrors, mirrors in which the souls of the dead live. According to legend, the mirror is a door to the other world. And our reflection, which lives in the looking glass, protects us and our home from evil spirits. Therefore, our ancestors treated mirrors with special respect. Nowadays, we treat this thing much more simply; it is a common item that we often use. You need a mirror to see yourself from the outside, in 3D. We can clearly see external data in the mirror. We have a lot of them in our arsenal, from huge to small. As for spiritual qualities, a mirror is not our help. For this we need another person. Only through another can we notice and know our soul. The most sincere mirror is the eyes of a child. It is small children who reveal wonderful qualities in us. They accept us and love us just like that, sincerely expressing their joy to us. In this mirror we can see our best reflection. Adults cannot always act as a pure mirror, sometimes they are crooked mirrors. A pure mirror reflects a truthful state. The truth is not always a pleasant thing. Sometimes our condition is reflected, which we carefully tried to hide. If, for example, you feel angry when meeting another person, look deep inside yourself. It is just a reflection of your soul. Perhaps it is you who are angry today, and not everyone around you. It’s just that today you will notice this feeling more often. And if you are in love, then the world around you is beautiful, such a reflection is very pleasant. And in such a happy state, you will notice only beauty. Crooked mirrors are also quite common, this mirror never shows the truth. Yes, of course, the reflection in such a mirror can please and amuse you. But you will never budge to change anything. This is the magical effect of a crooked mirror. If you consider yourself very smart, the mirror says the same thing, why move on, read, study - that's it, you're at the top! Many still live in the Kingdom of Crooked Mirrors. They stop dreaming, setting new goals, and developing themselves. In this mysterious kingdom, time moves differently. A person does not feel its flow. The only way to break out of this Kingdom is to see the real you, accept your imperfection, and move forward from this point. How to understand that you are surrounded by distorting mirrors? It’s very simple, as soon as you have the feeling that you are a perfect person, and those around you tell you about it. The feeling develops into confidence. The desire and energy to improve disappears - you have all already arrived in the Kingdom of Crooked Mirrors. It’s very pleasant to be there, only this illusory kingdom of fragile mirrors. The truth, although bitter, allows us not to stop there, but to climb upward all the time. But an illusion is an illusion, there is little effort, but you sit, then in a swamp and croak. Develop, improve, don’t stop, achieve and don’t look in distorting mirrors!!! Oksana Babenko Family psychologist, Gestalt therapist.