Emotional Mirroring is a legit thing folk(ses).

Last night, at 3am, while trying to get some writing done for Bunte Markhor, I took an Instagram break and watched some stories. A fellow blogger was doing her reflections for 2020, and when it came to the part where she couldn’t see her family and the stress/frustration/anxiety/sadness that comes with it, I teared up too. It was so close to home. Most of us have been there this year, lived through or maybe still living through it, aching to see faces that had been away for way too long. I saw those stories, and a few tears escaped. It’s called Mirroring.

Mirroring is actually how children learn to emote. Have you ever noticed how you make funny noises and smile from ear to ear to illicit a smile out of a baby? You could be singing a tamil song to your Pakistani infant but they catch on to that enthusiasm and smile. They mirror it.

In the adult world, this condition is called mirror-touch synesthesia. About 2% of the people in the world have it (according to huffpost). This may sound like empathy but it goes beyond that; people with this condition, simplistically speaking, have cross wiring in their brain and mix up visual and touch senses. You know how you flinch when you see someone landing a punch on screen, that’s it. You don’t wince, you flinch, as if it were your face. You mirror the emotions. It’s a great asset when you are in a positive environment and work place. It can also be highly detrimental if you are surrounded by mediocrity and abuse.

For the longest of time, I thought I am this way because I am highly adaptable. Turns out, it’s more than that. I am a sheesha ?

Who else here is a self diagnosed mirror-touch synesthete?