“The meeting of two personalities is like the contact of two chemical substances; if there is any reaction, both are transformed.”
~ C. G. Jung
What if you were to take what Jung wrote about here and expand upon it: consciously observing your own reaction while an exchange with someone plays out, witnessing the transformation in the moment.
And could you take this experiment a step further: completely open your energy up to that other person, in acknowledgement of him or her as an equal Divine soul. Using your heart, instead of your intellect, even for just a few moments, to feel or sense the connection between you. With whom would you feel comfortable sharing such an experience? And perhaps more importantly, who would you not feel comfortable with and why?
One of the gifts of interacting with people who are very different from us is the opportunity it presents to see ourselves reflected back in the “mirror” they are holding up. Whether we are enjoying an exchange or not, our own reactions always tell us more about ourselves than they do about the other person – if only we have the courage to really examine them.