Many people struggle with introspection not knowing how to. Some start berating themselves for all the sadness and anger during the day and that is not a nice feeling. In this post I am going to attempt to share a process that I learnt from one of my teachers. You can tweak it as per your comfort level.
1. Mostly people practice introspection at the end of the day just before going to sleep reflecting on the day gone by. Some people are too tired by the end of the day so they do it early morning - reflecting on the previous day and setting an intention for the current day. Just do it when you are mentally more fresh.
2. Sit in a quiet space and take 5 deep breaths. You should ideally have 15 minutes available for this activity.
3. Enjoy a parade of your day’s activities (previous day’s if done in the morning) within your mind: thoughts, words, actions and emotions. Stand apart from them all and impartially review your day’s events as a silent witness. Don’t stop at any event to think about it. Just witness the event and move on.
4. Do not use adjectives to describe these or analyze they in any way. Just see in pictures what you have done that day or previous day till the point of introspection.
5. It will be difficult in the initial stages to remember all the events. Sometimes you may forget something and then remember later in the sequence. In that case, do not try to go back, just move on. With consistent effort and sincere application, this will become easier.
6. It is very important to remember that during introspection you have to merely observe the activities not criticize, analyze or correct yourself. The daily negative talk may lead to cynicism or frustration in life.
7. Observation will lead to awareness of one’s strengths, goodness, achievements as well as one’s faults, weakness and negative tendencies in daily transactions. This stage is called detection. It will automatically happen when you do introspection daily and sincerely.
8. Feel good for the goodness in you and strengthen your strengths. Invoke Gratitude in your heart for being a channel of blessing for someone today.
9. Accept the negativities without self-judgement or self-condemnation. The moment you are aware of the negative motives, accept them without justifying and are apologetic of your behaviour, at that moment they lose their charge. This stage is known as negation.
10. Now half the battle has been won. As soon as a weakness is detected and negated, you need to substitute it with its opposite virtue and observe your transactions imbibing this virtue. This stage is called substitution. Soon it will become a personality trait.
11. Example, you feel you have done a good thing by helping someone by going that extra mile, feel happy about it and express gratitude. When you detect that you have been rude to someone and it was uncalled for, accept it as a mistake, feel the remorse/ repentance without justifying it. This will negate it. Substitute it by mentally by seeking forgiveness from that person and making a note of the trigger that made you rude. Go and do physically apologise if you are called to do so. Visualise harmonious interaction in future. And be aware of the trigger in your future interactions.
12. Thus this is the IDNS formula for evolution
Introspect Daily
Detect Diligently
Negate Ruthlessly (in the context mentioned above)
Substitute Wisely
So well written and explin a lucid fashion.
Love and blessings