Introspection
Notes
Introspection is the practice of Self-awareness. As Socrates said, the unexamined life is not worth living. By introspecting, we gain self knowledge about our emotions and their causes, our tendencies, our preferences and beliefs. Those things might sound arbitrary but nowadays due to the constant Distractions from the external world, our knowledge about ourselves is either limited or non existent.
Introspection is not easy. we might be too tempted to trust first answer we find. Conformation Bias and Availability Bias can cause us to come up with false answers, which represents what we want to hear, and not what we need to. For example, if we ask ourselves why we are feeling angry, the first answers would probably be an accusation of someone else, rather than admitting our flaws.
How then do we find the answers? It changes from one person to the next, but some common themes are:
- Solitude - Seek solitude, a place where we can be completely open with ourselves without any external Judgment or interruptions.
- Be kind - Asking ourselves the tough questions is hard enough as it is. Ironically, some of us default to blaming themselves, picturing themselves as worthless. In effect, they become their own worst critic and assume the answer instead of seeking the truth. Only healthy self talk can help us reach the truth.
- Remember we are multitude - It is reasonable to find multiple answers for the same question. It is not a sign that we are crazy or that we don't know ourselves, rather we acknowledge our complexly, that we we contain multitude. We can have good qualities and bad ones, we are both wonderful and terrible at times, and that's okay.
Visual
Overview
🔼Topic:: behavioral psychology (MOC) ◀Origin:: Anne-Laure Le Cunff 🔗Link:: https://nesslabs.com/introspection-trap