Mastering the Art of Introspection
Nobody likes being lectured at, especially about their mistakes. No free person has ever taken criticism directed at some aspect of their person without ever feeling self protective, even slightly. How can we? It’s against our very nature, it smarts. It’s akin to abandoning self preservation or surrendering one’s own sovereignty or individuality. Only perhaps people who know not of these concepts can do that (likes slaves in the past but even they had their limits).
However, self introspection may happen after one has been berated, and that can yield valuable data on how to reform ourselves and re-establish relations with our fellow humans. However, the art of introspective thinking eludes some, if not many, people. It is understandable though; why would anyone want to explore their innermost thoughts? What if they find an existential demon inside, waiting to pull them into the deep that is despair?
However, it is not impossible to achieve self introspect, not just as individuals, but as a race of beings who’s brains have perfected the art of thinking. Here’s my guide to achieving meaningful introspection:
- Never assume your thoughts are right. This goes against the old adage of “listening to yourself” which is more of an expression of faith in the self than a serious foundation for rationalistic thinking. As Bertrand Russel once said, “I would never die for my beliefs because I might be wrong”. Too many people take it for granted that whatever comes out of their head is immediately sacrosanct. Don’t confuse your guaranteed ability to express yourself with the supposed superiority of your idea.
- Now that you realise you might be wrong, shop around for new perspectives that interest you but do not necessarily conform to your beliefs. You could expose yourself gently to new idea piecemeal but always make sure you do it with your trusty bag of salt. That’s what I do every time I open Medium in the morning.
- Sometimes you might meet perspectives that offend you. While it might be easy to put on your PC hat and lash out at some socially offensive thing, I personally believe that this is the wrong way to go about things (you assume that your accusations are right all the time). A good deal of background research/thinking (point 2 above) and empathizing may lead you to discover or even understand why people think the way they think. That is not to say that you should accept ideas that directly harm other people. Principles still matter while you introspect.
- Finally, when you are done meditating on all this data, you can synthesize a new version of your perspective and maybe even your principles. You don’t need to necessarily tear yourself apart while doing it. It would be like updating a theory based on new data. It’s an incremental exercise. You may even be as radical as you want in your update, provided it does not necessarily lead you to a worse place than you were before for yourself and for everyone around you (further introspection can save you a lot of trouble there).
- BONUS: You need a unifying principle; a rock to call home. The process of collecting new cultural data to inform yourself can be exhausting and sometimes depressing. Having a rock or a totem may offer you some stability no matter what you’re thinking about. For example, my rock is Matthew 5:44. It helps to remind me to suppress that knee jerk emotion that inevitably come to the fore when dealing with disagreeable ideas.
That’s it. There may be other, better ways through which you can introspect but this is how I do it. It’s my morning Zen routine if you will. Keeping a diary of your evolving thoughts may also be a good idea as it allows you to document your world view/model and achieve deeper introspection (“was that what I really believed back in those days?”).
It must be noted that strictly speaking, introspection is all about having privileged access to your own state of mind without influence from any external source of information. However, I would argue that any act of introspection that does not take into account the external world is doomed to failure because it would be exactly like talking to yourself about only yourself. It is stagnant, even narcissistic, thinking. Injecting new information into the mix allows for insight. We introspect more effectively when we allow ourselves to incorporate new information.
Have a wonderful, introspective weekend.
