What must one do to in order to make their every day count?

This year has been one of its kind in more than one ways. Each individual has experienced it in a different way and deduced new meanings out of it.

Ever since I was small, I have seen my mother often indulge in an internal dialogue with herself regarding her day. Every day at night she used to sit and think about the events of the day, what are her take-aways, her mistakes etc. The next morning she used to share her lessons with me in the hope that they would help me in some way in the future. This year, I started practicing it myself and so I have a little something I want to share with everyone.

Having spent so much time at home this year, one of the thoughts that I have pondered upon is ‘introspection’. What is the correct way of introspecting?

My experiences till now have shown me that introspection is a broad term and like many other concepts in psychology, this construct also has two sides to it. At one side is the ruminative type and on the other is the reflective type.

It’s not just about introspecting in general. It’s also about how we are practicing it. The subject matter is very important. If our mental dialogue is full of self-fulfilling prophecies and rationalizations, it will lead to making our maladaptive thinking patterns more and more deep rooted. In order for it to be ‘self-reflective’, we need to train our minds to see our drawbacks and mental blocks.

We must keep a check on our introspective content. Does it involve us trying to evolve and learn? or are we just relearning the same patterns of behavior?

When we practice reflective introspection, it allows us to see interpersonal events from an objective point of view. It gives us an opportunity to learn something new about our self and the people around us, in turn allowing us to make each day count!