Thinking about It

Welcome to this year's health challenge on gratitude! There is a growing understanding of the concept of gratitude as being thankful; a readiness to show appreciation. Gratitude starts with the acknowledgement of receiving something or possessing something of value. Upon recognizing the value of something, we can be thankful and grateful for it. This 30-day challenge will progressively go deeper i...

While acting, we often relive memories of the past and create desires for the future. Thoughts of failure or success create emotions that cloud thinking. We also compare the past or future with what's now, thus, losing out on present opportunities. Similarly, in the present, confusion or physical distractions take us away from the current action. So take all of these thoughts, and surrender them a...

Efficiency and dexterity in action means acting fast with precision and perfect technique. There is very little waste of time, energy or resources. Also, we do the action in the spirit of Karma Yoga and build ourselves up. When we are present and single-pointed in our action, our mind is less cluttered and detached from the results. In a silent and purified mind, we can feel grace and divinity wor...

Satyam (truthfulness), Ahimsa (to not hurt), and Brahmacharaya (intelligent self-control) are the three pillars of Hinduism because when practiced, they create energy dynamism. With an integrated, kind, and disciplined personality, our energy is not dissipated. Understanding how our energy works is crucial for we can then appropriately generate, conserve, and direct it into a field of our choice....

Lingering like a smell left behind in a room, our Vasanas are the continuity from lifetime to lifetime. These past impressions on the mind manifest as our tendencies, likes, dislikes, and personality traits. For instance, when something comes very easily to us, we had to have worked at some point to acquire that ability. We create who we are, from the past of this life and that of so many previous...

Other than nurturing the mind with gentle compassion like we would a friend, we can evaluate it like a mystery series by having a sense of wonder and excitement as we figure it out. For introspection questions, we apply to ourselves the concepts learnt in scriptures and commentaries, podcasts, or books. Most importantly, we rely on our intellect to draw that line when we start overthinking. Today,...

It is counterproductive to over self-analyze and fixate on rectifying ourselves. With excessive criticism, we collapse inwards and become smaller, no longer blossoming and unfolding. We introspect to see our personality layer, peel it away, and go deeper into ourselves. Once we see the truth underneath it all, we adjust our behavior to bring out and enjoy that beauty within us. Today, focusing on...

While self-analyzing impartially, we discover weaknesses that could trigger shame or guilt. But when we see our thoughts as they appear, we realize that we experience every type of thought which affects our personality differently. So we need not judge ourselves harshly when we find and can build a pattern of thinking. Introspection also becomes highly amusing and entertaining with practice as we...

In contrast to who we are, we all have an image we aspire to be. But in our eagerness to be that ideal, we think up another version of ourselves. We also sell ourselves short when we aren't the ideal we hold. Introspection gives us clarity on who we are as we accurately assess our thoughts, separate from emotions. With detachment, we bridge the disparity between our different images and lift ourse...

The introspection structure explains that the deeper we consciously trace a pattern of thought within our personality, the deeper we can negate and adjust. A successful alteration then leads to our unfoldment as it affects so many of our actions. There is also the development of presence of mind as we observe others to learn and experiment with different ways of doing things before eventually adop...

The process of introspection takes openness and time for we simply sit in waiting silence with an incident, thought or emotion. There is no active doing or hunting, neither a general idea nor an obvious answer and no hurry to get the answer. Reflecting on a day's events is a good start for the mind to attune to details. But as we proceed, less specific and more time-pervading questions can be aske...

Introspection involves a lot of self-observation and self-evaluation. Introspection also entails staying with an identified mental process to see if it was inspired by an emotion or if it created one. So from our actions, thoughts and feelings, we identify the thought or emotion that led to them and its reasoning. It could be completely irrational or have been brewing for some time. Using the same...

While identifying our actions, thoughts, and feelings during introspection, the mind learns to bear a witness attitude. We develop our ability to simply observe. Our mind is also trained to be alert and wholly tuned into our thought process as we examine all identified thoughts for motivation of our actions. These great qualities help build the frame of mind that is needed for meditation. Today, w...

We are who we due to our choices and experiences, most of which, were not conscious. Introspection empowers us to make purposeful adjustments and recreate ourselves with understanding and love. Yesterday, we created a space where we could deliberately choose happiness. So today, we ask if we exercised that choice during our day. With openness and awareness, we also recap on previously posed questi...

Despite its structure, introspection is neither a forced process nor a deliberate action. There is no "have to". When practicing this technique, we stay with an action, thought or emotion for as long as we can before moving on. We go on looking, noticing, and appreciating, when suddenly, something may just become clear since our mind was made available to see and understand. Today, as we look back...

Having applied the cyclical technique of detect, negate, and substitute to our lives, the next organic step is to introspect on how well we practiced it. Eventually, a lifestyle change is brought about for we become more aware. We can recall better our actions, thoughts, and emotions during introspection, while also remembering to carry out our substitution strategies during the day. So today, we...

As we understand the nuances of our being, we may have found something counterproductive to what we are working towards. It's not something we want for ourselves and naturally, we wish to remove it. This is "negate", the third step of introspection. But eliminating creates a space that cannot be left unfilled. So we consciously substitute our eradicated action, thought or emotion. Today, we find o...

In "detect", the second introspection step, rather than simply knowing our experiences, we see the reason or cause-effect relationship behind our daily actions, thoughts, or feelings. For instance, we evaluate a thought as the cause of our speech or as an effect, caused by an emotion or someone else. But what is most important to understand is that we may not instantaneously have clarity and an an...

Introspection involves 5 steps: notice, detect, negate, substitute, and grow. Today we focus on the first 2. We start by attentively seeing our mind, noticing different nuanced thoughts and details. With the next step, as we look at ourselves, naturally, we detect. But to do so in an objective, practical and pragmatic manner is essential. So as we think back, remembering our day and its sequential...

Our BMI tools provide a structured way to think about ourselves. Through the body, we look at how we are perceived and at the qualities of our actions. With our mind, we notice all the varied feelings we feel and the degrees to which we feel our mixture of emotions. With our intellect, we check our voice of reason and the stock of knowledge we use to make sense of world and ourselves. Today, we in...

Over the next 8 days, the technique of introspection, or mindfulness, will be outlined. We start with preferably writing something down via the old-fashioned method of pen and paper. Compared to writing on an electronic device, this is less structured, allowing more freedom and flow in the way we express ourselves and our thinking. Writing things down also helps us better identify our thoughts and...

Introspection is a powerful technique to understand and regulate our mind-intellect unit. We start by observing the thoughts and reactions we had throughout the day. Then, we evaluate them and can detect the different types of thoughts we had. As we identify our thoughts, adjusting and negating, replacing them comes naturally. The repetition of this process empowers us to understand ourselves and...

Our body, mind and intellect are our purposeful equipment to be worked around or be improved. Via the body and its senses, we act and engage with the world and people in it. The mind pulls us outside, enabling us to enjoy and fulfill our wants. Conversely, the intellect pulls us within, towards our spirituality, empowering us to evaluate, appreciate and understand. Maintain clarity of the specific...

Success can be achieved in the world both outside and inside. We successfully explore and understand the world outside at large, like via science, economics, or politics. Conversely, we find success inside as we reflect and pursue goals related to our personality and wellbeing within. Unfortunately, as we try to find happiness and peace more or only in one world, we dampen the success of the other...

For each one of us, success is the ability to be found within and brought out in efficient action, skill, or knowledge. Using religion to turn inwards, we can find that latent potential before awakening it to be actively used and experienced. As we constantly choose to use and think about that discovered wisdom or talent, we become proficient at it, can easily repeat it, and develop it into a habi...