(“Self-reflection entails asking yourself questions about your values assessing your strengths and failures, thinking about your perceptions and interactions with others, and imagining where you want to take your life in the future.” Robert L Rosen)
Have you seen this quote roll by on your media feed? “Christianity is about helping others and controlling yourself. When it becomes about controlling others and helping yourself, it ain’t Christianity.” I see it so often that the words and the idea have finally set me to process its meaning. It’s not just a cute little play on words, it states a dichotomy. It is a challenge to the reader to consider which side of the coin is their “heads up.” The first title assigned to this essay was “Thinking About Thinking.” It begged the question, what are you thinking about? What is worth setting your mind to task?
“Know thyself,” is attributed to the great Greek philosopher Socrates. Socrates also said, perhaps a bit abruptly, “The unexamined life is not worth living.” Before we approach any other matter or relationship in life, we must identify clearly with our “self.” Aristotle said, “Knowing yourself is the beginning of all wisdom.” Do you want to be a wise person? C.G. Jung said, “Who looks outside, dreams; who looks inside, awakes.” We all need a vantage point from which to process life.
People who “introspect” tend to want to be a “better” person. Referring back to the opening quote, they want to live more consistently, helping others and sustaining self-control. They bear in front of their mind that they want to be kind and compassionate. They desire to be honest and keep their word inviolate. They try to think of other people’s needs before pursuing their own. So paradoxically, as a person concentrates on their “self,” they are loosened to care for others. Hearts reach out and touch hearts. That is what the Beatles meant when they sang, “All you need is love.” And Helen Keller said, “The best and most beautiful things in the world cannot be seen or even touched – they must be felt with the heart.”
Having been inspired by the evangelist and Christian teacher Oswald Chambers, I have taken a twist on what it means to be introspective. The way I see it, introspection is not so much a path to being a better me for my sake as it is a way to be a living expression of the God in whom I believe. We are all part of a great and wonderful, eternal, and endless whole. My inner journey is more of a course of absorption into the Great “I Am.” Chambers said, “Faith never knows where it is being led, but it loves and knows the One who is leading.” My times of contemplation and prayer are a quest to coalesce my “self” with my God. I try to live a day always mindful of God’s presence surrounding me. Just me thinking without a box.
Oscar Wilde said, "Every saint has a past and every sinner has a future." We can identify which of those we are as we compel ourselves inward. This reminds me of something a dear friend said to me when I was at my wit’s end. “The reason you are you is because you are the only you who is you.” Lol! Delightful! Look inside yourself and remember there is no penalty for recognizing bad acts. Forgiveness, especially Divine forgiveness, loosens us from living in self-reproach.
Brush away the cares of the world when you can and give yourself the sacred gift of time for you, for self-consideration. Define yourself. Know what you believe and what your life’s credo is. Define your boundaries. Don’t equivocate. Don’t compromise yourself. To live thusly requires introspection and intuitiveness. The lovely poet Walt Whitman reminds us, “Keep your face always toward the sunshine and shadows will fall behind you.”
Bonus!
“Let’s all look inside. Shall we?”
/ Aristotle /
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"The most important relationship we can all have is the one you have with yourself, the most important journey you can take is one of self-discovery. To know yourself, you must spend time with yourself, you must not be afraid to be alone. Knowing yourself is the beginning of all wisdom."
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"Aristotle”
“Whether you succeed or not is irrelevant, there is no such thing. Making your unknown known is the important thing.”-- Georgia O’Keeffe