How to Introspect

Self-exploration is perhaps the hardest undertaking for anyone. Looking at all parts of yourself--good, bad, indifferent, and ugly--and coming to terms with them is a lifelong process. This article will help you get started. Remember: a journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.

Difficulty: Challenging

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

• Yourself
• A box of tissue
• Paper
• Pen or pencil
• A quiet place
• A reserved period of time

1. Make a list of your attributes. Make three columns on a piece of paper. In one column write the things you think are positive about yourself. In another column, write the things that you think are negative about yourself. In the third column, write the things that may be quirky or odd about yourself, but which don’t hurt anyone. Take your time; you have a lifetime of stuff to sift through! Read over the list when you’re done and really take it in.

2. Be honest with yourself. As you make the lists in the above step, you will be compelled to skip over those nastier aspects of yourself. For the sake of the exercise, those are the things that really need to be listed. If you don’t face them, they will grow stronger and force you to deal with them at a time that is inconvenient. It’s like weeding a garden: if you don’t catch the weeds as they spring up, eventually they will multiply and take over.

3. Embrace The Dark Side. We all like to take credit for the good things about ourselves, but no one wants to own up to what is considered to be bad things. Part of this is because deep down, we like those bad things; they give us an outlet from always being “decent”. The key here is for you to acknowledge what you perceive as bad, accept it, then keep it moving.

4. Let yourself off the hook. So you have some glitches in your programming; welcome to the human race! We are not perfect beings, and most of us will make more mistakes than not until we leave this earth. You are who you are and as long as you aren’t deliberately hurting other people, then that’s what should matter. However, if your Dark Side is taking pleasure in causing pain to yourself or others (including animals), then you may want to seek professional help.

Tips & Warnings

• At first, you may feel discouraged and disheartened; this is common when we actually face the darker aspects of our personalities. But you have to go through the dark in order to appreciate the light, and the more positive aspects of your personality will balance what you perceive as the more negative ones. Cry, curse, do what you need to do to get over these feelings in a constructive way...then keep it moving. You’re on your way to becoming an integrated person.

[Felicity]

on 6/13/2008 A well thought-out article with some very good advice. Thanks for sharing it with us!