Thinking about It – Details, episodes & analysis

To have a to-do list makes us feel well-equipped. Knowing what to do solves most of the problem so that we can go about doing the tasks. In spirituality, we know what we have to accomplish to be peaceful, equipoised, and selfless. But how to go about is where we find ourselves lost, not quite sure about what is to be done in the moment. Sadhana Panchakam (Sadhana: means/practice, Panchakam: set of 5 verses), composed by Adi Sankaracharya ji, details 40 steps as a means/practice to achieve that end goal of happiness. 

We'll pause on this series as the Self Love Challenge continues! See you soon!

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 questions, looking for connections or patterns in our being, acting, interacting, reacting, thinking, and feeling.

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 at our day, we ask ourselves if we made a conscious choice to be happy and introduce that concept to our mind.

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 look back at our choices of yesterday and reflect on today’s happenings, gauging how well we implemented them.

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 one unpleasant detail to negate and brainstorm on all possible substitutes before choosing one to implement.

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 answer. Today, we introspect on our day’s happenings, looking for the connections between our experiences.

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 happenings, we observe and assess “How happy am I with this action/thought/feeling that I experienced?”

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 introspect on the exact same question as yesterday, but going through our actions, feelings, and thoughts instead.