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Live the “Examined Life” Through Healthy Introspection
No one lives a life worth living by accident
Wisdom Made Easy
August 26, 2023
Hello friends, it’s Michael here!
A quick thanks from me for all your support over the past fortnight! A couple weeks ago I shared the importance of rest, and I’ve been fortunate enough to recharge since then. Special thanks to all of you that have sent kind messages!
Today we’re excited to have a guest writer to share a nugget of wisdom with you!
We invited Scott Veigel, from Wisdom In All Things, to share a wise message with you this week, and he’s certainly delivered!
Today’s we’re taking a look at the remarkable power of introspection.
Let’s get WISER together!
To Not Look is to Fail
John Wooden, renowned basketball coach for the UCLA Bruins, provided us with both a warning and a prescription in his book, Wooden: A Lifetime of Observations and Reflections On and Off the Court: "without proper self-evaluation, failure is inevitable."
Socrates further emphasizes this point when he said, "the unexamined life is not worth living".
If you think they may be overstating things a bit, consider this: it’s very unlikely that anyone ends up with a life worth living by accident.
🪞 Practicing a Healthy Introspection
Simply put, introspection is "the act of looking within oneself."
It involves both, being aware of what we're thinking and feeling, but as Wooden and Socrates point out, requires actual examination and evaluation.
Here are four steps I have found that help us to take a good, hard look inside and lead to a life worth living:
🤔 Reflect, Don’t Critique
The process of introspection is intended to be helpful and beneficial. While spending time reflecting is healthy, using that time to pick a part what you did or did not do can be detrimental.
To help you see if you've crossed the line from observation and understanding to fault finding and condemnation, ask yourself: Am I reflecting or critiquing?
💭 Have a Plan for Your Thoughts and Feelings
Another way to keep from ruminating is to have a plan for any recurring thought or feeling, by capturing it and putting an action to it.
Ask yourself: What is the immediate, life-giving action I can take?
❓ Ask What, Not Why
Asking 'why' questions can place too much attention on negative thoughts and feelings, which, causes us to obsess on an issue rather than move toward the solution.
Instead, ask 'what' questions like: What is upsetting me? What are my true thoughts about _______? What could I do differently?
✅ To Live Right, We Need to Think Right
The way we think has a direct and profound influence on how we live our lives.
Both Wooden and Socrates helpfully point out that we will suffer – along with everyone around us – the consequences of our refusal to objectively examine our lives. To live right, we need to think right.
I have found the Bible to be a very helpful source for examining my life and right thinking.
From stressing the importance of thinking (Proverbs 23:7; Philippians 4:8) and treating others (Luke 6:35; 1 Corinthians 13:4), to setting priorities (Luke 12:34) and being wise (James 1:5).
No doubt, there may be thoughts and emotions that are best suited for a professional to help us evaluate, but healthy introspection is self-care, and we need to properly care for ourselves.
Taking a regular, honest look at ourselves will be quite beneficial and refreshing–because a life worth living is only possible when examined.
✍️ Journal Prompts
• Do you already engage with introspection?
• Which tip do you think you could do more of?
• Do you treat self-care like a necessity?
Consider journaling through the above questions yourself.
👍 Recommendations
Here’s a couple of things that we think will compliment this week’s newsletter and will help you to get wiser:
1️⃣ The first recommendation is Scott’s website: Wisdom In All Things.
Just like us, Scott is on a mission to encourage you to get wiser.
He has lots of great resources available on his website to help you achieve this.
If you liked today’s newsletter, check out his website and newsletter here:
2️⃣ Our second recommendation for this week’s issue is John Wooden’s book: Wooden: A Lifetime of Observations and Reflections On and Off the Court.
We’ve already read about some of the Wooden can impart from his unique experience.
Consider learning more by purchasing his book here:
* Please note that these may be affiliate links. Purchasing through these links could support Wisdom Made Easy encourage more people to get wiser.
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😊 Thank You!
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Catch you in the next issue!
Thanks,
Michael and Zac!
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