Have you ever felt like your mind is a roller coaster of chaotic thoughts and intense emotions? Our fast-paced lives increasingly present us with multiple work and personal responsibilities that bring mental chaos and result in stress, preventing us from finding peace in our lives.
In the desire to achieve that inner peace, many people would like to exchange their circumstances for new experiences, to change their surroundings. Changes like this, however radical they are, don’t really help us with the root cause of our stress and mental turbulence, because the key to true peace lies within and not outside. Your peace depends on how you manage your inner world.
We need to start by recognising that we perceive the outside world through our five senses; whereas the inner world can only be perceived by developing a sense of psychological self-observation.
To achieve self-observation, daily practice is essential, as it is a simple but profound technique that will allow you to know yourself and bring about profound change in the way you think, feel and act, generating peace and harmony.
Would you like to learn how to do it and put it into practice? Here is your chance!
Self-Observation: An under-used power to calm the mind
Self-observation is an internal process of observing oneself, where we seek to become aware of our own thoughts, emotions, and actions. It is a powerful and transformative practice that, despite its benefits, is often forgotten in everyday life.
Amid all the distractions and stress, self-observation is the key to learning about the workings of your mind by examining your thoughts and emotions, allowing you to identify what it is that triggers feelings of sadness, anxiety, frustration, or anger at any given moment. This process of self-observation involves observing yourself objectively with a sense of curiosity, not criticism, and developing that inner transformation, just like a scientist in their laboratory. A scientist observes with objectivity and curiosity, investigates, collects data and works to achieve the desired results.
How Self-Observation takes you to mental wellness
Self-observation is a powerful tool that improves your mental well-being. We are going to look at the practical benefits of gaining insight into your thoughts and emotions and how this leads to inner peace.
One of the benefits of self-observation is that, through it, we can identify the thoughts or emotions that most often appear in our mind, as well as any fear, irritability or other emotion that may be affecting us at any given moment. If you don’t recognise them as they arise, you won’t be able to change them. Only self-observation gives you the opportunity to address your problems without reacting in an impulsive way to anger or anxiety, and therefore to make decisions in a more conscious way. What’s more, it will give you more self-control and allow you to feel empathy with others.The peace of mind you achieve in your life depends on how much you practise self-observation. By doing it you will understand yourself better and better, you will clearly know what your motivations and desires are, you will be more balanced, and you will improve your relationships with yourself, those around you and the world as a whole.
The First Steps to Practising Self-Observation
Practising self-observation marks the beginning of a profound change in your life. By consciously observing the thoughts, emotions, and actions that happen every day, without judgement, you will become aware of how you think, feel, and act, and you will develop self-control and a mental well-being that will bring peace to your life.
So how to do it? In your daily life, ask yourself regularly, ‘Where is my mind right now?’ Because while you are walking, eating, driving, etc., your mind is actually somewhere else, in a memory or a worry, and therefore your body and mind are not in the same place, doing the same thing. Right there is dissonance, disharmony.
If you someone is rude to you, what would you think? How would you react? It might be to respond angrily to their insults, either out loud or mentally. But if, instead of reacting instinctively you were to breathe, focus on controlling your breathing, focus on becoming aware of what you are feeling and thinking, then the possibility of a different, more conscious course of action will open up, with a result that is more harmonious and peaceful.
Self-knowledge is becoming aware of your emotions and thoughts. It is very important not to label or judge them as ‘good’ or ‘bad,’ but simply to observe them with the intention of discovering their process, their effect on your body, and how emotions affect your thoughts. In this way, you will become aware of your inner state and this will allow you to improve your mental well-being.
Meditation is a great tool that will enable you to reflect on the situations that have unsettled you and to find the root cause of those thoughts and impulsive reactions, discovering and comprehending them until you experience calm or inner peace in your daily life.
The voice in your head controls your actions. Remember this when you are about to act or make a decision, and stop for a few seconds to observe what you feel inside. This will enable you to make the right decisions.
The Philosophical and Historical Roots of Self-Observation
Self-observation is a practice that dates back to ancient times. In the 5th century BC, the Greek philosopher Socrates encouraged the quest for self-knowledge through the famous inscription on the temple of Apollo at Delphi: “Know yourself”.
This principle, which he considered the basis of all wisdom, invited people to look inward to understand their own nature. Over time, this quest for self-knowledge has developed in various traditions. In Gnostic culture, for example, self-observation became a fundamental tool not only for self-knowledge but also for profound transformation. Through it, it is possible to identify and understand the psychological aspects that hinder our spiritual development. By paying conscious attention to thoughts, emotions, and behaviours, self-observation offers a path to inner freedom and connection with our deepest nature.
The Power of Inner Choice
In a demanding world where stress and anxiety are so common, applying self-observation allows us to experience holistic wellbeing.
Sometimes life can fill you with uncertainty. However, in such moments, all you need to do is look within yourself and take a conscious step through the transformative power of self-observation. Take some time to look within, discover that the power is within you, and go ahead and try out this powerful tool. The decision to choose how you want to live is in your hands!
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