Man : Looking Glass ( Self Introsepction)

Introspect Your Personal Timeline

Introspection is the act of self-examination of your conscious, thoughts and feelings.  
In psychology, the process of introspection relies on self-observation of the condition of your mental, spiritually, the  soul . It is a concept of inner human self -reflection, and provides an insight of our own mental states.

                                     Process of Introspect

Introspect

Look within

and observe your thoughts,

emotions and activities

throughout the day,

examining objectively

the flaws and positive points.

   

Detect

Observe

the wrong channels of emotions,

thinking and responses

which caused pain, anxiety, stress and sorrow.

By clearly ascertaining

the pain-giving nature

of certain habits of thinking and acting,  sending a strong message

to our sub-conscious mind

to be alert

the next time this thought pattern occurs

Negate

Become aware

when the thought pattern

arise within.

Detecting the destructive thought pattern

it as it rises.

Nip it in the bud.

Substitute

Immediately,

 find a release

from those agitated think patterns,

embed a positive value

displaced destructive thought pattern

and emphasised that in the mind.

Jealousy,converted into admiration.

Lust to love,

impatience to patience,

false speech to honesty.

Grow and be happy

When successfully

overcoming a tendency with our introspective thinking, we grow.

Maturity is harnessed and developed within and thereafter we live a life of happiness.

This higher way of living gives more joy and peace .

   

         
            

TimeLine

A picture is worth a thousand words. If so then capturing your life on paper with a timeline exercise may be worth millions.

A timeline or lifeline exercise is a graph that allows you to have a bird’s eye view of your life, and to see the positive and negative shifts along the way on a single trajectory.

Each one of us has a personal timeline that began the moment we were born. This timeline consists of highs and lows represented by the positive and negative experiences we have had. 
Putting this timeline on paper is an excellent way to record your life cycle, events and trends. It enables you to see vital information about your past life, helps to recognize achievements that have been made, and creates a sense of purpose for the future

 

Benefits

It is a recording of vital information about your past life and putting a timeline on your life. There are several benefits in completing this exercise. It helps you:

• See the themes of life that connect of different events. Examples: Your sorrow, your success.
• Recognize the key achievements, growth opportunities, lessons, persons and new wisdom
• Realize the value of negative in your life that can shifts as opportunities toward positive shifts.
• Increase purpose of life by connecting life events in new positive ways.
• Finding new meanings between your life at present in relation to your past and future.
• Understanding the past experiences and better prepared you to face the future challenges.
• Note how to responses to events have shaped your life and character (and not events themselves).

Beneficially, it’s an excellent exercise to complete together with your partner in life or a group of friends, extended family members or even business associates. Reworking your past life history using a timeline.

Re-working your Personal Life

Life’s story

Your story:

a.       Everyone has a story, or stories, because humans are story tellers by nature.

                                  i.            It tells you who you are,  your believe

                                ii.      How to best fulfill your emotional needs and meaningfully connect with others and life around you.  

                               iii.            A limiting focus of yourself: de-energizing or disempowering your emotional states inside of yourself.

b         .      Your story is powerful because your sense of self-worth lives in your storyline.

                                 i.            Your thoughts and beliefs are powerful energies that shape your emotional responses to past events in your life, and give you your story.

                               ii.            Conclusions about yourself and others around you.

                              iii.            The interpretations of your past that you continue to hold in mind, operating as a perception which filters into a powerfully impact on your life today.

It is about – the subconscious mind – a toxic thinking and the limiting beliefs in yourself that can unnecessarily activate your defense strategies, or survival which can jam or have a paralyzing effect on the otherwise amazing abilities.

c        
.                  Many a great story in certain areas of their lives.

                                  i.            The enjoyment of success and happiness. 

                                 ii.             Learning to let go.

                               iii.            Effectively or not in processing emotions of fear and anger.

When you let others power to define you, you allow other the ownership of your story, and your intrinsic value and worth. 

Thus by knowing your story, you will acknowledge your experience that activates your neural integration in your brain and body, affecting your actions, beliefs and happiness in life.

Steps in Introspecting Your Personal Life History

Phase 1:

 Preparatory steps before getting started:

a.       The first phase consists for five preparatory steps to complete before putting your timeline down on paper.

                     i.      Purchase or make ready the following materials:

·         Markers, pen or pencil, notepad and legal size paper.

                   ii.      Make time, perhaps one or more

·         15 to 30 minutes, to thoughtfully reflect on the course of your life, it’s high and low points, as well as stable times. It is better if it is journalize in your diary.

                  iii.      Record  time of reflection, list of life events on a notepad, keeping the below guidelines in mind:

• Experiences that influenced your life and later successes, both positive and negative.
• Significant life event at least every other year or so. If you are 40 years old, you’ll have between 5 to 10 years of your life.
• Include negative events or turns, a good story is multidimensional, and conflicts are key to telling a great story.
•  

                 iv.      Chronologically order of your (approximate) age at the time and events.

Phase 2: Putting your timeline on paper.

a.       Now that you’ve completed the preparatory steps, you’re ready to record your timeline on paper. To complete this phase, take the following steps:

i.   Take a legal size sheet of paper, and draw a horizontal axis. (If you use standard size paper, turn it to ‘landscape’.)

iii.   Draw a horizontal line along the horizontal axis.

iv.  Place “age” sign on the bottom-right corner above the horizontal axis, to signify age.

v.    Next, draw a vertical line along the vertical axis.

vi.     Place “events” sign on the top-right corner above the vertical  axis, to signify event in life 

vii.    Draw a dot on the horizontal axis of your timeline for each of the key events – allowing ample space between events so that they are spread across the axis from its left to right end points.

viii.  From each dot, joint a line for each event, accordingly, and make the line as tall or short as its intensity.

ix.  Connect up the points that you have marked.

x.    Remain open to adding events as you complete the timeline; it’s natural for one event to trigger a memory of another.

Phase 3 – Deepen awareness of self and life

a.       Looking at your timeline, in a notebook or journal, write down your responses to some or all of the following thoughts and questions (or similar ones):

·   Identify any negative past actions, big or small.

o   Reflect on what you may have gained or learned. The value to your life.

·   Pinpoint key decisions that were fruitful.

o   The effectiveness of choice and the results it produce

o   respond at the time (thoughts/feelings) to the decision/results

·   Choices that didn’t turn out well.

o   What made this a poor choice?

o   The costs of making these choice

o   Your respond to each (thoughts/feelings in response to choice/outcomes)

o   When you made this choice

·   Which decision-making strategies work? Which do not?

·   Microscope and see if you can identify the ‘steps’ you take (patterns of thought/feeling/action) think/feel/act) in executing effective strategies; do the same for the ineffective ones.

The action above is very helpful in fostering mutual understanding and teamwork between partners in couple relationships, or a group of friends, extended family members, business associates, and so on.

Phase 4 – Create new understandings, shifts in meanings

a.       Re-write some aspects of the story of your life in ways that help you better understand yourself as a being who not only seeks to find meanings and connections.

·         Identify the event that significant effect you on the timeline.

·         Pinpointing  any ‘stages’ or ‘turning points’ of your timeline

·         Determine the crowded and spacious in the time others and 
the meaning of the event.

·         A significant central theme (or two) 
in your timeline and life. Example sick

·         Identify a driving consciously or subconsciously question 

in your mind that has driven your actions and choices throughout life

·         Who are/were the most significant people in your life? How?

·         The milestones or markers associated with each stage and
the meaning to it

·         Pinpointing the changes or additions that can affect your life

·         Your future, in a year, 5 years, 10 years.

This exercise is an opportunity to accordingly shift the focus of how you relate i.e., 
      a. to yourself, 
      b. your life, 
      c. your past, as well as 
      d. your thoughts, 
      e. emotions, 
      f. needs, 
      g. passions, 
      h. wants, and so on. 


     When you focus attention to these processes, it means you get to actually choose the specific changes you want to create in your brain and life.

It takes courage, however, to examine old ways of doing things, and then to consciously act in ways that liberate your mind from old stories – and to stand instead in the truth of your highest aspirations of whom you yearn to be.

Telling and re-telling your story is a process of interpreting and reinterpreting the meanings of your past life. Your life story is rich with meaning, and putting your timeline on paper can capture essential meanings, and bird’s eye view of your entire life.

Excerpt taken with thanks :

Wikipedia
Athena Staik, Ph.d