Only when an individual examines himself and sincerely works to remove the impurities in his personality can he have good physical and mental health and lead a successful life. Such examination is called ‘introspection’ or ‘self analysis’.
Every night before going to bed it is a good practice to review and analyze the day’s events and ponder the lessons to be learnt from the experiences. These together form ‘introspection’. If there was a mistake made, make a strong auto-suggestion not to repeat it; if an action was done well, that should be recollected to imprint it strongly in the mind, to be repeated when possible.
A habit of introspection is extremely valuable for everyone. Most of our lives are driven by habit. If we wish to influence or control our own destinies we must take this into consideration and form appropriate habits. It is also said that good habits are hard to make and easy to lose, while bad habits are easy to get and hard to lose! Unfortunately, it is all too true. So in order to change our habits, particularly to eradicate those which are unwanted, we need knowledge as well as a practice to accomplish the task. We must start with questions such as ‘Why are we living? From where did we come? Where are we going? What is the purpose of lie?’ Answers to these questions form the core of our knowledge about life. Having obtained this knowledge to the extent possible, we are equipped and enabled to live a successful and fulfilling life.
It is a general human tendency that even if we know that an act is not correct and we desire to avoid it, we forget our resolve very easily and continue to repeat the same act. If we are to rise from this level we should identify all our negative, harmful and unwanted thoughts and make sincere effort to change each one of them. Such an analysis and practice is an effective method of applied ‘Introspection’. The first topic we have taken is Analysis of Thought.