Why Introspection Is Important
We know emotional intelligence is important. It helps us to empathize with other people, so we communicate better and fight less. It helps us understand our own actions so that we can be more productive and less reactive . It’s not always easy, however, and this School of Life video explains how it could go wrong.
Using the fable of Androcles and Leo , the video provides a really compelling case for reaction and reaction . To summarize, it’s easy to get angry, act like a donkey, and relieve stress from other people without realizing the root of our problem (the proverbial thorn). We continue to react this way instead of solving the problem. Or we know there is a problem, but we make one of the following mistakes:
- We misdiagnose: instead of getting to the root of the problem, you are blaming something (or someone) else.
- We ignore pain : we tell ourselves that it’s not really a big problem, so we “absorb it” and ignore it.
- We come up with the wrong solution : in their words, “we can come up with unreasonable, convoluted schemes for solving problems that we do not understand.”
For example, for a long time I ignored my problems with depression because I thought the best solution would be to simply suck it in and ignore the pain. This only made the situation worse. Or, I would tell myself that it was something else because I was afraid of stigma. Once I pinpointed and acknowledged the real problem, I was able to figure out how to deal with it , which was much more productive than pretending it didn’t exist. You can probably think of a few of your personal examples in each category. This is where introspection comes in. This is how they expressed it (emphasis added):
“Fortunately, there is almost always information about what is really wrong. Our stream of consciousness contains a reservoir of tangled hints about our troubles that need to be collected and deciphered. The art of living largely depends on the ability to accurately and timely locate our thorns so that we are not forever doomed to suffer from our symptoms and frighten strangers with our roar. ”
It’s easier to ignore the problem, but introspection is critical to our emotional intelligence, our relationships, and our productivity.
Why Introspection Is Important | School of Life