Shalom! According to Wikipedia, Introspection is defined as “ the examination of one’s own conscious thoughts and feelings. In psychology, the process of introspection relies exclusively on observation of one’s mental state, while in a spiritual context it may refer to the examination of one’s soul. “
On our journey, we should always examine ourselves based on Torah. Sometimes, we can still get caught up in the world, and the true message gets lost. Even when striving to be humble, and pride can creep in before you know it. We should take each situation, whether we perceive bad or good, and examine our actions and our true thoughts. Many times, you realize, ” Maybe I could have resolved that better?” or “What were MY true intentions?” etc. Always looking at your self, and not the other person or source, will force us to reflect, inspect and improve ourselves. Take this concept, What is everyone focused on themselves only and how they could be a better person? At first, this concept sounds selfish, but it really makes the best outcome for the whole community. For example, if a husband and wife have a disagreement, instead of focusing on who made the mistake, they should focus on individually could have been done prevented the miscommunication. By pointing the finger at ourselves we are forced to see the side or view of the opposing party. If I am trying to be the best husband, and my wife is trying to be the best wife, how can anyone lose.
Pride comes in and clouds our vision. Once our vision is cloud, we work off our feeling and emotions. No pointing fingers here, I am including myself as will in this, believe me. In Torah, we sometimes get so passionate about Yah’s word, we can get over zealous. Although zeal is great, it can work against us at time. Over zealousness can cause us to act off emotions if we do not take our steps carefully. After the fact, it may cause us to say, “did I handle that correctly?” or “was I actually incorrect in the first place?”. I don’t know about you, but that causes me grief. Torah makes us accountable for our actions, even if we thought we had the best intentions. While there are no “I”s and “U”s in Torah, we have to always self inspect ourselves to make sure we have not put our views or opinions first. We have to also watch what comes out of our mouth, because we can quickly forget our human mistakes. Accepting your one accountability allows you to see the side of others, and may make you watch your actions carefully and handle the situation better next time.
Torah refines us, and filters out the pride in us. Due to society, distractions, religion, etc, we all can sometimes get caught up in matrix. Our emotions and feelings can lead us to projecting a message based on our own pride. On a daily basis, we should be mindful of our actions and our words, and make sure we keep Yah’s words first. Let me know what you think below.
