Rational Insanity
By Bryan Mari Argos

Solitary introspection

The phrase ‘solitary introspection' may be a bit redundant as I use it this week because normally, one can only introspect if he/she is alone, but what ta' heck, it adds a bit of sass to the title. Anyway, this week, I would like to invite you guys to do something that I usually do and find very interesting – introspection.

Introspection, for me, is a bit like looking at yourself from your own point of view and realizing certain things that we don't often have the benefit of knowing because of our many preoccupations; work, our personal pleasures, and sometimes, even ourselves, to name just a few. As I was saying, introspection is looking at yourself from your own point of view which makes it quite a bit self-centered by definition, but see, it is all but being self-centered because when you introspect you will realize that the less and less you think about yourself, the more you come to know how you affect other people around you. Introspect comes from two foreign words; intro which means ‘within', and specere, which means ‘to look'. Therefore, based on the word's etymology, introspection means ‘to look within'. It is such a beautiful concept that many use it for meditation and what better time to introspect than now, when this column celebrates its 100th edition? Yes, you are reading the 100th Rational Insanity on The News Today! Isn't that great! Now, back to our topic…

Did it ever occur to you that just being the ‘you' that you are affects so many things around us? This is the essence of introspection; to know how and why I affect you, the society, the community and everything in general. For instance, when we become grumpy at work or in school, we don't only make ourselves uncomfortable but the people we work with or are with as well. I didn't realize this until I tried to sit down alone for a few minutes and reflect on how my day was, then all of a sudden, it hit me – when I was cheerful, I was contagious, but when I was down, I was contagious as well. That was a helpful realization because I then decided to make it easier for others to have a great day by making the day great myself; then there would be lesser people to worry about. Doesn't it just piss you off when someone at work grumps around and makes life miserable for everybody just because his/her lover did not show up on time during their date the previous day? Look around, or look into yourself – that old grump at the office just might be you.

Another thing I found out while introspecting was that there are things that I do that I find perfectly innocent that turn out to be ‘not really innocent' after all, but sometimes because of my personal selfish interests, I forget to think conscientiously. Here we have the hard proof that introspection is not really self-centeredness because in truth and in fact, we realize our own selfishness through introspection.

It is through introspection that we discern what things to keep and what things to let go of; what things to change and what things to retain; what attitudes to improve and what to dump; what practices to stop and what to continue. Introspection is our own personal guide to our inner space. It is the key to social and personal health. With introspection we gain more friends and get rid of our enemies because after we are done with introspection we will realize our mistakes and begin to make up for the mistakes we have committed towards other people. Sometimes, looking deep into yourself can be very painful and depressing, but there is no other way to become a better person than to spend time knowing ourselves more and knowing how we can make ourselves better in relation to other people and also to ourselves.

While it is true that our one true best friend is ourselves, it is also true that we cannot grow internally without interacting with other people. This interaction is what changes when we make introspection a habit. Once we know ourselves more, and once we find out what other people think of us through introspection, interaction will be smooth and enjoyable.

We cannot exist on our own. It may be cliché, but no man is an island. Here's an analogy in that thread of thought: an island is a solitary piece of land, but it is lush and green most of the time because even in its solace, the sea reaches into its deepest recesses, on the contrary, the Dead Sea is called such because there is no life in it, the reason? It has no outlet or inlet, so the sun evaporates its water and it becomes saltier and saltier everyday. Introspection is a means of looking into ourselves to allow other people to enter us, as well, so that we become stronger, socially, and personally healthier.

Go introspect! Happy 100th Edition, RI and to all the RI Barkada! I owe this to all of you guys who have been faithfully reading RI week after week after week! Thank you, thank you, thank you, ever so much! Keep on reading!

Be rational; be insane, every once in a while! TTFN!

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