Introspection take 1

Charlize Roche discusses the importance of introspection in her Painfully Aware podcast, emphasizing the benefits of understanding one's mental and emotional processes. She references Kartiki Brahmbhatt's TED talk that highlights introspection as a tool for analyzing thoughts and setting goals. Tracy Bailey's article further explores how introspection can enhance mental health by promoting self-awareness, emotional regulation, empathy, problem-solving skills, personal growth, and self-acceptance. A study on older adults shows the efficacy of guided self-reflection in strengthening resilience and positive emotional outcomes. Ultimately, introspection proves to be a valuable tool for improving well-being and decision-making. Hi, my name is Charlize Roche and I am the host of the Painfully Aware podcast. When was the last time you sat with your own silence and actually listened? Today's topic will explore how introspection can be beneficial. There's a lot of self-help content out there, but I like to believe mine is different. I don't pathologize the human experience, I prefer to validate and honor it. I want to start by going over a TED talk I watched recently, given by a high school student named Kartiki Brahmbhatt. Brahmbhatt explains that introspection is basically the examination or observation of one's own mental and emotional processes. You're basically sitting face-to-face in front of your own brain, unbiased, and seeing what thoughts go through your head. He provides an excellent example from his own life of using introspection as a tool. He sat down and wrote an essay, and just as he begins, he gets a notification on his phone. He gets distracted by his phone during the time he's supposed to be studying. Then, as he's laying down for bed that night, he decides to introspect for 2-3 minutes. He started this by remembering all the details. Where was he sitting? What was he looking at? What caused him to pick up his phone? Any detail he can think of surrounding the situation. Next, he starts analyzing his thoughts. What thought told him it was okay to go on his phone? What thought said, forget about the essay. What thought is causing me to regret it at this specific moment? He explains that then he understands the problem. He understood his thoughts and the situation, so next, he sets a goal. He says the next day, when he sits down to do work, he's going to power off his phone and tuck it under his bed, work for a solid 45 minutes, then give himself a 5-minute break. This motivated him, proving to himself that he could accomplish this goal, made him want to do it again the next day. Something that really stands out to me that he touched on was how he felt regretful after the first day, and after the second day, he felt happy and satisfied. This is important to analyze because it puts control of your life and emotions back into your own hands. It proves that life doesn't just happen to you, you always have choices. Brombott says there are four keys to a successful introspection, recall, analyze, goal setting, and motivation. The first step, recall, is remembering all the details that built the situation around you. The second, analyze, he emphasizes as the most important. What thoughts went through my head? What thoughts are making me regret this action that I did? Third, third step, setting a goal. You're able to do this once understanding the problem. I know this caused it, how can I prevent this from happening again? Be specific with your goal. And lastly, you motivate. This is very important and tied to the goal you set. That's why it's important to set realistic goals and build on them. The good feelings you get from accomplishing goals can be the motivation. Near the end of his TED talk, he touches on something so profound, yet rarely talked about. 99% of your problems can be traced back to your mental and emotional processes. He explains that people who are happy, people who are successful, people who are satisfied with what they've done in life tend to control their minds. They tend to control their mind to accomplish their goals and exceed expectations. Then he goes on to say, people who are unsatisfied, unhappy, and unsuccessful in life tend to make decisions when being controlled by their minds. This distinction that he made reiterates what I was saying before. Focus on what you can control and do not focus on what you can't. Guiding yourself into self-awareness can be so life-changing and helpful as long as you don't let yourself become a victim to life. Once you lose hope in yourself, there is no hope. I thoroughly appreciated that he added structure to introspection. Adding structure to introspection makes it easier to learn and apply. So if you're new to introspection, it's best to think of it as a tool you can add to your tool belt. And I'm hoping with this explanation, you're able to do so. Recently, I read an amazing article by Tracy Bailey, a professional counselor in South Dakota, Minnesota, and Florida. The title of her article is The Importance of Introspection and How It Can Benefit Your Mental Health. So why does introspection for mental health matter? She shares that introspection can cause greater self-awareness, which at its core is emotional intelligence. When you engage in introspection, you become more conscious of your thoughts, feelings, and actions. This awareness allows you to recognize patterns in your behavior, both positive and negative, which helps in identifying areas for growth. Understanding your emotions and responses better enables you to make informed decisions in various aspects of life, from relationships to career choices. Without introspection, it's easy to get caught up in automatic patterns of thought and behavior that don't serve your best interests. What I'm hearing at the end of what she's saying is discernment. By introspecting and growing self-awareness, you can have better discernment, which is incredibly helpful in decision-making. The next point she makes is improved emotional regulation. By regularly reflecting on your emotional experiences, you become better at identifying triggers that lead to stress, anger, or anxiety. Introspection helps you recognize the root causes of these emotions, making it easier to regulate them. Emotional regulation is crucial for mental health because it reduces the intensity and duration of negative emotions, preventing them from spiraling out of control. For instance, through introspection, you might notice that certain social situations or work-related stressors trigger anxiety. By acknowledging this pattern, you can develop coping strategies to manage these emotions more effectively, ultimately improving your mental well-being. I've noticed this in my own life. When I reflect on an emotional state of my own and analyze it, I then am able to understand it. This leads to compassion for myself and a better ability to attach myself and actions from my emotions, leading to me acting from a place of reason and logic rather than a feeling. While emotion can sometimes be illogical, that does not mean you shouldn't listen to that part of yourself or dismiss it. You should treat it like you would a child. Bailey's next day's benefit is increased empathy and compassion. When you understand your own emotions and struggles, it becomes easier to relate to others. Introspection fosters empathy by helping you recognize that everyone has their challenges and emotional difficulties. As a result, you become more compassionate and patient in your interactions with others, which can improve relationships and reduce feelings of isolation. Empathy and compassion are linked to positive mental health outcomes such as lower levels of anxiety and depression. Empathy and compassion to me are what keeps me in check as far as being a good person goes. Without those two things, people become highly narcissistic, which is not good for anyone. Another benefit is enhanced problem-solving skills. Introspection can help you approach challenges in your life with more clarity when you take the time to reflect on a problem. Rather than reacting impulsively, you can assess the situation more rationally. This process allows for more thoughtful decision-making and creative problem-solving. For example, if you're facing a problem at work, introspection helps you think through the situation, understand different perspectives, and consider the best course of action. When I think through the different perspectives and the duality of most situations, I typically feel more prepared for the situation, leading to better choices and actions for myself. The last one Bailey states is personal growth and self-acceptance. Introspection can be a transformative tool for personal growth. By reflecting on your values, beliefs, and experiences, you gain insight into who you are and who you want to become. This self-reflection leads to greater self-acceptance and a sense of purpose. This has been the strongest reason for introspection for myself. It has built my self-knowledge, which in turn builds my confidence. Without introspection and growth, I would not have the confidence I do today due to my struggles with anxiety. And now, if you're wondering, well, this all sounds really nice, but where are the facts to back it up? Then I have the study for you. An article written by the Rutledge, Taylor, and Francis group called Strengthening Resilience in Over 50s, a nested, clustered, randomized, controlled trial of adaptive systematic self-reflection. The objectives of the study were to investigate the efficacy of guided self-reflection to strengthen resilience in adults over 50 by exploring the effects of training on mental health and positive emotional outcomes. The method of study they used was recruiting two samples of participants. First, older employees from a consumer goods company took part in the clustered, randomized, controlled trial. Ninety-three employees, with the average age being 54 and 36% being female, were assigned to the first group, the intervention or active control group. The second group were older adults from the community, with the average age being 58, and this group was 80% female. They were assigned to the intervention-only group. Why? Why was this study done on older adults? Well, as people live and work longer with advancements in healthcare and technology, there's growing interest in helping older adults stay emotionally strong and mentally healthy. Research shows that older adults often have better well-being than younger adults because they've learned... They've learned coping and reflection skills over time. They also tend to use positive remembering and life reflection naturally. The pressures most old people face are ageism, loss of loved ones' abilities, and chronic illness. So why does self-reflection help? It can help them adjust to these new challenges, strengthen resilience, and make use of their natural tendency to reflect on life in a healthy, constructive way. We move to training engagement as a moderator of training outcomes. The main idea of this part of the article is engagement. How motivated and involved were the participants? This plays a big role in how effective the study and training in self-reflection goes. How much effort and motivation people bring into a training program can change how much they benefit from it. This portion tests whether being more engaged makes the training more effective in improving mental health, well-being. Next is the present study. This research looks at resilience. How well people recover from stress or adversity. Specifically, it studies how a program called self-reflection training, or SRT, can strengthen resilience in adults over 50. The goal of the study was testing whether the self-reflection training program could help people over 50 become more resilient. They measured depression and anxiety symptoms, perceived resilience, perceived stress, positive emotions, coping confidence, and mindsets towards stress. These were measured before, right after, and some time after the training. The four main predictions were the SRT group would show better mental health results than The SRT group would also show better coping skills and stress mindset, seeing stress as something they can grow from. People who were more engaged and motivated during the training would show even stronger improvements. And the last one, seeing improvements over time would happen because of the changes in coping skills and mindset developed through the training. Four methods were used in the study. The people were separated into two groups, the corporate group and the community group. In these two groups, there were 144 adults, aged 50 and older. The participants filled out an online form to sign up and were assigned to different training sessions. These sessions were randomly divided into either intervention, SRT, which is the self-reflection training, and the control group, which attended an alternative session. Without the main SRT training, everyone's demographics were recorded to ensure fairness between groups. From the two groups, there were three groups formed, the corporate control group with 41 people, the corporate SRT group with 52 people, and the community SRT group with 51 people. So what is a nested clustered randomized control trial? Well, it means there are assigned groups that are treated as clusters. Each cluster has had random assignment within it. This design type helps compare results between different types of people fairly. Before the training, the community group was struggling more. Higher stress, higher depression, and lower resilience. Before the intervention, the corporate groups were already more resilient and positive about stress. What the SRT program did was combine coaching, education, journaling, and group sharing to help people over 50 rethink how they handle their stress. Then there was the active control condition. This is a program that makes journaling, coaching, and group discussions to help people reflect on stress and focus on becoming more resilient. The difference between the SRT program and the control program is that the control program did not get the reflection training and served more as a baseline for comparison. So, in the study on self-reflection and resilience, specifically focusing on the SRT group, researchers didn't just ask people how they felt about stress. They actually measured it with psychological scales that have been tested for years before the program started. The SRT group was struggling more than the active control group on a standardized scale. Their average depression was a 5.75 out of 9, and their stress score was around 16 out of 40. They were clearly struggling more than the active control group, who scored around 4.6 for depression and 13 for stress. After five weeks of guided self-reflection for the SRT group, those numbers started to shift. Statistically, all of this was measured using reliable tools. The PHQ-9 for depression and the GID-7 for anxiety, and the brief resilience scale for coping. Each of these had a strong reliability score between 0.82 and 0.95, which means the data was solid and consistent. In simple terms, the people who took part in the self-reflection training not only felt showed measurable psychological improvement. They went from feeling stressed and low to reporting more optimism, emotional balance, and resilience. By the end of the study, the takeaway, spending even 15 minutes a week intentionally reflecting on your thoughts and reactions can actually rewire your emotional baseline. It's proof that slowing down and looking inward isn't just a mindfulness trend. It's statistically proven to strengthen resilience. Now that we've gone over what introspection is, how to use it, its primary impacts, and how it is statistically backed to be beneficial, I hope that you were able to see the importance of controlling your mind and not letting it control you. I want to add that I'm going to be in a local Portland cafe in November answering questions about introspection, and I would love any Portland contemplatives to come visit. Sip on some cold brew and talk about all the nuances in the thing we call living. Acknowledging the incredible people who share the profound benefits of introspection is important. So I would like to thank Kartiki Brahma for his TED Talk, Introspection, Living a Life Without Regrets, Tracy Bailey for her article, The Importance of Introspection and How It Can Benefit Your Mental Health. And the Rutledge, Taylor, and Francis Group for releasing their amazing study called Strengthening Resilience in Over 50s, a nested, clustered, randomized, controlled trial of adaptive systematic self-reflection. All of these sources were used heavily for this podcast episode and are what brought it to life. Also, the results for our next episode are out. I put a poll up on my Instagram for the next episode to be about how to radically tame your anxiety or what to do when you've outgrown your friendship. And the one that won the poll was how to radically tame your anxiety. So be prepared. It's coming out next Tuesday. Remember to subscribe to the Painfully Aware podcast. You can find more episodes on Spotify and YouTube. And as always, I'm your host, Charlee Squash, and I hope you keep discovering yourself. Bye. ♪