Week Four: Developing Your Self Observant Skills (Part I)

LOOKING INWARD AND OUTWARD

In a self-observant state of mind, you can seek rational understandings and corrective solutions You can examine the thoughts behind needles fears, take corrective actions, look at what results, and make adjustments to improve your performances.

Over 2,000 studies show the irrational types of inner speech connect to inner turmoil. Self observation can also include a backward look to see how your beliefs connect to emotions that motivate known outcomes. You can use this form of observation to gain clarity, weed out erroneous thoughts, and reinforce reasoned perspectives.

Part of self-observation involves anticipating your feelings and behaviors, but this anticipation is different from the self-absorbed variety of thought. Here's an example: "If I believe such and such, how is this likely to affect how I feel and what i do? Are their plausible alternative views? How might these views affect my emotions and behavior?"

INTELLECT, INGENUITY, AND WILL

Intellect enables you to recognize and avoid danger. Through ingenuity, you may find a novel way to survive. A will to endure can make all the difference. if you have a higher purpose for survival, such as living for your family or fulfilling an important mission in life, your survival chances are substantially improved. Such a purpose gives you the persistence to tolerate emotional discomfort.

When absorbed by anxieties and fears, you do not lose your intellect, ingenuity, or will. But sometimes these precious faculties become distorted. You use your intellect to turn over excuses; through ingenuity, you feel diversions to duck your fears; you employ your will in a stubborn refusal to face your fears.