Power of Introspection Part 2

In Part 1 of this article, I introduced you to Step 1, Acknowledging Your Outer Reality, of the Leading From Above The Line five-step introspection process. Introspection is getting to know and connecting with your inner self—your inner reality. It is getting to know who you truly are. It is discovering your divine gifts of conscience and purpose. Introspection liberates you to better live out your full human potential. Introspection is especially critical and necessary when you are agitated, frustrated, stressed or sad. The second step of introspection is Letting Go of Your Outer Reality (Letting Go) and this involves freeing your mind from the trap of your outer reality. Thus, it requires the calming of your mind in order to better recognise and to hear your inner self. Letting Go means freeing yourself of the obscurances brought on by people, possessions, habits and desires. Letting Go is the toughest and most challenging of the five steps. Your attachments to people and possessions, your desires and the sensual pleasures are like powerful magnets that seek to keep your attention all the time. Together, they are like a huge vacuum trying to suck you in and which you have to fight against every day of your life. 

 

There are numerous approaches and aids to Letting Go. You will have to explore and determine what works best for you. They generally involve minimising external distractions such as, finding a quiet place, closing your eyes or focusing on a single non-distracting object and asking the universal spiritual power for guidance. When you are able to let go of your outer reality you open the door to searching for and discovering your inner self. I will look at the aids to introspection in greater detail in another article. You need to keep repeating the Letting Go step until you achieve a calmness of mind, which will lead you into Step 3, Recognising and Embracing Your Inner Reality. In this step you open the door to your inner reality. It is like removing the mist from around you and suddenly there is great clarity. It is like wiping the frosted-up mirror to reveal the true image of yourself. It is like letting the turbulence of the water settle so that you can see a true reflection of your true image. Step 3 is marked by deep conscious awareness of your inner self. You come alive to your true self and you hear your inner voice with great clarity. You have sharpened awareness of the moral line and your desire to live above that line. You have increased awareness of your human goodness and the human goodness of others. You sense and feel your inner power and find clarity on your purpose in life.  You become more aware of the universal spiritual power and you experience a feeling of connectedness.

 

Having arrived at a state of deep conscious awareness in Step 3, you may wish to linger and enjoy what is good and wonderful about you as a human being. In this way, you grow and strengthen your inner self. This is Step 4, Lingering in Your Inner Reality. By lingering you grow in confidence knowing that you hold noble intentions and that you are spiritually connected. When you linger in your inner reality you nourish your sense of personal freedom, thus boosting your courage to hold independent thoughts. With your heightened sense of human goodness you free yourself of prejudices and become more open to loving all humanity across its diversity. You are better able to envision your purpose and to visualise life towards the fulfilment of your human potential. By lingering in your inner reality you are better able to generate creative thoughts and to deal with the many challenges of life in the outer reality. You grow in self-confidence and humility as you become more conscious of your inner power and your spiritual connectedness. Unfortunately, you cannot linger at Step 4 forever. You have to return to your responsibilities in your outer reality. The process of returning constitutes Step 5—Committing to Making Your Outer Reality More Representative of Your Inner Reality. In returning, you are challenged to commit to take as much of your inner reality into your outer reality and thus make your outer reality more representative of your inner reality. You are challenged to live in a way that is more representative of the life you really wish to live and that means to live and lead from above the moral line. You are challenged to allow your human goodness to prevail and to act on your creative thoughts. You are challenged to commit to live a life of greater conscious awareness of your inner reality. You do not have to belong to any one group, tribe or religion to access the inner self. We are all divine beings.