We’re already at the 3rd pillar of well-being!
As a quick review, the first two are:
1.Awareness
-Meaning, the ability to be more present, tuned into your here and now as well as to your mind chatter.
From Dr Davidson directly:
“Awareness: A heightened, flexible attentiveness to one’s environment and internal cues such as bodily sensations, thoughts, and feelings.
Skills: Mindfulness, attention, self-awareness”
2. Connection
– How we are in relationship to ourselves, to others, and to the larger world around us.
From Dr Davidson directly:
Connection: A feeling of care and kinship toward other people, promoting supportive relationships and supportive interactions.
Skills: Appreciation, kindness, compassion
And 3?
Insight
One way to think about insight is that you are the hero of your own story. What are your values, beliefs, expectations? How do you even define your ‘self’?
Insight in this context, is the ability to bring curiosity and objectivity to this idea of ‘self’. Can you be- to think about this in a Buddhist way- the witness to your ‘self’? Can you observe your ‘self’ from a different, neutral perspective?
If you’re willing to do this level of introspection, you may begin to see how the ways you define yourself are based on learned behaviors and societal / familial norms that contribute to how you experience/perceive the world.
Interestingly, the invitation with this isn’t to necessarily change the narrative you have defined for yourself, but to be willing to wear it more lightly, to recognize that you can look at yourself and the world differently.
Why is this?
The science indicates that having a more rigid, inflexible construct of who you are is linked with higher levels of anxiety and depression. Conversely, people who tend to be growth-oriented experience more well-being.
One way to play with this concept is to identify a feeling you’re having in a moment. Take this moment right now. What are you feeling?
Apathy, curiosity, confusion, overwhelm…
Allow yourself to have curiosity about it.
Why am I feeling this?
Does it have a root in something I experienced externally or is it related to a thought I just had?
Dr Davidson refers to this type of inquiry as a form of insight related deconstructive inquiry/meditation. His research notes that people who meditate on this particular concept show “enduring changes in self-related processing in the brain.”
Pretty cool.
Give it a try and see what you think!
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Image courtesy of Abdul Mustafa on Unsplash