The Art of Self-Reflection
Self-reflection doodle courtesy of Google
Self-reflection is something that is sometimes taken for granted. While humans are social animals and thrive on social interaction (for the most part), some alone time to think to yourself is beneficial and can help you better yourself as a person. In my case, I have a lot of alone time in the morning on my walk back from the gym and when I eat breakfast. During this hour or so, I reflect on my interactions with people or simply think of my position on certain topics. The reason I reflect on my interactions with people is due to the fact that I want to make myself a better person to be interacted with as I see social interaction as an integral part of my character. During this self-reflection, I think to myself "What did I do correctly in this interaction?", "Is there anything I regret doing in this interaction?", and "Is there anything to improve on?" This, in turn, can help lead you to a better social life and can improve on your ability to interact with others in a way that brings reciprocal goodness to anyone involved.
Now, while it may seem that I am building myself to look better in the eyes of others, which is something that Rousseau argues as problematic in his discourse, I am actually building myself as a better version of myself. The way that I do this through self-reflection includes the fact that in the interaction I take what is liked by the majority (which creates an ideal) and try to shift my behavior and action that best fits the ideal that everyone holds as valuable. This does not mean that I am trying to make myself look good for others, on the contrary, I am essentially retrofitting myself into the ideal person that others would like to interact with. While it can be argued as Stuart Mill does, that the majority thought is not always correct (which is very much true), this does put in the risk of retrofitting yourself into an ideal that is not necessarily moral or virtuous, even if the majority perceives it as so. In these such cases, self-reflection on where you stand on the matters will guide you in the correct path. And while you may ask "How do I know what is morally good?", it should be noted that thinking things out thoroughly and deeply, will usually help clear things up.
Another thing that self-reflection allows for is the ability to become more self-aware of what you do. There is nothing worse than a person who does harm to others and is not aware that they are causing harm to others. The reason lies in the fact that they are oblivious to how their actions and words affect other people. Hence, when a person self-reflects, they are able to diagnose any harm they have caused to others, and are less likely to continue the harm once they become aware of it.
