Random musings: Begin the New Year by Reflecting on These 3 Life-Changing Questions

Wednesday, December 30, 2020

Begin the New Year by Reflecting on These 3 Life-Changing Questions

Today's blog post is from a podcast on The Art of Manliness:

As one year ends and another begins, it’s natural to reflect on both the past and the future — who we were, who we are, and who we want to become.

My guest today offers three questions that can help make that self-reflection truly fruitful, insightful, and possibly even life-changing. His name is Gregg Krech, he’s executive director of the ToDo Institute, which promotes principles of psychology based on Eastern traditions, and the author of Naikan: Gratitude, Grace, and the Japanese Art of Self-Reflection. Gregg and I begin our conversation with what Naikan is, and how this structured method of self-reflection can hold up a mirror to your life, helping you gain greater self-awareness, and see reality, and the way people perceive you, more clearly. Gregg then walks us through Naikan’s three rich, incisive questions and how to use them to help you discover how you really show up and operate in the world. We end our conversation with how to incorporate these reflections into your daily routine, and even make it a special ritual with which to ring in the new year.

Here are the highlights from the show:

What is naikan? What’s its history?
How naikan fits into the idea of morita (action oriented) therapy
The value of self-reflection
Why we often miss how much other people are doing for us
Moving from a complaint-based life to one of gratitude
The power of asking yourself what you’ve received in the last year
How to work reflection into your daily routine
Why it’s important to look at what you’ve given to others
The hardest question of all: what are the difficulties I’ve caused?
Turning naikan into a regular ritual

I thought this was an interesting podcast! And if you email them, they'll send you a 40+ page self-reflection guide for the New Year PDF. Be sure you tell them that you read about it in my blog post. You won't get any special treatment but they'll know how cool you are.