I have been studying Socrates some time now and his views on life and death. Socrates used to say

The unexamined life is not worth living.

He was all about examining his as well as other people's lives. I guess I agree, that's why I give all my money to therapy :p No, really, I do believe it's more than just useful to reflect on our own feelings, to actually get to know ourselves, to listen to what we truly say / feel and therapy seems to be the perfect way to do all these things. I'm a therapist, what would I say?! :-)

Of course, it's not the only way to examine one's life but it's one of the most common ones. Other ways might be keeping a journal, creating, thinking about your life and how you live, meditating (I'm not really sure about this one), talking with a good friend. To live a full life, a satisfying one you have to take a close look at yourself. What are your true values? What are your beliefs? Do you live according to your emotions and beliefs or by what the society / your mother / your friends think you should do? Do you give time to yourself or are you always running to get a hold of every little thing when you don't have the slightest idea who you really are?

James Bugental once wrote:

When we busy ourselves with work, with social media, and with continual activity to avoid confronting who and what we are, there is a strong likelihood that we will be living a dissatisfied existence.

Do you take time to get you know yourself? Do you examine your life and how you live it?

Of course, there's always the other side which we should not forget, we need to live a life to have something to examine. What I mean is that sometimes for example I go to such great lengths of thinking, examining, reflecting, that I forget to actually live, to act on all these thoughts. Yes,

the unexamined life is not worth living but nor is the unlived life worth examining

as is mentioned in this article http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/happiness-in-world/201011/the-unlived-life I came across the other day. I really like this quote! Reminds me to get out there and stop writing!

Oh well, it's raining. Perfect weather for some introspection, isn't it?!

image by Phillymar