Self - This is a term we hear often of course in varied forms like selfishness, self control, self motivation etc.

In a day, if we study our activities by writing a diary of all the things happening in a day, we will notice that there are various factors which play a role in our activities. Time spent alone varies with each individual. In some cases we see that the person is never left free. He is always in the company of friends, relatives, colleagues etc and never has any time to spend for himself.
Of course, it is possible to identify even in these extreme cases, time to spend ,understand and study oneself.

Most of us are in the habit of spending at least some time in different ways, pray to God or spend time with him. We may use it in different ways viz , praying, chanting, wishing him to give power to do better or handle things better or ask for things to happen, or give him a big wishlist of things we want to get.

For some moments, if we can spend some time to keep our mind blank, that is try to avoid thinking about anything, but just sit with eyes closed and try to be calm and quiet, we will invariably notice that lot of thoughts come --- e.g What my daughter is doing ? Whether gas is switched off, have to buy ration today, Was the telephone bill paid? , Does cooking gas needs to be booked? Ticket for next month's journey needs to be booked etc . The list can be endless and varies from person to person based on his routines and background.

Here let us try to tell these thoughts to wait for some time and that you will call them and try to achieve the quiteness.

What does this has to do with self study?

To study the self, we have to be aware of our own thought process, as a first step, as thinking is the basis for all our activities.

What we think is very important. How is the thought process initiated ? It depends on the past incidents, people we meet and interact and the surroundings etc. If our mind is calm and quite , then we will be able to see things in a better perspective and that in turn will reflect in our activity and thus our character or personality.

Now coming back to keeping the mind calm and quite by wishfully asking the thoughts to stay aside for the time being . We get a blank screen where everything is serene.

Now we can try to chant some word or phrase we like in a slow speed in the mind.

Once we start practising this , then we can ask the mind what it wants to say.

Now listen to the mind and ask questions back as to why a certain thing is to be done and who is benefited.

Now in this process , you will notice you are with yourself and the study process automatically starts.

As a second step , take any issue which bothers u or requires a solution . During the quite moment , take up this issue and discuss the issue with the self with all the pros and cons. Of course , the issue may involve another person(s) and they also have to be involved in the discussion. But once u discuss with yourself , u will get all points analysed fully and the discussion with the other person will be more fruitful.

Now the aspect of time and its study and management , which plays a vital role in personality development.

For example , a person was left to spend a full 24 hours alone . Of course he had the option of some things to use , but was limited in movement in his room. This is how he spent the time --3 hours of reading newspapers , 2 hours of reading a novel , solitaire game of cards -1 hour , matching mahjong game -1hour ,meditation -2 hours, walking within the room- 2 hours, sleeping 9 hours ,watching nature through the window-4 hours.

Each of us may have our own list with variations of the above like drawing , singing, listening to music etc .

So what we do , when we are left alone , matters . Also , what matters is when someone is always running short of time with numerous activities to attend to.

When through such self study we understand our mind and study the way we spend time , on analysis , we may identify the areas or work , where we need to correct to avoid stress or get the performance better. We may also identify areas where we were running short of time and on analysis get a solution to save time or effectively use the time.

About Author / Additional Info:
I am a novice trying to put thoughts in words and share my views or opinions for better living