Dr. Martin Hash Podcast

Insight is the ability to perceive something clearly & deeply. Examples include: a sudden understanding of a complex situation or problem, understanding the significance of an event or action, and understanding the cause and effect within a particular context, Essentially, insight is the best way to learn more about a subject, and about life in general. Insight is not merely intellectual; it’s an epiphany born from direct experience that reorganizes our emotional world, increasing flexibility, self-efficacy, hope and self-compassion. Insight can revise self-narratives and motivate behavioral change. Some insights arise from an experience first, which is then analyzed internally as to cause and effect. These insights can emerge out of doing something new or turning inwards and analyzing your past thoughts, feelings, reactions & behaviors, jostling old narratives for reinterpretation. Other insights are more cerebral, starting with a “why” question and then trying to answer it. Because of all these mindful exercises, insight increases cognitive flexibility, a substantial component of mental health, because at the core of psychological problems is rigidity: fixed narratives and behavioral patterns that keep people trapped in unprofitable thinking patterns. New insights revise our existing conceptual framework to resolve impasses and suggests alternative ways forward. This is why insights typically settle us and generate hope, which is an aspect of optimism, a positive component of happiness. Insight and self-awareness are closely correlated to each other, and self-awareness also increases happiness.