Dr. Martin Hash Podcast

Contemplation and self-awareness are closely related, and may even be poetically the same thing. To contemplate life is to examine your place within it in relation to the places of others; and hopefully, to try and understand their motives and your own. Contemplation only works when you have a great deal of input to contemplate, the wider the better, that's why experience is important because without it, people will fill in the holes with mysticism. Mystics specialize in contemplation, which has kind of tainted concept: sitting alone in a cave on a mountain top for twenty years has no value to anyone, especially not to yourself, yet the conclusions these people make have influenced tens of millions of people: religion, metaphysics, all forms of navel-gazing.

Contemplation is valuable: you must re-examine your life on a regular basis to see if the reality fits the expectations. Since planning is essentially predicting the future, you have to check regularly to see how close you are; in most cases adjustments need to be made, and often you must accept failure and make a new plan, usually through contemplation. There's also a mental health aspect of contemplation; take time to enjoy what's around you: nature, your family, your successes; achievement and accomplishments don't mean anything if you don't take time to contemplate them.