taking one's internal temperature

We do not always, or even often, know what is taking place within. It's as though we host small governments inside us that hold secret meetings and plan covert plots, and by the time our regular programming--thoughts of jobs and dinner and lower back pain--is interrupted by a special news bulletin, the armed troops are already positioned and the missiles are pointed. In this manner, all too often, we find out that we have fallen in or out of love, or discover that we no longer want to live in Seattle, or realize that medical school was not the right choice after all. This is why introspection is so important; the psyche has no watchdog other than itself.

[Alisa Kwitney, in Till the Fat Lady Sings]