How often do you self-reflect? Self-reflection, though a critical aspect of personal growth, is often overlooked or forgotten about in our daily lives. Yet, when you take some time to reflect on your day, the highs and lows, the challenges you’ve faced, your emotions, and your thoughts, you tap into a great power of using life’s experiences to learn and grow.
Why should we self-reflect and why is self-reflection scary?
It Builds Self-Awareness
We can’t change ourselves unless we know what our patterns are. We can’t grow unless we know what we can do better. Spending time in self-reflection helps us get in tune with ourselves. When we know ourselves, we can help ourselves. This can take a lot of bravery because it also means we have to face our weaknesses, our triggers, and our demons. When we self-reflect, we see where we are wrong, even if that is uncomfortable. However, that also means that we can change or correct ourselves.
For example, if we know what triggers us and makes us angry, we can see it coming the next time and remove ourselves from the situation.
It Enables Us to Recognize Change and Track Progress
What’s the point of changing if we don’t know how well we are doing? By self-reflecting, we can see how much progress we are making and if we need to change our strategy or not. It takes courage to honestly see whether or not you are making the progress you hoped.
It Helps Us Take Responsibility
When we self-reflect, we realize that we are responsible for everything in our lives.
Have you ever thought about how you got to where you are now? Or what about where you could have been if you had made certain decisions differently? These questions can be tough to ask yourself, and that is why self-reflection takes courage.
However, when you do consider these questions, you free yourself from being limited to the current path. When you take responsibility for your life right now, you also take back your power to change your life.
It Helps Us Live More Intentionally
When you spend time self-reflecting, you will have a much better understanding of where you are right now, how you got here, your current thoughts and emotions, and if you are happy or not. You will also have greater clarity about what you want to change. And that is ultimately the golden key: because of self-reflection, you can now live more intentionally going further. You can make choices differently, you can step out of autopilot, and you can be more intentional about where you want your life to take you.
How can you self-reflect?
There are many ways to spend time in self-reflection, but the easiest is to journal. Every day, write down your thoughts, challenges, struggles, and wins. See what worked and what didn’t. Identify patterns. If you do this, every struggle you face will become your strength.
In conclusion, self-reflection is an extremely powerful and helpful tool. However, it requires courage and is not for the faint-of heart. But once you spend time in self-reflection, you can be sure you will feel much more empowered, inspired, and motivated to create the life you want.
