Every person sets goals. To achieve them, we must constantly analyze the path we have taken and our future actions. This is reflection in its essence. For example, many successful people, including business leaders and athletes, practice reflection to learn from their mistakes and improve their performance.
People are not born with an innate function of reflection; I myself began to consciously practice this process after a certain search for tools for self-improvement and awareness.
Why is reflection necessary?
Reflection is the process of consciously thinking about one’s own experiences and actions, with the aim of understanding their meaning and consequences. Through reflection, we can become aware of our thoughts, feelings, and behaviors, and, based on this, make more conscious and thoughtful decisions in the future.
Reflection is what allows us to understand ourselves, our values and beliefs more deeply, and to understand how our own history and experiences interact with the outside world and other people. All this can help us to become more confident in our actions, make more conscious decisions and achieve our goals. We can understand what makes us happy or unhappy, what makes us joyful or aggressive, what is happening in our lives.
Critical Thinking and Development
Reflection also helps develop critical thinking. Critical thinking is an important skill in modern society, allowing you to analyze and evaluate information, make informed decisions, distinguish facts from opinions, seek alternative points of view, and develop creative thinking.
➤ What is critical thinking and how to develop it – read more
Happiness and reflection
Analyzing our feelings, emotions, and actions helps us find “our happiness.” We can understand what we like, what brings us joy, and what exactly we want in life, regardless of external influences. Reflection helps us distinguish our own desires and values from other people’s expectations.
Reflection will help you determine your points of balance and self-realization. By practicing it, you can radically change, for the better, your relationships with other people (colleagues, loved ones, bosses), determine your emotional triggers and work through them.
Development and expansion of consciousness
Reflection can also lead to expanding the boundaries of your consciousness, enriching your life experience and helping you to understand yourself and the world in general more deeply. This is the path to self-development and personal growth. The ability to reflect is one of the most important for a conscious person. Each time, passing our actions through such a peculiar feedback, we find areas for growth and development.
Who can practice reflection?
Reflection is available to anyone with a developed mind and the ability to analyze their actions and thoughts. However, reflective thinking is most productive in those who already pay attention to self-development and practice meditation or critical thinking methods in the context of their daily lives. It should be noted that reflection has ancient roots and has been practiced in different cultures. Ancient Greek philosophers such as Socrates and Plato contributed to the development of the reflective approach by including elements of self-analysis and reflection on their own actions and thoughts in their philosophical works.
Methods of reflection
Finally, we have come to the most important thing. These methods are the main discovery for most people. Since everyone is used to thinking linearly and thinks that this is reflection. However, as reality shows, everything is not so simple. For full reflection, you need to strain your brain a little 🙂
There are several basic methods of reflection:
- “Reflection Cycle – Mirror”. This method of reflection involves looking into the mirror of your past experience. A person looks at specific events of the past and analyzes their actions, thoughts and feelings over a certain period. This helps to understand why they made certain decisions, what feelings they caused and what lessons can be learned from this past experience. You can ask yourself questions such as “Why did I do this? What feelings did it cause? What can I learn from this experience?”
- “Metaposition”. The second method of reflection assumes that you become a “time traveler” and look at your actions and decisions from the outside, as if you were observing another person. This distanced view allows you to get a more objective assessment of your behavior and understand what alternatives could have been in a given situation. If it is simpler, it is like watching a movie from the past, with yourself in the leading role, and evaluating the actions of the main character from a critical point of view.
- “Group reflection”. The third method is a meeting of advisers for a brainstorming session. You get together with friends, colleagues or team members to discuss your actions and decisions. During the dialogue, other participants can offer new views, perspectives and recommendations, which contributes to a deeper understanding of the situation, as well as to understand mistakes and act on this experience and learn from experience. Here it should be added that this is not just about expressing your situation to a friend over a cup of coffee and receiving approval or disapproval of your actions. Group reflection has several features: purpose and focus (analysis of a certain situation or actions in order to learn lessons and better understand past experience); structure (discussing facts separately, reasons separately, emotions and actions separately); non-judgmental (group reflection does not aim to judge anyone, “hang” labels, find who is right and who is guilty).
Alternatives to reflection
Even if this article about reflection didn’t impress you, or you find it difficult to start practicing it right away (or maybe you want to improve this skill even more), as a coach, I want to offer you alternative ways for self-analysis and reflection:
- Meditation. Meditation practice helps you stop and notice your thoughts, emotions, and bodily sensations in the present moment. More conscious thinking will help you become more mindful of your inner world.
- Learning new skills and hobbies. Learning new skills and hobbies always helps you expand your horizons, which helps you understand yourself and the world around you.
- Communicating with others. Feedback from others can help you see your strengths and weaknesses so you can improve.
- Reading and studying philosophy, psychology, and other sciences can provide you with keys to understanding complex aspects of life and yourself. Philosophy can help you ask important questions about meaning and values, while psychology can help you understand how our minds and emotions work. Each of these disciplines can be your guide in the world of self-knowledge and reflection.
Conclusion
Reflection is a powerful tool for communicating with ourselves. It allows us to understand our thoughts, feelings, and actions, and, based on this, make more conscious decisions. This process promotes critical thinking, personal development, and the search for happiness. We all face challenges and decisions in our lives, and reflection allows us to better understand where we are going and how to achieve our goals. Regardless of the method you choose to practice reflection, it is important to take care of the interaction with yourself and be aware of your own development.
Choose your method and start communicating with yourself today.