A key element of our daily lives is to observe and analyze. Whether that’s an important document at work or a confusing text from a friend, our minds have been trained to obtain data and examine it for a deeper meaning or explanation.
Thinking critically has become second nature to us, but more often than not we forget to apply this concept to ourselves and neglect to observe and analyze our emotions, feelings, thoughts and sensations to gain deeper insight into ourselves.
Self-reflection and being introspective means we slow down, take a breath and set a small part of our day aside for self examination. However, many of us are too busy moving forward with our lives that we rarely take a moment to spend time in self-reflection.
Reflection gives our minds an opportunity to pause amidst the craziness of our lives, untangle experiences, consider possible interpretations and create meaning. It involves conscious consideration and analysis of our beliefs and actions with the purpose of learning, growing and developing.
Here are our TOP 10 reasons why you should make time for self-reflection every single day.
#1 Notice Patterns in Your Life
Maybe you continuously pick toxic relationships even though they make your life miserable, maybe you keep picking up your co-worker’s slack even though it hurts your own progress, maybe you continue to smoke even though you know it is bad for your health. Whatever the case may be, if you take the time to self-reflect, you allow yourself to recognize patterns in your life and realize the effect they have on your emotions, feelings, thoughts and ultimately your life. Once you are aware of your patterns, you can figure out an alternate approach to these situations so you can ultimately get away from the stressors and improve the quality of your life.
#2 Face Your Fears
We all wish to be the person who can dive headfirst into any challenge that comes up and come out successful, but the truth is, we all are afraid of something. Whether it is fear of failure, fear of rejection or even fear of success, self-reflection helps us to acknowledge our fears, admit them to ourselves and with this knowledge work on ways to overcome them. This can be a process of trial and error, but recognizing our fears is the first step towards overcoming them.
#3 Define Happiness on Your Own Terms
When are you the happiest? What successes are you most proud of? Who do you enjoy spending time with? What do you enjoy doing? While those questions may seem cliché, they still are incredibly valuable. If you take a moment to recognize and appreciate the positive events in your life, you can use that knowledge to seek out more positive endeavors and goals in the future. For example, if you feel most accomplished after completing a certain project at work, take the initiative and self-start similar projects. If you know that a yoga class in the morning lifts your spirit, make the time to do so every morning.
#4 Stay Focused on the Bigger Picture
Having a clear vision for the future and defining overall goals and dreams is beneficial for a variety of reasons and one of them is to help you keep going when daily tasks become increasingly frustrating and meaningless. Maybe parts of your job feel like slave work at the moment, but having a bigger picture in mind, you know that you need the experience to get your ultimate dream job in the future. Write down your goals and dreams to constantly have a reminder what it is that you want to ultimately accomplish and with that you will develop a more positive attitude towards your current obligations.
#5 Boost Self-Confidence and Self-Esteem
We all can use positive reinforcement and a pat on the back sometimes, but we don’t always get that from the people around us. Taking the time to reflect on our past wins, successes and achievements helps us to raise our self-esteem and when we celebrate our wins and congratulate ourselves on a job well done, we gain the confidence to move forward with the knowledge that we can achieve anything we set our mind to.
#6 Gain Clarity
Self-reflection means that we dig deep and observe and analyze our emotions, feelings and thoughts, our values and beliefs and our wishes, desires and aspirations. Taking the time to really figure out who we are, what we stand for, what we want to achieve and why we want to achieve it, gives us tremendous clarity for our daily lives. We have a long-term goal and know what steps we need to take in order to achieve the life of our dreams.
#7 Make Decisions Based on Conscience
When we are faced with making a major decision in our life, everybody around us will have an opinion. However, if we allow ourselves the time for introspection, we will find out what is the best decision for ourselves and what is right or wrong for us. It helps to drown out other people’s input and make a choice that is based on our values and beliefs. Of course it is always good to ask others for advice and feedback, but ultimately, we are the ones who have to live with the decision we make and by following our gut and conscience, we can feel a lot better about the journey we choose.
#8 Challenge Your Thoughts
Our brain has a bias towards the negative and a lot of us tend to ruminate on the bad things, the things that went wrong, the mistakes we made and our perceived weaknesses. However, when we take the time to self-reflect, we get a chance to challenge our way of thinking. Take the time to reflect on your thoughts and write them down. Soon you will realize a thought pattern and more often than not you will become aware that what you are telling yourself isn’t always true.
#9 Recognize Change and Track Progress
Self-reflection gives us the opportunity to look back and see where we started and how far we’ve come. Take the time every single day to record your thoughts about the day. Not only will you recognize patterns that inspire change, but you can also track your progress over time. And remember, growth and development will ultimately lead us to live our dream life.
#10 Make Sense of Things
Whenever we have to figure something out or find a solution to a problem, self-reflection can help us to process our emotions, feelings and thoughts. If we simply let our thoughts float around in our mind, we can confuse and frustrate ourselves without getting anywhere. But if we take the time to bring our emotions, feelings and thoughts onto a piece of paper, it can help us to understand why we are feeling a certain way and point us in the direction of a solution.
Instead of constantly accelerating, living a successful life demands periods of restraint and consideration. Regularly take the time to tune out the noise of your busy life and ask yourself what you stand for, what you want to achieve and why you want to achieve it. We are not asking you to spend hours contemplating yourself, we are asking you to reflect on yourself to become aware, know yourself and better yourself.
DISCOVER A GREATER CONNECTION TO YOURSELF AND INCREASE POSITIVITY IN YOUR LIFE
Joschi & Monika
#BoldNaked