The Power of Self Reflection

To live a life of fulfillment, cultivating the habit of reflection is very important. Reflection isn’t about worrying about what went wrong or about beating yourself up on a bad day, plight or alike. Reflection isn’t something you do only after you have accomplished enormous amount of work or success. Making daily reflection a part of one’s routine will help alleviate stress, unnecessary and excessive worries, anxieties, regrets and renew one’s energy and mind. Reflecting on a day’s, highlights, not so much about what went wrong but about what could be improved, helps one think creatively on becoming better and it leads to inspiration. Reflection keeps one grounded through gratitude because it is less likely for one to be grateful and be sad at the same time. The following are some benefits of self reflection.

Self Reflection As a Form of Seeking Empowerment

With empowering thoughts come empowering ideas and empowering actions. Reflection, if directed to figuring out what to do to make things better, can create an entire discipline of positive and proactive thoughts. When reflection is directed solely to everything that’s gone wrong, this can lead to dis-empowering and overwhelming thoughts of worries. With self-improvement of empowering thoughts come ideas to self-improve one’s knowledge in a certain area, improve one’s attitude or actions, be a better person and be passionate about life. Reflecting on one’s actions and the reactions or the effects of such actions can help someone be certain on how to face a similar situation in the future.

Reflection improves one’s emotions and emotional intelligence. Paying paramount attention to situations and understanding what makes people behave the way they do can become a powerful tool not to manipulate situations to one’s advantage but to be better positioned to act in a way that stacks the deck in one’s favor. Think of having a journal or arsenal of lessons learned from a past encounters to tilt the outcome of a current or future event to one’s favor.

Reflection helps to better reframe and redefine situations through series of questions and inquiries to have better understanding and interpretation of situations. It helps with taking several steps back to manage the complexity of any opportunity. Reflection makes you become a true leader. Leaders need to constantly understand the what, why, and reach insights most people don’t. It helps with creating an awareness of objectivity around situations instead of being caught up with the emotions.

Self Reflection As a Form of Gratitude

Reflection can also take the form of deep heart-felt and genuine introspection on what you have and grateful for. If you are grateful for having made it through the day or for not getting that phone call about someone you love or close to dyeing or dead, it is great thing. Being grateful not only helps maintain the balance to keep the sanity of the ups and downs in life but it also helps with the possibility of receiving more of what you already have. Focusing on at least three areas of one’s life that one is grateful for is a daily practice that’ll change one’s life from being sad and angry to being happy, cheerful and optimistic about the future. This exercise doesn’t have to take more than five minutes a day. It works great both at the beginning and at the end of the day. If you don’t think being grateful is necessary, imagine the architect of the universe taking back everything you currently have (what was given to you) simply because you are not grateful.

Self Reflection As a Form of Maintaining Perspective

I just came back from Africa and it’s amazing the things we take for granted in parts of the world where there is affluence and sufficiency. Often, we are concerned or worried about first-world problems when billions of people don’t have enough to eat, don’t have access to proper medical system or even have roof over their head.

It is a shame a lot of us take for granted the water we drink, the food we eat, the shower or bath we take, the toilet we use to relieve our self and even the simple flushing of the toilet with readily available water, the constant supply of electricity, the less polluted air we breathe, the house we live in, easier access to the internet with adequate download speed, easy access to transit, better roads and infrastructure, access to walk-in clinics or medical facilities, or what we call “minimum” wage jobs, and the list goes on. It is essential to remove complaints from our vocabulary and always looking at things from a different light. Imagine if you are a parent and don’t know how your crying child will have a next meal?