What is Self-Reflection and Why is It So Important
Updated on 20 Sep 2023 • 8 min read
Socrates was onto something when he said, "The unexamined life is not worth living."
Unfortunately, many of us live an unexamined life, overwhelmed by responsibilities, bombarded with notifications, tempted by Binge-watching, or simply sucked into the demanding, fast-paced life our society has created. Being productive, moving forward, climbing the corporate or social ladders, and achieving our dreams are all things we strive for every day.
Yet, seeking to progress without self-reflecting can prevent you from living a happy life and hinder your success.
Think about it; when was the last time you took the time to be at one with your thoughts? When was the last time you took a step back and spent some time reflecting on your life?
Self-reflection is one of the best ways to shift your mindset, connect with yourself on a deeper level and increase positivity in your life. Only then will you be happy and able to unlock your full potential.
In this article, we’ll define what self-reflection is and assess why it is so important to your life. We’ll also explain when the best time is to self-reflect before providing you with some tips on how to do so using proven techniques.
Ready for your self-discovery journey?
What is Self-Reflection
According to the Cambridge dictionary, self-reflection represents "the activity of thinking about your own feelings and behavior and the reasons that may lie behind them".
Simply put, self-reflection is about conscientiously examining your thoughts and recognizing the origin and causes of your feelings, emotions, and actions.
Self-reflecting involves taking a step back and reflecting on your life, behaviors, and beliefs. This reflective process helps you to understand your essence and your true nature and allows you to shift your mindset, improve your life and grow as a person.
Geil Browning, Ph.D., talks about personal reflection like this:
"Reflection is a deeper form of learning that allows us to retain every aspect of any experience, be it personal or professional — why something took place, what the impact was, whether it should happen again — as opposed to just remembering that it happened. It's about tapping into every aspect of the experience, clarifying our thinking, and honing in on what really matters to us."
Why is Self-Reflection Important
As human beings, we keep moving, and we tirelessly push through every day. We continue working for companies we don’t believe in, we cope with draining jobs that are slowly destroying our souls and stay in relationships that are sapping our energy. All these situations can lead us to feel stressed, tired, and unhappy. That’s why burnout is on the rise. In fact, according to a study, 75% of workers have experienced burnout at work in the past.
What if we told you that the key to your happiness and wellbeing is actually to stop and take a moment to reflect on your life?
Indeed, self-reflection can help you in many ways, including:
Improving Self-Awareness
Personal reflection prompts you to think about your actions and how you want to be perceived by others, thus making you aware of how you currently feel your actions are affecting these areas. For instance, after self-reflection, you might become aware of how you feel you’re tracking with your goals and how you feel others perceive you as a leader, wife or husband, a friend, or a parent.
Improving self-awareness is essential to your success and happiness because it helps you recognize and acknowledge your strengths and weaknesses. As a result, it allows you to adapt your behavior accordingly and shift your mindset to live a more positive life and positively impact on the world around you.
Providing Perspective
Self-reflection allows you to take a step back, reflect, and meditate on your thoughts, actions, and motives. This, in turn, enables you to better understand a situation, see the big picture, see things from a different point of view, and ultimately become more open-minded. It also helps you build empathy and opens you up to learning from your experiences, thus facilitating positive transformation.
For instance, after spending some time reflecting on a situation you had earlier in the office, you might come to the conclusion you were a bit harsh with one of your colleagues during a team meeting or didn’t respond to a situation the way you should have. Therefore, it might help you understand what you did wrong and how to correct your actions in the future.
Facilitates Learning
Research has shown that self-reflection can help to facilitate a deeper level of learning and understanding. Indeed, reflecting on your learnings means assessing the way you learn and gaining insight to adjust your learning process and correct poor habits.
Besides, self-reflecting encourages self-regulated learning. For instance, if you’re a student, consciously thinking about your learning methods can help you establish a routine such as planning academic tasks, monitoring your progress, and assessing the outcome, ultimately allowing you to adjust your approach.
Challenging Your Beliefs
What you believe to be true is not always the truth. After all, we all have limiting beliefs based on what we hear and what we’re being told. Unfortunately, our limiting beliefs can sometimes prevent us from moving forward and succeeding.
By practicing self-reflection, you can step back and debate the validity of these beliefs or assumptions. Indeed, by being aware of your limiting beliefs, you can challenge them and replace them with more positive thoughts.
Let’s say you don’t think you’ll ever be able to change careers and become what you’ve always wanted to be. And people around you have been reinforcing this belief by telling you that you should be happy with what you have and it’s too late for you to become a lawyer, a doctor or that you’re not good enough to get the promotion you so desperately want. The truth is, you’ve created a whole system of limiting beliefs that sap your confidence and prevent you from achieving your dreams. In that specific case, you’re the only thing standing between you and your success and happiness.
As a result, taking some time to reflect can allow you to recognize this limiting belief system and reprogram the way you think. By changing your mindset, eradicating your former beliefs, and thinking more positively, you’ll be able to draft a plan of action and get to where you want to be in life.
When to Self-Reflect
There are no strict instructions as you can start practicing it whenever and wherever you want. If you desire to live a happy and balanced life, self-reflection should become a daily habit. You can use different ways to help you incorporate the process into your daily routine.
Here are simple steps to start with:
- A gratitude journal to reflect on the good things that happened to you and things you felt positive about on the day.
- A reflective journal, list good and bad things that happened to you in the day and ask yourself how you can improve things.
- Consciously write two morning pages every day when you get up. This will help you clear your mind, process any negative emotions from the previous day, and start the day with a clean slate and on a positive note.
- Take five minutes each day to meditate.
- Exercise and use the time to think about your feelings and actions.
- Share your reflections publicly on your social media or blog to hold yourself accountable.
Note that whether you decide to practice personal reflection in the morning, during the day, or at night doesn’t matter as long as it becomes a daily habit. However, try to schedule your self-reflection time at the same time every day.
How to Self-Reflect
The process of self-reflection isn't a one-size-fits-all approach, and different approaches suit different people. But before checking on them, take a look at five steps on how to self-reflect.
And each self-reflection session includes these four basic actions each time you decide to take time for self-reflection.
- STOP and take a step back from your daily life.
- LOOK, identify what you see, and get perspective on what you notice.
- LISTEN to your inner voice, the innate wisdom that bubbles up when you give it time and space to emerge.
- ACT — identify the steps you need to take moving forward to adjust, change or improve.
To help you on your self-reflection journey, we've listed two of the most efficient ways to self-reflect below.
Gibbs’ Reflective Cycle
The Gibbs' Reflective Cycle is a framework for self-reflection that can help you become more aware of your strengths and weaknesses as a learner. Learning from experiential learning through six stages encourages individuals to reflect on their experiences through questions.
Wheel of Life
Another technique that helps you self-reflect and learn more about yourself is the Wheel of Life, a visual representation of the different aspects of your life. The technique will guide you in evaluating your current life and the life you want to build for the future. You may use it to find your balance and focus on areas that need more attention to create a fulfilling life.
What, So What, Now What
The What, So What, Now What model is a straight and quick method of answering three questions. The What involves objectively capturing the situation by separating your observations from your emotions or judgments. The So What encourages you to delve into the emotional and intellectual implications of the experience, asking questions like "Why does it matter?" and "What can I learn from this?". Finally, Now What transforms your insights into actionable steps, outlining how you'll handle similar situations in the future or make changes in your life.
5R Framework
The 5R framework is another strategy for practicing self-reflection. It has five stages: report, reflect, review, reframe, and respond. In the Report phase, you objectively state what happened. The next stage is Reflect where you pay attention to your emotions, thoughts, and reactions to the situation.
Moving on to the Review stage, you assess the impact considering the outcomes against your values and long-term goals. This leads to the Reframe phase where you rethink the situation, offering alternative views that can be more empowering. Finally, Respond is an action stage where you decide how you will ‘respond’ to the same situation next time.
Self-reflection Questions
There are countless questions, exercises, and topics you may utilize as self-reflection sessions. Some of these questions may be asked, addressed, and dealt with on a daily basis, but others can be reserved for sporadic self-reflection.
To acquire some suggestions for introspective inquiries, go through the following three lists. You might go from feeling as though you don't understand yourself to know yourself like the back of your hand by responding to them.
We would like to provide ten self-reflection questions that are excellent starters.
- Am I making the most of my time?
- Is there anything I take for granted?
- Am I adopting a positive outlook?
- Am I being authentic in my life?
- Am I prepared to face the day when I awaken in the morning?
- Do I get bad thoughts before I go to sleep?
- Do I invest enough time and energy in my relationships?
- Am I looking after my bodily needs?
- Am I allowing things outside of my control to stress me out?
- Am I succeeding in my objectives?
Those questions are the basis, you obviously may find even more. For those who like to note their thoughts, there is a “Reflect & Reset” journal by Holstee. It is available as a printed notebook or as an app. With its thought-provoking prompts and space for guided self-reflection, this journal is the perfect way to delve into your innermost thoughts and gain a deeper understanding of yourself.
We also spotted the trend on reflection cards, so each card features thought-provoking questions. Holstee's Reflection Cards are a must-have tool for self-reflection. With their elegant design and insightful questions, these cards are a unique and impactful way to delve into your innermost thoughts and find new ways to grow and improve.
How Self-Reflection Can Help You
Now it’s time for you to implement what you’ve learned in this article. Make time during the day to practice personal reflection, pick the self-assessment tool you find the most appropriate, and try to understand how satisfied you are with your life to come up with an effective plan of action. Treat your self-reflection time like a date with yourself and have fun with it. Use your learnings to grow as a person and ensure you live your life to the fullest ;)
Have you been using specific self-reflection techniques? If that’s the case, we’d love to read all about them in the comment section below!
