Reflective practice is something that is so underrated and not often utilized in our daily activities.
I started utilizing this practice many years ago when I figured out that it is so important to be proactive instead of reactive in our actions, comments, and responses.
Reflective practice involves truly actively analyzing your experiences and actions that take place each day — in order to help yourself improve and develop. It can be so very beneficial in various situations, so it is worthwhile to understand the concept.
Reflection has such enormous POWER when you harness if correctly. Looking retrospectively back purposefully at our experiences gives us the opportunities to absorb a wide range of knowledge about ourselves and the world around us.
Reflective practice in having the ability to reflect on your own actions and those of others. It can help you think about or reflect on a experience that has occurred, your actions, and behavior. Utilizing reflective practice will allow you to gain a better sense of self-awareness and a better understanding of people and groups.
For example, when someone treats you unfairly, unjustly, or not of good character — know that it is not a reflection of you, but a reflection of that person. So its important to reflect on that situation it will help you reflect on who that person is, not make assumptions, and allow you to challenge some of your thoughts and see things from a new and different perspective.
You can practice reflection in multiple ways in your personal life, relationships, career and in your business — as a part of your general wellbeing. It has many benefits and help you focus on planning for future experiences.
Here are some key benefits of reflective practice:
With the pressures of life, career, and entrepreneurial ship you can become too focused on everything that you have to do and are a part of, but reflective practice allows you to look at the bigger picture. When you do regular reflection, for example once a day, it can help you think about your goals, and the objectives it will take to accomplish them.
It can help you develop a more deeper connection with yourself through self-talk. Each of us has the inner voice within us no matter what you call it, but for me its the Holy Spirit, my Helper. This inner voice is in our heads to remind us of all the things we could have done differently in the various situations that we face. Reflecting on these situations and experiences can help you learn and put this voice to use as you learn from what you have done and more forward more effectively.
Critical reflecting allows you to construct rich understandings and beliefs about learning who you are, what you need to do, how you can change, and decide what you can do differently in the future. For example when you combine reflection with outside activity, it is easier to break patterns and connect with nature while you think about lessons from your past experiences you want to make sense of.
Reflective practice can help you to answer those hard and important questions. This culture that we live in is very unprecedented and can be extremely ugly. There are so many competing forces such as social media, our smartphones and the internet that get in the way. It leads us down that path of having “monkey mind” — which is where your mind is unsettled, restless, indecisive and uncontrollable. When this occurs, it is a good practice to just write down your thoughts. Getting them out of your head and getting them down on paper is a very powerful way to make dramatic breakthroughs.
Being reflective helps you challenge your own practice as you will justify decisions and rationalize choices you have made.
It encourages you to develop an understanding of different perspectives and viewpoints.
And so, by taking sometime out of your day to reflect, will help you have a better sense of self.
This sense of self will open the door for you to have better relationships, make better decisions, and engage in that critical thinking that will aid in successful outcomes.
I hope this has helped you understand how important it is to incorporate reflective practice in your life. Let me know your thoughts in the comments.
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