Have you ever found yourself regretting your response to an experience you had with someone or in some place ?
In our fast-paced Western society, being busy is often celebrated. Yet, this constant hustle prevents you from pausing to reflect on your thoughts, feelings, and actions. Reflection allows you to create a thoughtful pause between your thoughts and responses, offering you the space to consider your actions with intention and clarity.
Today we are going to lay the foundation to Reflection for the experiences we might have had with, things done, people met and places been.
How to Reflect
Reflection is a deeper form of learning that allows us to retain every aspect of any experience, 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.”
Guiding Text:
Matthew 6:19-21 – ‘“Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal; but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.’
Reflecting on experiences and uncovering meaning is an essential part of learning. Giving yourself the time and space to reflect will help you more thoughtfully evaluate your experiences than if you were in a hurry.
Note:
Reflection won’t help you if you don’t cultivate your curiosity and be open to learning.
When Reflecting, the quality of your questions will largely determine the quality of the output from your reflection.
- What is Curiosity?
- What is Openness?
- What could happen if you have a fixed mindset?
- While reflecting on an experience you have had;
- What is the difference between the questions “Why did this happen?” and “Why did this happen to me?”
- What might happen if asked the wrong questions?
- How might you be asking the wrong questions?
- What could happen if you blindly accept an explanation for the experience you are analyzing?
Home work.
Select your experience of a particular situation, which you want to gain greater understanding and insight. Use the following questions as a guide.
- Describe the situation. Set the stage and answer the ‘what, where, when, and who’ questions
- Analyze the situation.Try to make sense of why things happened as they did. How might things have gone differently, if you acted differently?
- What will you do differently next time: Prepare for how you would handle a similar situation in the future indeed.
