Making time to reflect

It has occurred to me that we are so busy in this life that we don't often make the time to reflect, which is perhaps one of the most important things we can do to connect with ourselves and put the things that happen around us in perspective. I've tried to summarise the benefits of reflection in a few points:

Reflection improves our self-awareness. Reflection helps us get to know ourselves better, because it lets us think about what we've said and done, and find patterns and idiosyncrasies. It helps us understand the impact our words and behaviours have on others. It helps us know when we are being positive and when we're being negative. It also enables us to detect where our "mental tape recorder" is kicking in and playing an old belief tune we no longer need. Being self-aware takes practice, but it gets easier over time. And it's incredibly useful for understanding your relationship with the world.

Reflection helps you clean up your mental mess. By thinking about what's happened in your day, you can effectively put away things you want to hang onto, and throw out the ones you don't. This leaves you with fewer things buzzing around your head, because you've dealt with them. 'Things' might include conversations, interactions, insights, and triggered memories. This exercise gives you a bit of mental peace, which God knows we all need.

Reflection can help you work out where your bad mood came from. This is particularly useful when you can't work out why you're feeling down, or shitty. This one certainly works for me. If something's bothering me, I take the time to pinpoint where it's come from. Sometimes this might mean tracing a conversation back to a trigger word or phrase, or an interaction with someone. Our thoughts move so quickly that sometimes you can move on from a trigger point and carry the emotion it's raised with you, without realising why.

I really believe everyone should make the time to reflect. Every day if possible. That 5 or 10 minutes you have at the bus stop or on the train platform could be put to much better use than drowning your thoughts in music or reading vapid publications. Not that there's anything wrong with doing these, of course!