People who have had little self-reflection live life in a huge reality blind-spot
“We don’t see things as they are, we see them as we are.” – Anais Nin
“What we perceive about ourselves is greatly a reflection of how we will end up living our lives.” – Stephen Richards
I think these two quotes are enough to know why we have to self reflect in our lives. Our thoughts and emotions make up who we are and how we interact with the people around us. How we treat others leads others to behave in the same reciprocate way and this is how the world works. Also, we let ourselves behave in the way we think we behave and this provides the outlook of what we think we are to the people around us.
You might think this is all working right and may wonder what problem could possibly arise from this working pattern?
The problem pops up when our thoughts about us and others aren't true. That is, we think about us and others in a certain way and behave accordingly but what if it isn't true?
What if we are just behaving with the wrong assumption in our minds?
Now, we all understand where it might go wrong and how it could mess up literally everything, right? To be sure we are right about ourselves and others, we have to practice a thing made of two words. That is called Self Reflection.
WHAT IS SELF REFLECTION?
Self-reflection is the process of consciously paying attention to our thoughts, behaviour, feelings, emotions, decisions and beliefs. It means taking a step backwards to analyse and improve if any changes are needed for our improvement and then proceed to have the next step with full confidence and clarity.
WHY PEOPLE DON'T PRACTICE IT?
Lack of awareness: People don't know how much power it has and how amazing it can turn people's lives upside down in a good way.
Lack of details: They know the importance of self-reflection but they don't know when and how to do. They don't know all other basic details about self-reflection.
Don't like the process itself: Self-reflections expects the person to be not defensive. It expects people to allow themselves to feel vulnerability and discomfort. It involves the process of having the mind to analyse their thoughts and emotions and be willing to find what's wrong so that the person can be at his/her efficient or best self.
Don't like the result: Some might become so defensive that they completely forget to learn anything. In the end, they say that the results are not worth anything.
Too much on the plate: People avoid doing it becaus