Practicing self awareness is an essential piece of emotional health. Reflecting on our thoughts and emotions helps us recognize how we react and respond to everyday life. Self reflection is the process of analyzing how we think, and how our thoughts impact our actions. Self reflecting every day allows us to learn from our experiences and help evoke positive change. 

If the idea of examining your subconscious mind makes you nervous, just take a deep breath! Self reflection isn’t supposed to be complicated. Anyone can make time to self reflect every day. As human beings, we are constantly changing and adapting based on our circumstances. Self reflection helps us examine our thoughts without reacting to them, and helps us make better decisions in the future. 

Achieve Your Goals

Everyone has goals in life. Whether or not we work to achieve them is a whole other story. Research shows that self reflection helps us process potential outcomes that may not have an obvious solution. Being aware of what is most important to us is integral to achieving our goals in life, whatever they may be.

For example, if you are thinking about moving to a new city but are terrified of what could happen if you make such a big change. Self reflecting on your decisions may help you recognize how events could play out, and how your choices affect your future. If we are aware of where we are in the present, we can be more mindful of where we want to be in the future. 

Practice Self Compassion

It might sound simplistic, but self love is essential to emotional wellbeing. If we are constantly ashamed, disappointed or upset with ourselves, we are unlikely to realize how our negative thoughts influence our actions. If we operate without thinking about how our thoughts influence our behavior, we may blame ourselves when things don’t work out. 

Daily self reflection helps us practice self compassion. It gives us the opportunity to take a step back, and think about how our habits, behavioral patterns or thought processes form our reality. Most of the time, we let our emotions run the show and aren’t in tune with the reality of a situation. Self reflection helps us take a second to pause, and focus on what is truly on our mind.  

Change How You React

You’ve probably heard the old adage before: “it’s not what happens, it’s how you respond.” While this might not be true of every situation, it’s definitely an important statement when it comes to self reflection. We’ve all had moments where we wished we had reacted differently. 

Self reflection allows us to observe ourselves without getting tangled up in our thoughts. Taking just a few minutes every to think about how we act and feel every day, and how that affects our emotional health. Most importantly, it allows us to be conscious of how we respond to certain situations so that we can be better prepared in the future.

Becoming Self Aware

According to research, finding meaning in the choices we make helps us create a narrative for our life story. This is referred to as a Narrative Identity Framework. This model of identity helps us recognize our sense of self, and helps make sense of the life events we experience. 

For example, if you lose your job unexpectedly, you might reflect on how this hardship could be an opportunity. Instead of seeing stressful situations as negative, self reflection helps us reevaluate our experiences to find something positive. 

Self reflection reminds us that we are not our thoughts, however overwhelming or convincing they may be! Taking time for self reflection every day helps us achieve our goals, practice self compassion and change how we react to stressful situations. Taking time to discover who you are is one of the most important things you can do for your emotional health.