How Self Reflection Helps You Grow as a Person
Last week we talked about finding our truest selves, and the week before that we spoke on using November as a month of self-reflection. That is what road we’ll be continuing down in this post, so if you’d like to dive into a little more about how we can keep growing despite changes that happen to us, stay tuned. Let’s look at how self reflection helps you grow as a person. Life Imitates Art, Art Imitates Life Although I try to keep themes for each month for these posts, at times I feel it’s just necessary to talk about the present. Ironically enough, the present directly correlates with a ton of self-reflection this week and knowing how to grow better in the future. Let’s talk about it. Growth is all about change…and my friends, change is hard. It is basically one of the hardest things in life to partake in, which is why so many of us seem to fall short of our goals and dreams. We have trouble pushing past the change and don’t always see the blossom coming full bloom on the flower in the Spring. The dark and drearier days seep into our souls, and alas, we get stuck. Our feet feel like cement, our heart attached where we get pushed and pulled into different directions all at once. Knowing your true self, knowing how to navigate your real feelings, those…those are the hardest of them all. Related: The Role of Self Reflection in Personal Growth Self Reflecting on Change When we face difficulties within our relationships, we find ways to point the finger, blame another, do nearly anything to spend all of our efforts by turning it away from ourselves. When the truth most of the time is that we are the ones that need changing. We are the ones that need to make a change. What change have you recently run into in your own life? The road that we all stumble down decides to twist and turn at times. It falls short of certain goals and reaches far past others than we could have imagined. It shows us doors that we never thought to open, and slams others closed in our face. Why does this occur? My theory is, is that we need these changes to happen to us to remain growing. When we don’t get challenged by our spouse, our family, our work-life, we tend to get bored, saddened, or get lonely and fall into ourselves too deeply. Only then do we find it even harder to get out. We melt into the easy flow of life, not realizing how quickly it passes by us, day in, day out, continually encapsulating us on an endless loop. Have you ever stopped to wonder if this loop can be broken? Can you create your own change?? Related: Lost and Found: Finding Yourself and Gaining Clarity In Life You Have to Ride the Waves of Life, My Friend This week showed me a lot of change, things that were all previously out of my control, but that I have since realized happened to me for a reason. (Something we just spoke about recently if you’ve been keeping up with these posts). These changes occurred both in my personal and professional life all at once. They showed me how to adjust, adapt, and grow (but only after uncomfortable conversations and changes that made me sad). However, therein lies the opportunity that all of us seek. I relate it to a sort of high. A coming down off a dreary, gray cloud, and setting foot onto a golden pathway to your next destination. I find a route that only opened up after the heartache of these changes left me. Don’t get me wrong, we are only all human after all. Which means I most certainly did my fair share of sulking, napping, shopping, eating, and binging YouTube shorts. The truth is that life is a rollercoaster, and you have to simply learn to ride the waves of life, my friend. Whether that includes creating new challenges for yourself, writing out your next goals and ambitions, drawing up a new vision board, or just writing down your newly formed habits everyday to stay accountable. I believe in you, and I have faith that you can conquer whatever difficult road you may currently be on, because I’m right there with you on the same exact journey. Relax, Recover, Reflect Not long ago I had a conversation with a friend. We talked about how cycles of life can affect the cycles of our daily feelings, activities, and decision making. It’s something I’d never considered before. How dare we stop grinding because the weather changed. How dare we let up on our hobbies or sports for a week or two when that time of the month comes. Have you ever considered that Mother Earth herself takes her own natural breaks? Think about it. How much time have you spent in the outdoors just, being? Have you taken a breath of fresh air as the cool, fall wind passes by? Have you checked out the changing, dying leaves around you and realized that this too, is their season to rest and reset? Change is happening everywhere around us. Perhaps we should start letting it happen for us, as well? Take a breather today. Schedule time in your calendar if you must. Relax, recover, and reflect. We are all a part the universe, maybe we should start behaving like it…and realizing the change that happens to us, is just showing us that the best really is yet to come. Related: Working Through Self Expectations & Limitations Thank you for reading “How Self Reflection Helps You Grow as a Person”! Thank you for reading today’s post about how self reflection helps you grow as a person! Let me know what resonates with you. If you have a suggestion for what our next post should be let us know. Don’t forget to check out our sister site Rooted
Lost and Found: Finding Yourself and Gaining Clarity In Life
We started out November with some self-reflecting and observations. These observations could have been of yourself, of your loved ones, or maybe even of your so-called friends. Those things tend to change drastically over the years, and although we ebb and flow through them, there are some things that never change. My advice is to not get caught being one of them. Let’s take a look at finding yourself and gaining clarity in life through my story. Finding Yourself and Gaining Clarity Starts as a Child As we grow up and find our way as small children and then teens into young adults, we find a bunch of friends along the way that “have our back.” We find relationships and lovers with whom we think may last a lifetime, but perhaps may only be in our lives for a season. How is it that we remain blind to some things along this journey? And better yet, how is it that we can remain free of that blindness? During our formative years, some things set in, leaving us the fondest memories (and expectations) of how things “should” be in the future events to come. We find ourselves holding higher and higher hopes about what our friends and loved ones should be doing, while really, we should be focusing on the growth and changes that we ourselves have been making along the way. How do we overcome these obstacles during our youth, so that we can better navigate the realms of adulthood during the years where we’ll be challenged the most as an individual? How do we find who we really are without having to go through finding who we actually aren’t? Finding Out Who I Am The hard and real truth is however, that we simply don’t. Of course we all differ in our human experiences, and we may go through different truths of our own throughout life, but in my own personal journey, I’ve found that finding out who I actually wasn’t time and time again, has truly proved to myself now at 32 years of age who I actually am. I’m a writer, a better listener, a dog lover and adopter, a wife and a daughter. I’m also an entrepreneur, a fun-seeker, a (semi-adventurous) thrill-finder, beginner rock climber, moderately experienced hiker, semi-understanding gardener, and a lover of all things nature. I relish the days like this one where I get to enjoy my birthday in an off-grid location at a teeny tiny cabin settled into the autumn colored fall woods. I hiked in the rain with my husband and dogs, enjoyed meals cooked on a propane stove looking out into the trees, and walked down into the nearby creek to enjoy my morning tea. These are truly the moments that I love to fully immerse myself in. Related: Why I Chose Courage & It’s Endless Reservations Looking to the Past to Grow in the Future 3 years ago, 5 or even 10, I would have made the Mr. Yuck sticker face towards a day like today. You see, I’ve always loved things like this deep down, but for some reason it’s taken me until now to realize that birthdays can be anything you want them to be, and they don’t always need to be spent by pleasing everyone else. So often we spend our well-earned time off checking things online, ticking off tasks that others ask of us, or using our hard earned dough to spend on ourselves “because we deserve” whatever material thing it is that we’re longing for. If we would just simply offer more experiences to our physical being, perhaps our mental one would be in a much better state. Using Reflection When Finding Yourself and Gaining Clarity Reflection is about change. For years and decades I used to think that change was notoriously bad. If you changed, well then you must have gone to the dark side. Forgotten your truest self. Adjusted your ways for another. But as you reflect upon who you were this year, think about these things. Did you change something for the better? Or maybe for the worse, but can reel that in now and understand what needs done to adjust things moving forward? Perhaps you quit drinking, maybe you even made it to your 1 year sobriety coin. Or maybe you’ve decided to be a better listener to your partner to encourage a healthier and happier lifestyle as a partnership. Is it something that you’ve done for them…or for you? If you can help yourself by helping others, I don’t see that as being selfish in any way. Although, it’s okay to be selfish. It heals you internally when you do things that feel good to you. When’s the last time you had your favorite snack? (Without turning the TV on or scrolling through your latest YouTube shorts). Have you spent any time taking a relaxing bath or joining no one but your thoughts in the sauna? Look For Introspective Opportunities Being off-grid this weekend has been something I’ve been looking forward to for quite some time, and it’s perfectly suiting my feelings as well. We all live in a hyper-active and overworked lifestyle in 2023, and so I’m shooting for a little more slow down as we roll into 2024. My challenge to you this month is to really look inward and find what it is you have been searching for. Is it freedom from something, from someone? Is it finding a way to improve your own well-being to create a better you for the long run? Whatever it may be, just get started. Start reflecting more and taking a moment to pause and truly absorb whatever it is you’re doing. Enjoy life, by really living it to the fullest the best way you know how. Thank you for reading “Lost and Found: Finding Yourself and Gaining Clarity in Life”! Thank you for reading today’s post about finding yourself and gaining clarity! Let me know what resonates
The Role of Self Reflection in Personal Growth
Ahh, November. The month where we get to really look back over our year and reflect on who’ve we become and how we’d live next year differently. The time where we can start to slow down and grow from the lessons we’ve learned during the last 11 months. How do you live your life during the ending of the Fall season? Do you slow down at all or is this actually your busy season? I’d like to share with you today what mine looks like, and how slowing down and becoming more intentional with your time each day can help you to become more present in all things you do. Let’s look at the role of self reflection in personal growth. Self Reflection and Personal Growth in 2023 I’d like to start by saying that this has by far been one of the most difficult years of my life. I’ve faced a lot of challenges both personally and professionally and together they’ve taken a large toll on my physical and mental health. (Which is what prompted me to begin creating this blog so that we could start to follow this journey together). Throughout the year I’ve managed to hold nearly 6 different jobs, while my own business went up and down like a rollercoaster because I wasn’t giving it the attention it actually needed. They say a business is like a baby, I would have to admit that I couldn’t agree more. I faced losing someone close to me, a few different health issues at only 31 years old, and multiple different battles with conversations in my family, but mostly in my own head. The whole talking myself through things was probably one of the biggest learning experiences I’ve had yet as an adult. My husband has been there every step of the way, supporting me when I needed it and pushing me when I didn’t want to keep going. I think it’s safe to say that having an accountability partner really makes a true difference, so although I recommend you work on yourself first and foremost, when you find that kind of accountability in whatever kind of relationship you desire, hold onto it. It’s gotten me a really long way this year. How Personal Growth Can Sneak Up On You Whether or not we like to admit it, we humans do this weird thing called obsessing over the most minute things and tasks. We tend to overthink and predetermine before we even do the actual thing we catch ourselves overthinking. Why is it that this happens to us over and over? Or maybe, it’s happening for us? I’ve started to learn a lot more over the last year or so about how having the right mindset can really project you into a totally different path. It’s taught me how becoming your “true self” can set you apart from the average joe. What is your true self? Have you found them yet? Before I started this blog, I was on a one-way path to burnout through and through. My body was sending me signals I didn’t even know existed, and my mind was throwing up all of the blinkers on the control board to try and show me it was time to shut it down. It was only then that I realized it was time to begin again, start over, and reset. Related: Looking Internally – Rediscovering Your Why & Why It’s So Important To Growth Finding Your True Self is a Full Time Job Anxiety is something that occurs in so many adults, and even kids, these days that it truly continues to blow my mind. It’s such a common occurance that it’s even joked about and severely misunderstood. Although during these changing times, it continues to gain more much needed light. During this past year, were you who you really wanted to be? Or were you a mere image of what others prescribed for you year after year of your youth? Have you had the chance to find yourself yet? …Have you even had the chance to try?? Attempting to find your true self is a full-time job in itself, let alone needing to find time around those moments to make time for your family, pets, day job, side hustle, housework, social gatherings, hobbies, and your physical health. And let me be the first one to tell you, ain’t nobody got time for that. Focus on Being in the Moment Recently I watched someone’s feelings unfold regarding a forgotten memory that to them, should have been a golden one. It was heartbreaking to watch as this person is very close to me. But at this point, I now know something that they unfortunately don’t. Through a lot of reading, self-reflection and understanding my true form, I’m beginning to learn a lot more about how others reflect their own selves. Dementia is something that runs in this persons family. So, of course this would be the first thing they had gotten worried about. It’s happening to me, they thought. And so it was. What you believe is what you become. But alas, that wasn’t the case at all. The problem (that persists with most individuals), is simply that we are not able to be fully present in our time. Time passes us by with no real acknowledgement. It goes so quickly that we don’t even understand how it really flows. We simply need to feel ourselves in the moment, each moment, relishing in each breath and each second that passes, to truly implant it in our memory bank. If we don’t, it will be lost. Related: Why I Chose Courage & It’s Endless Reservations Your Time for Personal Growth is Now Let’s take the month of November this year to do some real, raw reflection in who we truly are. Who have you become up until this point in your life? Did one year take precedence over another? Was there a direct point in your timeline that truly stood out