Reflective practice is neither counterproductive nor counter to productivity
Regular reflective practice keeps us more attuned to our lives, experiences, thoughts, and emotions.
Reflective practice (and it does require practice!) is key to deepening our awareness, gaining perspective, exercising our flexibility, being open to possibilities, and building our resilience.
Reflective practice helps us balance the imbalance of hyper-busyness that we have come to equate with productivity and success.
10 benefits of reflective practice:
1. Reflective practice encourages us to slow down, take pause, and shift the emphasis from hyper-busyness to a larger perspective on our lives.
2. Reflective practice helps us feel more connected to our daily experiences, including our energy and motivation. Reflective practice, therefore, keeps us more attuned to our resources and how those resources can fuel our productivity each day.
3. Reflective practice helps us gain insights from our daily experiences.
4. Reflective practice helps to deepen awareness of our daily choices and decisions and to feel more comfortable and confident in why we made them.
5. Reflective practice helps us become more skilled at contextualizing, accepting, and managing mistakes and setbacks. This includes being more compassionate with ourselves.
6. Reflective practice helps us become better at recognizing and appreciating the variety of personal successes we experience daily.
7. Reflective practice helps us identify personal resiliencies and to draw upon these daily.
8. Reflective practice helps us acknowledge our unique capacities and skills, and to monitor their growth and expansion.
9. Reflective practice gives us more cognitive and emotional “room” to feel the value of our lives.
10. Reflective practice creates space to be more engaged, emotionally attuned, and flexible.
For reflection:
Is it easy or difficult for me to set aside a few minutes at the end of each workday, to slow down and reflect on how I experienced the day?
Can I practice setting aside 15 – 20 minutes at the end of each workday to reflect on the day?
When I reflect on how I experienced my day, what stands out for me? What do I notice?
At the end of each workday, what can I leave behind and what am I carrying into other areas of my life?
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