Articles / Special

“Knowing yourself is the beginning of all wisdom.” - Aristotle

Self-Reflection is a crucial aspect of personal growth and self-awareness. It is a transformative process that allows individuals to gain a deeper understanding of themselves and their emotions. It involves setting aside time to introspect and evaluate thoughts, attitudes, motivations, and desires. By engaging in self-reflection, we can uncover areas for improvement and cultivate personal growth. This helps us to know ourselves, through which we can have self-awareness.

It is setting aside time to think deeply and evaluate our thoughts, attitudes, desires and motivations. It is examining our emotions and thoughts and then asking ourselves, ‘why do I act this way?’ ‘Why did I behave this way?’ It is worth taking time to reflect on life. Most times we don’t reflect ourselves and not even try to reflect thus we fail in many ways to lead a good life.

Regularly taking part in the process of self-reflection can help us in following ways:

Understand ourselves : Personal reflection enables us to process and make meaning of all of the great learning and working experiences we've had.

Increases self-awareness : By practicing self-reflection, we can increase our self-awareness, make better decisions, and enhance our learning and development.

Improve decision making : We get more clarity to pursue our dreams when we think deeply on thoughts and ideas - thus assisting us to make the right choice in our life.

Facilitate learning : Self-reflection assists us to evaluate our feelings, thoughts and desires and guides us to the right direction. If something about our journey doesn’t sit right, we know we need to change to avoid some bad situations.

Foster a sense of well-being : Understanding our priorities and values help us to establish healthy boundaries that protect our mental health along with building our self-esteem.

Provides clarity : Self-reflection provides us clarity to seek solutions to our problems.

“Regular self-reflection is the key to personal growth and well being”

Some of the questions to reflect on life:

• What are my goals, and what steps can I take to achieve them?
• What are my strengths and how can I use them?
• How do I handle challenges or setbacks?
• What habits or behaviors should I cultivate or eliminate to improve my well-being?
• How can I create a positive outlook on life?
• Which areas of my life am I satisfied with? Which one’s need attention?
• Am I taking my life for granted?
• Is it the right path that I have chosen?
• What lessons have I learnt recently, and how can I apply them in the future?

According to Jiddu Krishnamurthi , “Self-reflection is the mirror of the mind.” Self-reflection is a powerful practice that can unlock personal growth and happiness through wisdom. So I would prefer everyone to reflect on life which will help to live a reflective life. Thus embrace the power of self-reflection and embark on a journey of self-discovery.

Article written by :

Prajwal Dsouza
St Aloysius Institute of Education Mangaluru