Self-reflection is your ability to notice and evaluate your own cognitive, behavioral, and emotional processes.
In cognitive psychology, other related terms for self-reflection are 'aware awareness' and 'conscious awareness'. The term 'self-help' applies to an assortment of related disciplines, including but not limited to arts, music, and counseling.
The goal of self-help is to assist you in finding greater self-awareness and in improving your own psychological well-being.
One way to cultivate real-time self-reflection is to make a conscious effort to pay attention to your internal dialogue. The fact is that some psychologists do actually refer to this as a way of an active presence .
A key component to be aware of is your own voice, which can differ greatly from another person's voice. When you listen carefully to yourself, you can learn to detect inner dialogue that is negative, or otherwise out of balance.
Making sure you Pay full attention to your own kind of internal dialogue, both within yourself and also with other individuals, will enable you to be able to actually gain the insight into your mental state and also your emotional state.
When you are actively paying attention to your internal dialogue, you can begin to notice patterns and shifts in thought patterns, attitudes, behaviors, and other aspects of your personal experience. Some people refer to this as 'self-awareness'.
However, self-awareness as a term could be misleading, because an individual can only have a strong self-awareness of his or her thoughts only when they are actually paying great attention to it in the first place! However, being aware of thoughts and opinions, even when they are negative, is a good practice for self-reflection.
Self-awareness also allows us to become more consciously aware of our feelings. For example, feelings can be deceptive, particularly at a time when we might not be feeling particularly negative. In these times, it may seem like we are in control of everything, but underneath the surface of our consciousness is a layer of conflict and confusion.
This layer of conflict and confusion can actually be a source of our greatest strength - if we were to be more consciously aware of our inner conflict, then we would have the ability to resolve that confusion and finally let go of the conflict that is keeping us blocked. For example, feelings like anger, hurt, fear, envy, resentment, guilt, shame, and sadness can all be a source of strength for us if we were to pay attention to them in the moment, rather than letting them distract us from finding peace and happiness within.
The process of self-reflection allows us to gain insight into our emotional health and is especially helpful if we live an unexamined life. Unfortunately, many of us lead examined lives. We may not even be aware that we are carrying a lot of unnecessary baggage around with us, and our conscious and unconscious minds are not able to get rid of some of this clutter. Even when we try to get rid of some of this excess baggage, our efforts may only produce milder symptoms or side effects, such as increased stress or anxiety. As a result, we are constantly searching for another "cure" for our problems, without ever discovering the real causes of our problems in the first place.
With self-reflection, however, we are forced to look deeper and examine our thoughts and feelings on a much more profound level. Through self-reflection, we can see things like our fears and weaknesses, our insecurities and unactualized ambitions. We can also see things that are larger and more significant than our fears and shortcomings. However, our awareness of these deeper issues requires an openness and willingness to really look at what it is that we are trying to escape from. If we refuse to do this, then we are simply chasing our tails.
The ability to take time out for self-reflection will allow us to take time to reflect on our thoughts and feelings, to get inside of ourselves and find out exactly what we are afraid of and what aspects of our lives we are trying to escape from. This will give us a better understanding of ourselves, a clearer view of what we truly want and a better way of getting it. Once we have made a list of all of our thoughts and behaviors, it becomes easier to take action on them. Without self-reflection and the willingness to take time out for self-reflection, we are doing nothing more than pushing our feelings and behaviors out of our control and allowing them to take control. By controlling our thoughts and behaviors, however, we can actually gain the power to make ourselves happier and healthier.
A major part of taking time out for self-reflection involves being honest with ourselves. While there may be times when we feel overwhelmed by our daily life and wish we could go deeper to find out what's really important, lying to ourselves is not an acceptable excuse. We need to be completely honest with ourselves about how much more we want and need in our lives. Only then will we be able to see that deep down inside we have everything that we need. When we can stop dwelling on our problems and concentrate on creating solutions for them by self-reflection, we will start to see changes in our lives rather quickly.