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A Journey of Self Reflection

A Journey of Self Reflection

by | Jan 22, 2021 | Mental Health

 

Recent events have touched us all in a deep and profound way. We have been forced to slow down and withdraw from our fast pace way of life.

The life we once knew of filling every minute of every day with busy busy … came to a grinding halt.

Without the busyness to fill our every waking moment. It gives way to more time and space to go within and explore a little deeper.

For me, this time has made me question, contemplating and reflecting. I guess you could call it self-reflection, trying to understand the internal struggle of thoughts, feelings, and emotions. Questing my place in the world, am I on the path a want to be on? I am I following my dreams. Where do I fit in? What do I have to offer?  All these questions have been a wakeup call. It has given me the opportunity to look in the mirror and ask myself the important questions about my life.  This time has allowed me to embark upon the journey of self-reflection.

Are you ready you to go on your own journey of self-reflection?

Self-reflecting is not necessarily an easy journey to face. However, I will promise you this. It is one of the most valuable journeys; you will undertake for your personal growth.

“The Journey into self-love and self-acceptance must begin with self-examination… until you take the journey of self-reflection it is almost impossible to grow or learn in life” (Iyanla Vanzant)

Self-reflection is the process of taking the time to go within and analyse our inner self a little deeper.  Through this analysing we able to gain insight into who we are, what we value, out thoughts, actions, desires and motivation.

In this self-reflective process, we come to understand our true selves. By looking inward, we tale off the mask we wear for the outside world.  It allows us to connect with our true selves and grow from this self-reflection experience. Self-reflection is a powerful process and it will have a positive effect on your life.

Let’s go on a journey of self-reflection

Here are ten practices that will help you go within and self-reflect.

1.Write

Journaling for self-reflection

Journaling is a beautiful way to deeply self-reflection.

It can be as simple as writing a daily self-reflection sentence about anything you want to reflect on.

Another way to journal is to reflecting daily on three things you are grateful for and why.

If you feeling you want to go a little deeper. Then write a longer journal entry about something good or bad that you experienced.

Explore and reflect about the event, your thoughts feelings or emotions that are coming up for you.

Try not to censor what you write, allow the words to flow. Then read over your journal entry. Reflect upon what you have written, you will be amazed about the insight you get from your writing.

There no wrong or right way to journal. do what feels right for you and will help you to reflect inwards

2. Question Yourself

Asking yourself the tough questions is a vital part of the self-reflective These questions can feel uncomfortable, however, by asking these questions and answering honestly, we able to hold a reflective mirror up to your lives and yourself.

Reflective questions:

Who am I?

How I am I behaving?

What are my values?

What are my desires?

Is my life heading in the direction I want?

What motivates me?

What makes me happy?

3. Cultivating time for Stillness

Do you make time in your day for stillness?

As it only from being still and silent.  We are able to go within and deeply connect with ourselves and reflect. With stillness, we get to know our true selves.  We take a deep inward journey and slowly peel away the lays. There is nowhere to hide in stillness. You are complete with yourself. Disconnected from the external world that distracts us from our true selves.

Reflect:

How can you cultivate time for stillness? It can be a simple as a 5-minute mindfulness practice being still and present in the moment.

Or a beautiful meditations practice. That brings you into stillness

Here are some mediations have created to get you started click here

 

By creating time to be still it allows the space to do the deep reflective work we need to connect, grow and learn about ourselves

4. Get in touch with your feelings-

Reflect on your feelings and get in touch with how you feel. This is confronting work. For many of us, it is easier to push our feeling aside or tell ourselves that what we are feeling is not valid. Do not dismiss how you feel. You have the right to feel the way you feel and not to push your feelings aside.

By reflecting on feelings, and understanding them. It gives insight into your emotional and mental wellbeing.

Try this practice:

Take a breath

Pause

Reflect:

Go within and ask how do I feel?

Why am I having these feelings?

How are these feeling affecting me?

If you need support with exploring your feeling, more. Enlist the help of a professional counsellor or coach.

5. Reflect on the story

Reflect on the story you are telling yourself. The inner critic what is it saying?

By reflecting on the story and the words, we say to ourselves. It helps to develop inner awareness. Generally the default story we tell ourselves it the I’m not good enough story.

Reflect:

Listen to what it is you say to yourself. Do you need to release the old story or harsh words you speak to yourself?

Stepping back and observing the story gives you the power to defuse the thought pattern. Develop a regular reflective practice of the stories and words you use. It will empower you to recognise when the story is no longer serving you and to replace it with the new and improved story.

6. Care for self

One of the best ways to care for yourself is to reflect on what your needs are and how you care for yourself

Reflect: .

How do I currently care for myself?

Do I spend more time caring for others than myself?

What do I need to feel cared for?

What do I need to feel my best?

Then from the answer to these questions create a care plan for yourself. A great way to put in place your plan, is to pick a time and day that you are committed to implementing care for yourself. I like to have time on Sundays. I call it my self-care Sunday!

7. Self-compassion and kindness.

Did you know that being kind to yourself has a great positive effect on your life? Think about it the way you treat yourself influences every aspect of wellbeing. We are with ourselves 24/7 and we can say some unkind thing to ourselves. Would you say to a friend the thing you say to yourself? The words we say to ourselves have meaning.

Reflect: Do I treat myself with kindness and compassion?

Do I need to be kinder to my self?

Try this : saying something that facilities kindness.

Phrases such as “I am kind to myself” “I am gentle with myself “. I treat myself with kindness.

Place you hand on your heart and say I hold myself with kindness and compassion. Experiment and reflect on what feels good and brings up a feeling of self-compassion.

8. Personal Growth

Do you ever stop and look at how much you have grown? The lessons you have learned along your journey.  By self-reflecting on your personal growth, it gives you a picture of where have you been and where are you going.

I am sure along the way there has been mistakes and challenges. However, think about all that you have gained from these experiences.

Reflect on: How much growth you have achieved

Reflect on the personal growth that has taken place over the last 5 years. What have you done? what have you achieved?

An important thing to look at is what learning has taken place from the challenges or mistakes I have made?

Growth can only come about from reflecting in where you once were to where you are today.

9. Permission to Dream

Do you give yourself permission to dream?

Dreams are important. They give your life purpose, direction, goals and meaning for your life.

Reflect upon the dream you are holding. What life do you want to create in the future.? Having a dream to look forward gives you a sense of hope, control and choice about your future.

Don’t give up on your dreams. By giving up on your dream, you are giving up on yourself. Give your self permission to dream and pursue the life you desire.

Reflect:

Do you have a dream? Do you think you are worthy of your dream?

Are you ready to give you self-permission to pursue your dream?

10. Holistic reflection

The connection between mind, body, emotions and spirit has been proven scientifically.

We are more than our thoughts. There is an undeniable connection between mind, body, emotion, and spirit.  This holistic connection makes us who we are.

Reflect:

How do I care and connect with:

My mind?

My Body?

My emotions?

My spirituality?

Reflecting on the relationships, we have with the emotional, mental, physical, and spiritual self. Allows us to nourish and connect with ourselves fully.

You may want to choose one self-reflection practice and try each day over the next 10 days.

The journey of self-reflection has so many benefits for our personal growth. Taking time for self-reflection can be difficult and challenging. It is confronting to step back and reflect on yourself. Yet, there are so many benefits of self-reflection. It allows you to connect with yourself, gain perspective, lean and grow.

Wishing you all the best on your self-reflective personal growth journey.

If you curious about diving deeper into self-reflection you can learn more here

 

 

 

 

Five Ways To Release Emotional Overwhelm

Five Ways To Release Emotional Overwhelm

by | Nov 27, 2020 | Mental Health

Let’s face it we can all agree on one thing,  2020 has been a year to remember. We have all been affected in one way or another

I have been reflecting lately on the impact this year has had on my own personal emotional health. I have noticed that there is a lingering feeling of emotional overwhelm. That feeling of being in constant fight or flight mode, because you don’t know what is coming next.

Being in this emotional state is exhausting and overwhelming right!

 The unpredictability of a situation that is out of our control. It  like being on an emotional roller coaster. The adrenaline kicks in and goes into overdrive, The feeling of heightened anxiety about what going to happen on the ride. However, I guess with a roller coaster the ride ends and we can calm our emotions.

This situation is something most of us have experienced before. In our lifetime, few of us have lived through a pandemic. This is all a new experience. Which understandable will bring up a whole lot of emotional overwhelm.

We can all take some comfort in knowing that this situation with the pandemic will also come to end. Kind of like the roller coaster ride come to an end. The wave of emotions will calm down. In the meant time how do we deal with the emotions going inside of us?

We don’t know what’s coming next.

We question the unknown

What will happen next,?

What will our world will look like in the future?

These are all reasonable questions to be asking.

I have heard the feeling we are experienced explained like this. It very much like the feeling that are experienced during grief.

 Upon reflecting that description seems to fit. A feeling of loss of what use to be is no longer for many of us. The grief of losing the world we knew and felt had some predictability and security about it. Now coming to the realization that the world we once knew, has gone and has changed forever. This is no wonder feeling of emotional overwhelm is arising within. There is so much to process.

If we look at it, we all have lost something this year. We do not need to justify what we feeling about that loss by minimizing it. Or telling ourselves someone has it worse than us. Yes, it is possible; there are many people who have had a challenging time. However, it is okay for you feel the way you feel. Acknowledge your own feelings and give yourself permission to feel what you need to feel. Go within and feel what you feeling. Give yourself time and space to explore the emotions that is coming up for you.

 I guess the next question you will be asking is what do we do about this emotional overwhelm. How do I deal with all the feelings that are coming up?

Many of us are feeling emotionally overwhelmed and energetically exhausted.

I get it! I have been feeling overwhelm and exhaustion too.

I want to share my best tips with you on how I have been able to calm emotional overwhelm.

 Emotional overwhelm is something most of us have all experienced this year.

Those times when emotions feel like they are spiralling out of control. Its overwhelming trying to deal with all the emotions that are rising up inside.

 When you feel emotionally overwhelmed. A natural reaction is for the mind to try to control the feeling. Your mind starts to kick in and bring up all sorts of self-talk. In my experience, this heightens the feelings. Then leads to even more emotional overwhelm!

 We could all do with a little calmer in our life right now. Let’s look at five tips to calm emotional overwhelm.

#Tip 1 Be Aware Of Your Feeling

 Observe yourself and answer these two questions: When I’m emotionally overwhelmed where do I feel it in my body?

What is my first reaction when I feel emotionally overwhelmed?

 Once you completed tip one you will be more aware of how you feel and react to emotional overwhelm. Let move on to tip two.

 

#Tip 2: Breath And Ground Yourself.

 

When you feel yourself, reacting to emotional overwhelm, try this next step:

Ground yourself:

Sit with the feet touching the floor.

 Become aware of your feet and firmly push them into the floor.

 Feeling your feet firmly grounded.

 Take your awareness to your breath. Focus on your breath. Breathe into the count of four. Breath out to the count of four Breath in the count of four and breath out to the count of four.

 Repeat two more cycles (in and out to the count of four). This grounding and breathing are helpful in creating a sense of support. By grounding yourself and release some of your emotional overwhelm.

 

#Tip 3: Be Mindful- Calm The Mind.

 

When you are feeling emotionally overwhelm the mind will start to race. It comes up with lots of thoughts and will often go to worst case scenario thinking. Calm the mind by practising some mindfulness.

 Stop for a moment.

Look around and name 5 things you can see.

Listen and name 5 things you can hear.

Notice 5 things you can feel on your body for example fingers, hands arm ect…

 Practice this throughout the day and notice how it makes you feel. This practice helped you to calm the mind when you in a state of overwhelm. It brings the mind back to focal point and helps to gain back control over your thoughts.

 

#Tip 4 – Body Scan

 Scan your body and be aware of any feelings of overwhelm that may be still present.

 Starting at your feet then moving up your body.

Moving your attention up to your legs, your torso, arms, neck and head.

 Bring your attention to the body and being within the body.

 Take some slow deep breaths to release any uncomfortable sensations and calm yourself.

 By bringing the attention to our body. We give our self’s the space to move out of the emotion and back into being present within the body.

#Tip 5- Affirm

One of my favourite was to calm my emotional is through affirmations.

 Take a few slow breaths in and out.

If it feels good place you hand on your heart.

 Repeat to yourself the affirmation “I am ok”

 Keep repeating the words to yourself until you notice a shift in your emotions

 These three simple  words I find bring reassuring and have a calming effect.

 By using tips they have helped me to gain back control over my emotions overwhelm. The best thing about these is they only take a few minutes. You can implemented these tips whenever the feeling of emotional overwhelm arises.

 I hope these tips served you and helped you to release emotional overwhelm. Be kind and compassionate to yourself. Remind yourself that you doing the best you can under difficult circumstances.

 

I would love to help you with even more with strategies for emotional overwhelm. Learn more about my private session here

 I have created some free meditations to calm emotions click here to download

 Love and gratitude to you

 Tanya x