Do you ever feel overwhelmed by everything going on around you? If you often struggle to understand what is happening and why you are reacting to events in a certain way, it might be good to take a step back and self-reflect.

What is Self-Reflection?

The Cambridge Dictionary defines self-reflection as “the activity of thinking about your own feelings and behavior, and the reasons that may lie behind them.”

Self-reflection happens when you pause, step back, and take account of your life, reflecting on your experiences, behavior, and beliefs.

Why is Self-Reflection Important?

Most of the time, when you go through life’s ups and downs, you just keep going. You keep pushing forward without giving thought to the past or what you are currently experiencing. You don’t look at your surroundings and realize that you are in a job you hate or relationships that drain your energy. You don’t take a second look at the circumstances around you and realize that they leave you stressed, unhappy, tired, and frustrated about just anything under the sun.

Benefits of Self-Reflection

Self-reflecting can have a lot of benefits in our lives:

You Get to Improve Your Self-Awareness

Understanding yourself is key to living a better life. You may not be aware of it, but all those experiences you go through impact how you see and live your life. It’s important to take a step back to self-reflect on those changes and how they have shaped you into the person you are today. Self-reflecting leads to self-awareness which ultimately leads to better self-understanding.

You Get a Different Perspective of Things

When things happen in your life, you tend to look at them from lenses tinted by your experiences and opinions. Self-reflecting allows you to put down those lenses and see things from another view. Instead of seeing just the trees, you get to zoom out and see the whole forest. Instead of focusing on a piece of the puzzle, you get to see the whole picture.

You Learn to Respond Instead of React

Normally, at the height of intense emotion, you tend to say the first thing that pops into your mind. Or you make a decision influenced by your feelings. Often you act on a whim and then wish you could take it back later.

Self-reflecting teaches you to slow down. It shows you the importance of reflecting on a situation before responding, pausing to process instead of reacting thoughtlessly. You learn to respond more thoughtfully instead of allowing your feelings and emotions to dictate your moves and words.

Self-Reflection Through Journaling

One way to practice self-reflection is by using a reflective journal.

What is a Reflective Journal?

A reflective journal is a journal where you can write daily entries about your experiences—both the good and the bad. It differs from other journals that are merely for record-keeping. A reflective journal helps you identify key moments in your life, such as in your career, relationships, and even in day-to-day happenings

Reflective journaling helps you identify important, definitive moments in your life that have made you into the person you are today. As you write your reflective journal, you can better understand your thought process and emotions in response to the things happening around you.

How to Write a Self-Reflection Journal

Reflective journaling requires paying attention to yourself and your surroundings, emotions, and response to any situation. You can express your thoughts on the experience or use some self-reflective prompt questions to help you process how the experience made you feel.

Before, During, and After the Experience

One way to write your reflective journal is by paying attention to yourself before, during, and after the experience.

Before the experience, write down the following:

• What could possibly happen
• Possible challenges and how you could face them
• How to prepare or how you are currently preparing for the event/situation/experience

During the experience, take note of the following so you can write them down later:

• What is happening at the moment
• If things are going as you expected them or if there are unexpected opportunities and challenges along the way
• How does the experience make you feel

After, aside from writing your observations during the experience, take note of the following too:

• Your thoughts after the experience and if it met your expectations or not
• What you would do differently if you could experience it all over again
• Takeaways from the event or experience

Questions to Ask While Writing on Your Reflective Journal

Alternately, you can ask yourself some questions while writing your journal to help serve as prompts for your self-reflection:

1. What event do you want to write about? Write it as descriptively as you can from start to finish.
2. How did you feel during the event? Pay attention to what mattered to you. Take note of how you felt before, during, and after.
3. What can you learn from the event? Describe lessons and learning and how you can apply them in your life or future events.

You don’t always have to follow a format when you want to self-reflect on an event or occurrence. All you have to do is write whatever is in your mind and heart. When you read back on previous entries, you’ll be able to discover new things about yourself, see how you have changed, and how previous experiences have impacted your life.

How Wondr Journal Helps You Self-Reflect

If you’re looking for a quick and easy way to do self-reflection aside from journal-writing, Wonder Journal gives you statistics and insights for your journal entries. You’ll learn what or who you often talk about—which could help you become aware of what matters to you. You’ll see your most felt emotion while writing, top personal concern, top motivational driver, and top thinking style.

If you want an even deeper dive into your entries, the “Explore” tab on your dashboard lets you see the verb tenses you often use (whether you talk about the past, present, or future). You can also see which primary senses you tap into more when you write your entries. 

Insights like these help you become more self-aware about what you feel about specific topics, certain events in your life, and various people. You talk—or in this case, write—about the things that matter the most to you, and Wondr Journal’s tools provide you with a deeper glimpse of yourself.

Start your self-reflection journal on Wondr Journal today.

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