Working through your thoughts and emotions is an essential part of any personal growth journey. And one of the most efficient and useful ways to make that progress is to practice regular self reflection activities. If you aren’t sure where to start with those self reflection activities then we have you covered with these 11 ways to practice self reflection so you can grow. And continue along your personal growth journey to become the best version of yourself.
Before we get into these activities you can use to practice self reflection there is something we need to chat about first!
We need to talk about giving yourself grace during this important journey in your life. Chances are if you are reading this you are making strides and putting in serious effort into becoming the best you that you can be. And that is a wonderful and incredible thing! But it also can be daunting and intimidating. And the reality is that there will be ups and downs during this journey.
During those downs it is essential to give yourself grace and remember that the downs and bad days will always be apart of your journey but bouncing back from them and speaking with kindness towards yourself is something you absolutely need to do. Don’t put pressure on yourself to go faster than you need to during this journey and remember it is about the journey not the destination.
That all being said let’s get into these ways and ideas to practice self reflection.
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11 Ways To Practice Self Reflection So You Can Grow
Helpful ideas for self reflection:
Idea 1: Evaluate your monthly goals
This is a helpful way to practice reflection at the end of every month!
Monthly goals are a huge part of having more successful months. And keeping yourself on track for your bigger, more long term goals.
And evaluating them is so important for making sure that you are really sticking to your goals. As well as making sure they are helping you grow and better your life.
If you are not currently setting monthly goals then I recommend checking out this post for ideas and tips: New Month, New Goals: 68 Monthly Goals Ideas To Set!
Idea 2: Try practicing meditation
Meditation is an incredible tool for working on becoming more aware and reflecting on your thoughts.
When you are meditating you are alone with your thoughts and focusing 100% of your energy on those thoughts. Which allows you to eliminate distractions and pressures from the rest of the world. Which ultimately can help you see yourself more realistically and become more aware.
I recommend either downloading a meditation app or just searching for videos on YouTube until you find a guided one that works for you as you start meditating. And then grab a yoga/meditation matand start working on meditation and figuring out your true self.
Idea 3: Ask yourself “What do you wish you did more of this year?”
Think about this question at least once a year- or you can make it apart of monthly or weekly reflection time as well.
While you are reflecting on the month it is important to think about what you wish you had done more of this year. So you can make sure to make those wishes a priority in the next year.
A helpful side note- a big part of doing reflections is helping yourself have a better next year. And overall a better life by reflecting on your past years and how you can move forward to improve things in your life.
Idea 4: Do daily journaling
This activity is wonderful for helping you see through any filters you have up and get a better idea of your true self.
You can either approach journaling with or without prompts. If you are new to journaling and feel a bit uncomfortable with it it is usually best to start with prompts and then start working your way towards journaling without prompts. But prompts or not journaling is a self awareness activity that can really help you with personal growth.
A few journal prompts posts that can help with this are:
- 31 Inspiring Journal Prompts To Better Yourself
- 40 Journal Prompts For When You Are Stressed
- 75 Self Improvement Journal Prompts: how journaling leads to self improvement
And some self reflection specific journal prompts to start with:
- Why am I making my current decisions?
- What do you wish was different in your life right now?
- Is there anything I feel like I’m missing in my life?
- What should I be doing more of?
- Why do I want to figure out my life?
- What daily changes would I like to make?
Also, if you want more prompts I highly recommend searching on Pinterest because there are so many great options.
Idea 5: Think about what you accomplished this month
Take the time to think about what you did accomplish this month and then think about how proud you are of yourself! Celebrating your accomplishments and encouraging yourself is so important for your mental wellness.
It is important to take time to reflect on the positives as much as you reflect on negatives or uncertainties.
Idea 6: Create vision boards
Vision boards are a self reflection activity that I encourage trying because they help you get an idea of your current life while also envisioning your best life.
Taking the time to think about and start to visualize where you want to be in relation to where you are now can really encourage self awareness.
And you can do this activity more often now thanks to digital vision boards!
I have a video (link here) where it walks you through how I made my most recent digital vision board and some helpful tips and tricks.
Idea 7: Write letters to yourself
Writing letters to your past and future self is an amazing technique for practicing and experiencing self reflection.
You can either write letters to yourself at different points in the past to reflect on your past self. Or you can write letters to your future self so you can really be truthful with yourself about what you want in the future. And where you are now which is mainly where the self awareness comes into play!
Just grab an affordable set of letter writing tools (here is some) and you can keep the letters to read later when you need them. Especially when you are feeling the need to get grounded.
Idea 8: Make bucket lists
Bucket lists are probably the most fun activity on this list. But they are also so helpful!
The reasoning is similar to creating a vision board. But this activity is a lot quicker and involves a little less effort which means it is easy to commit to.
You can make so many different types of bucket lists and making any of them help you practice awareness and grounding yourself while being optimistic.
You could make a seasonal bucket list, annual, 5 year, 10 year, themed (such as dates or kids). Really there are so many options!
Idea 9: Ask yourself “How did I grow more as a person this month?”
Reflecting on your life and personal growth go hand in hand.
So when you are doing your reflection at the end of the month use the chance to think about how you have grown as a person this month. And then take the opportunity to think about how you can work on additional personal growth and development next month.
Idea 10: Take some personality tests
Personality tests are an activity that can really force awareness on you by making you think about the questions and your results.
Head over to Google and search for an element of your personality that you are interested in + personality test. And when you are taking these personality tests make sure to really think about your answers to the questions. And at the end when you get answers take the time to think about and be aware about your results.
Idea 11: Make a list of your passions
It’s simple but can really get you in touch with what you really love and what is a priority to you. Just sit down and grab a notebook and just start making a brainstormed list of all of the things you are passionate about and what inspires you.
Then you can go back over the list and evaluate which you believe are truly the most important to you. This will help you realize what you should focus on during your personal growth efforts. And it will help you stay in touch with your emotions and what you really want rather than what you may think you (or others) want to be a priority on the surface level.
Korra-Shay
If you enjoyed this article on 11 Ways To Practice Self Reflection So You Can Grow then you probably (hopefully!) will find these helpful as well:
- Beneficial Ideas For Your Personal Growth Plan in 2023
- 23 Healthy Life Habits To Be Your Healthiest Self In 2023!
- 41 Journal Prompts To Help You Calm Your Mind!
- 68 Summer Affirmations For Working On Becoming Your Best Self!
- 25 Day Personal Growth Challenge To Really Challenge Yourself!
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