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Hello, and welcome to Mindful Moments. This is my channel where we discuss all things mindfulness. And today we're going to do something a little bit different than the last one. I mean, there's only been one of the videos. Of course it will be different. So today we're going to explore the principle of reflection and we're going to do that while I do a little bit of coloring and as you can see. Today I'm going to be coloring this image and I'll be using highlighter pens because I still don't have any crayons. As I color in, I want to talk about the importance of reflection in our lives. We'll start with the principle of reflection. Now reflection can be seen as the act of looking back. It's not overly helpful to always look over your shoulder and critique yourself. But reflection does this in a slightly different way. We kind of look back in a constructive way to free us up to move forwards a little bit better. Reflection allows us to gain insights into. Our previous actions, how we thought about them and our feelings that were generated from that. Now those feelings could be persistent. They could still be going on today from an act that happened a long, long time ago. And and those feelings kind of hold us back. They prevent us. It can knock your confidence. It can change how you interact with people or as you network with people in the world around you. So if you can consolidate how you feel about that. Then that's how you get to move forwards in a little bit more and a little bit more freedom. Methods of reflection are quite many, actually. You can sit in a quiet room and just think about the problem to yourself over and over again, or you can have a more proactive and meaningful sort of way of dealing with this. Now, my particular slant on all of this is that actions have to have a purpose at the end of day, some sort of tangible. There's a, if you like as as a tangible result, you want to have a tangible process and that involves pen and paper effectively. Or you can use your laptop or computer or whatever. So there are various ways to reflect. Like I say, get yourself a piece of paper and a pen and write down the things that are concerning. You write down. So it could be a job interview that you went to, for instance, and you didn't get the job and instead of just thinking, well, the interviewer. Is obviously just a complete ****. You can instead reflect on what you've done, what you've said, analyze the situation, look at how the interviewer was or interviewers were and look at how you can probably better negotiate those in future. So rather than going through life blaming everybody else, we can go through life learning from everybody else. So I would say that's a little bit more proactive. It's up to you. I mean sometimes. Takes us, takes us a while to get to that position in life. But anyway, so we're going to be writing our thoughts on paper. Now, personally, I've found that writing things down helps me to put things into perspective. Sometimes when you write something down and you're thinking about it in a slightly different way, you can see how how it looks and how it reads maybe to other people around you. And that's why other people around you had a different perspective and a different opinion. When you've asked for their honest opinion and they've said something that you weren't overly happy with and you can't understand that. You know, some people can be prone to being quite sensitive about that sort of thing, and maybe not associated with those friends for a while. So write it down. How does it sound when you then read it out aloud so it's not just rattling around inside your cranium, it's now in the world and what would you do? So when you write it down, you can actually distance yourself from Now, once it's on paper, you can distance yourself from the situation and pretend that actually your friend has had this experience and they've ran this down. And how can you best help your friend? So it may be you were on a drive and somebody cut your part a roundabout and you've only really been thinking about yourself. But what? What reasons might somebody have had to have cut you apart around about? How many spring to mind? Obviously the emotion in the moment is that they're just an idiot and they shouldn't be on the road. And how did they get their driving licence once we move away from them? We've written it down and you can look at possible reasons why. So you're going to put yourself in that driver's position. Well, maybe they were lost. Maybe there was an emergency. Maybe they're just brand new to the area. They have no idea. Maybe they've only just passed their driving test. Maybe they just had a sudden. Shock of bad news. Maybe they were having a heart attack at the wheel. It could be any number of things, and all those things are obviously wildly outside of your control, and they're outside of any action that you can possibly take. But there's only one action and one sense that you do have over this, and that's how you feel about it. And how you feel about it also relates to how long you're going to carry that with you, especially if anger was your dominant emotion as a consequence of that action. Once you've written that down and you kind of point by point things and what could their mitigation have been? And really still does it really matter Now you're alive, you're fine, everything's OK. Everything can happen in the world. The world is a very chaotic place and you've got to look in a way, as part of this soul searching in terms of. How entitled would a person need to be to believe that with all the chaos that's in the world, that you should suffer no chaos at all whatsoever? We are. We are all going to endure a certain degree of chaos. And the only thing that makes us different to anybody else within that chaos is how we feel about it and how we promote our feelings about it, how that emanates to people around us, and then how they view us as a consequence of that reflection. It's really important. You can reflect the other way as well. So things are really positive and things that I've made you incredibly happy. How can you get more of that? So if you know the secret to what makes you happy and you can reflect upon that, and then you can build more of that into your life, well, guess what? You're going to have a really good life with more happiness than than not. Did you know that I offer a book writing and content creation service? Effectively Ioffer a book. Writing and content creation service that can serve as a mechanism for you to reflect on life, maybe share some valuable lessons and get that published as well. So I can do this as a one to one service. So effectively we manage your project to look at the content, look at illustration, cover design, get in it formatted and proofread and then finally the big day where you get it published. Now if I can gather enough interest for this could actually do. Classes, workshops and possibly run this, fittingly enough at libraries or cafes whereby there could be a group of maybe 10-12 people at a time. And we look at ideas and we bounce ideas off each other. We look at how that content is going to be framed and structured and what type of tone you're going to take and what type of illustration and and the physical size of the book. We can look at all those things and it's. Guided creative experience where you can get that story that's always been in you and you've always been. It's been bursting to get out, but you've not been quite sure how to do that in a constructive way. Well, now there is a way, and it's the Mindful Moments book writing workshops, so it's probably worth checking that one out on the website there. And also the workshop would be much more affordable if money is something that's a concern to you. But you want to get this out there. It'll feel really good to do that. So let's just recap here. You can see that I'm about to finish doing this little bit of artwork here as well. To recap, reflection, it's a crucial activity for your growth, for your personal growth. And with that, writing is a fantastic tool. You get this tangible element to them. So all of a sudden you can see, you can touch, you can feel the emotions coming through the pen or the pencil. And obviously, if you're interested in diving deeper into all of that, then check out the book writing service. In fact, check out my mindfulness services in general. Remember, the journey of reflection is the one best taken with a mindful heart, and an open one at that, and being open to the surprises that you're going to discover by yourself and about yourself during that process. So feel free to get in touch and book a free 1 to 1 consultation, and let's take a look at mindfulness together. Have a terrific day.
