✿ Self-Reflection is a Choice ✿

What is Self-Reflection?

It seems silly that we grow up being so concerned about loving others, yet no one teaches you how exactly to love yourself. However, loving yourself does not always mean treat yourself an excessive reward or delicious snacks or foods. It sometimes means writing down your thoughts and keep a record of them. It sometimes means admit to yourself that the specific things hurt you. Loving yourself also means knowing your strengths and weaknesses.

Then, how do we know our strengths and weaknesses? A self-reflection. This process, however, does not come naturally. It needs will from the person. It is a choice. Dewey (1998) defines reflection as the active, persistent, and careful consideration of any belief or supposed form of knowledge in the light of the grounds that support it. Similarly, Schön (1983) interprets reflection as a process in which a person tries to deal with and make sense of some puzzling or troubling or interesting phenomenon. Reflection supposedly engages someone an attentive, critical, exploratory, and interactive interactions with his/her thoughts and actions, and their underlying conceptual frame, to change them and a view on the change itself. Therefore, reflection is a process. It is done continually. It is not a once a lifetime moment. There are two kinds of reflection:

Reflection in action	Reflection on action
It takes place while we are involved in a situation, during which we become aware of what we are thinking, feeling, and doing.	It involves stepping back from the situation, meaning that it takes place sometime after the situation has occurred.

Sonya Teclai mentioned that self-reflection is a process to humble ourselves and I could not agree more. I would not say that it is easy doing. Self-reflection is difficult because it makes us vulnerable. Self-reflection makes us acknowledge that we are not the most righteous person, thus we have done wrongdoings conscious or unconsciously. It takes a big heart to admit that we made mistakes whether in our actions or words. These mistakes might be affecting others’ unknowingly and we should be apologetic for that. Therefore, self-reflection is a fight with ourselves. It is an intense fight between our ego and the humility within us.

Self-reflection is crucial in our lives because we are sinners. We have done many sinful things before God. There are plenty of areas of our life that need attention and unproductive habits to become clearer. We are required to confess our failings to God and ask for forgiveness. Self-reflection is essential for Christian for our growth in Christ. The practice of contemplating our life choices by renewing our commitment according to God’s Word is the center of Christian self-reflection.