Most of the time, everything that has happened should be processed. This also applies to what’s going inside of our mind or what we feel. At some point, we need to process it and the process is what we can call self-reflection. It’s when we are aware of what’s happening inside of ourselves and trying to evaluate it. So, what’s in it? Is it really that important?
Self-reflection may lead to self-awareness
Self-awareness is a composition of some things, including reflection (1). With that, by doing self-reflection, we can increase our self-awareness. By doing it on what we feel in a specific time frame, we will be aware of what we think or feel. In addition, we might also realize new things for ourselves. For example, we’ll learn that we don’t like to be treated in a specific way or even discover our interests and hobbies. This will also add some points to ourselves, increasing self-awareness.
Self-reflection might influence subjective well-being
By theory, subjective well-being is an evaluation of some components. This evaluation is not possible without self-reflection. By doing it, we will evaluate how we feel. This also relates to affect (you can read more about affect here). The ability to reflect is essential to subjective well-being. As subjective refers to our perspective and how we evaluate our lives, then we’re bound to do some reflections.
What happens if you’re not doing self-reflection?
As it relates to self-awareness, we might feel lost or not know ourselves if we don’t self-reflect. Moreover, at some point, if we’re not processing some major changes or events in our lives, it might haunt us back, maybe in the form of crisis or dreams. Not knowing ourselves might increase some problems later. The absence of self-reflection might decrease the level of awareness.
Conclusion
Based on the points stated above, self-reflection should be an important part of ourselves as it relates to self-awareness and is essential to consider our subjective well-being. Not doing it might also lead to feeling lost, or even haunt us in some forms. Even though it might seem irrelevant, we need to self-reflect.
