Mindful reflection is a skill that requires presence, patience, non-judgment, curiosity, and compassion. It’s a skill that, when fully embodied, has a spread of advantages, from broadening our considering to improving our relationships. Yet reflecting mindfully isn’t as easy because it might sound. How will we reflect on ourselves and our experience while remaining open? How will we self-reflect without getting in our own way?
On this guide to mindful questions and self-reflection, we’ll explore:
What Is Mindful Self-Reflection?
To self-reflect is to take the time to inquire more deeply into our experience. Also known as introspection, it asks us to look at our thoughts, our feelings, our assumptions, and our judgments, a process which helps us to grow.
Mindful self-reflection puts an additional emphasis on non-judgmental, moment to moment awareness. Once we mindfully self-reflect, we are likely to our feelings, thoughts, experiences, and behavior with greater curiosity, patience, and compassion than we’d otherwise. We’re invited to ease (or to pay attention to) the stories we tell ourselves about events or feelings. With mindful self-reflection, there may be an emphasis on approaching our experience with a beginner, outsider, or objective perspective.
In other words, mindful self-reflection asks us to step out of our own way. Somewhat than replaying the identical methods of self-analysis again and again, we’re encouraged to go deeper. For instance, if we’re experiencing social anxiety, mindful self-reflection would help us to step beyond the same old explanation with a purpose to explore our bodily sensations, the fears beneath our surface fears, and more.
On the deepest level of reflection, we’d arrive at self-enquiry, which might be understood as awareness of awareness itself. Self-enquiry, or , invites us to ask the query, ‘Who am I?’, to which there isn’t a clear, mental answer.
The Advantages of Mindful Self-Reflection
We don’t need to succeed in the deepest practice of self-enquiry with a purpose to experience the advantages of mindful self-reflection. As mentioned, mindful self-reflection has a spread of advantages. As an example, it may well:
Actually, there is actually no limit as to what the advantages of self-reflection could be. Put simply, self-reflection (especially when mindfulness is on the forefront) shifts the best way we view ourselves, others, and the world around us. When our mindset expands, so do our feelings and behaviors. The potential is then infinite.
The Power of Asking Great Questions
One invaluable tool to boost mindful self-reflection is a terrific query. Once we put forth a terrific query (and after we approach that query with real curiosity and openness), there isn’t a limit as to what we’d uncover. Mindful questions result in thoughtful, wealthy, and insightful answers. Sometimes these answers arise clearly and intellectually; sometimes they develop as embodied feelings or inner knowings.
In any case, mindful reflection questions are a wonderful start line for enhancing self-awareness. The facility of a terrific query is that it directs the flow of our inquiry in expansive and illuminating ways. For instance, consider different paths that these two questions might lead someone on:
In the identical way, reflect upon the difference between these two questions:
Chances are high you may sense a distinct quality – and different opportunities! – between each of those pairs of questions. This isn’t to suggest that one is ‘right’ and one other is ‘improper’. Nonetheless, it does highlight that the questions we ask ourselves will lead us to various kinds of answers.
Similarly, meditation is a robust self-reflection tool that helps us higher understand our thoughts, emotions and behaviors.
To enhance your skills of self-reflection try our guide about self-compassion meditation to create a non-judgmental inner dialogue.
20 Mindful Inquiries to Ask Yourself
When you want to enhance your self-reflection practice, consider the next 20 mindful inquiries to probe your inner exploration. These mindful reflection questions might be used during contemplation practice or while journaling.
Whether you might be journaling your answers or just sitting in contemplation, select one query at a time. You do not want to actively seek for answers. See what arises naturally and spontaneously, allowing all possibilities to rise to the surface of your awareness.
With a view to remain as open as possible, take just a few moments to ground yourself through just a few loving breaths. Set an intention to stay as curious, compassionate, and receptive as possible. Refrain from attempting to problem solve or ‘fix’ your experience. And, if certain questions don’t result in clear answers, take the recommendation of poet Rainer Maria Rilke:
When selecting a mindful query to reflect upon, go for the one which inspires you most. Some questions won’t resonate with us in a single moment, but perhaps they are going to in a month, a 12 months, or ten years from now. There aren’t any ‘right’ or ‘improper’ questions for self-reflection. The most effective ones for us in any moment are those that carry us naturally and lovingly into deeper layers of who we’re. Consider a number of the following to start:
