What is Reflective Practice, (And How To Get Started)

" Just Get Know It! "

Do you ever feel that your life is being driven by an autopilot at times? Somehow, in your personal or work life, you keep repeating the same mistakes, you engage in the same behaviours, and attract the same inefficiencies from all kinds of situations?

NOTE: THE STORY CAN BE DIFFICULT TO UNDERSTAND.

Your life may be great, but in some areas, deep down, you know you can do things better or improve. Yet, for some reason, you just can’t understand why you keep doing some of the things you’re doing, which may keep you from achieving what you really want at times.

Instead of reacting robotically to the conditions in your life, wouldn’t it be great to learn to master your internal thought processes and make more deliberate decisions inside and around you? Well, the tool to get you there is reflective practice .

I will break down all the valuable knowledge, advantages, and methods necessary in this article to start taking your life potential to the next level.

What is Reflective Practice?

For you, reflective practice may be an unknown term, but it is far from a new phenomenon. Actually, you just know it unknowingly as something else.

In order to help you learn and continuously improve throughout your life, reflective practice is the process of looking back on your past thoughts, actions, and experiences.

Now, human nature has us all automatically reflecting and regularly judging the past. It is a component of who we are. The problem is that many individuals do so emotionally and, as a consequence, react unconsciously to the circumstances of their lives, unaware of the underlying “whys” behind their actions.

Reflective practice requires you, unlike casual reflection on the past, to use a set of questions to better understand and challenge your thoughts, beliefs, and assumptions floating in your inner world. Your interrogative thought train will then give you insight and understanding of what led you the way you did to experience a situation and the resulting outcome in your life.

If you will, see it as a form of critical thinking, where you do not get involved emotionally with what you are questioning and looking back on.

“Reflection is an important human activity in which people recapture their experience, think about it, mull it over and evaluate it. It is this working with experience that is important in learning.” — David Boud

There are many terms for practice , all of which, like the Chinese philosopher Confucius and the Greek philosopher Socrates, are derived from the writings of early philosophers.

You see, early philosophers discovered their ability to become self-aware of the thought processes of the mind, and you too will discover your own hidden abilities thanks to them.

Find Your Super-Self

Now, to engage in proper reflection, this self-awareness, or metacognition, is the primary tool of emotional intelligence you will need to build.

Metacognition can be seen as your ability to think about what you’re thinking. Imagine stepping into a helicopter, and above all the commotion in your head, flying high. Oh, wouldn’t that be a breath of fresh air? Well, that “outsider ‘“ point of view from above is exactly where you want to be during your own reflective review.

Now, don’t think that before you can become self-aware, you need to become a guru or sit in never-ending hours of meditation and mindfulness practice . In the long run, they will definitely serve as a good tool for you. However, for now, it’s enough to get yourself started by placing your focus and awareness on observing the whole picture going on in your head through a simple act of will.

You might think you’re new to self-awareness, but in reality, if you’ve ever landed an office job in your career, your performance assessments are a form of self-reflective practice .

You’re consciously looking for areas of improvement that you can both agree on for the coming year, as your boss makes you look back on your performance throughout the year. In all other areas of your life, this is the self-awareness and improvement you want to cultivate and look for. All other forms of reflective practice are self-assessments, critical thinking, self-criticism, all of which contribute to building emotional intelligence.

Now, if you’re wondering how your life might change, there’s more than just a salary increase or a promotion at work to look forward to.

3 Incredible Benefits from Reflective Practice

Engaging in a regular practice of reflection can also offer you additional benefits, such as the following:

1. Professional Development ongoing

Performance appraisals are a form of CPD, but to take charge of your professional development in the workplace, you don’t have to wait a year. Nor do you have to rely solely on any learning seminars or activities that your work organises.

You will be able to develop and improve your abilities to apply and make better decisions by regularly reflecting and learning from your experiences at work. This will boost your productivity and contribute to the cause that you work for.

Today, when things go wrong, most people tend to point the blame at everyone except themselves. I’m sure you’ve had a fracas with a colleague or co-worker at some point in your life, which only resulted in wasted time and no solution to any given issue.

Not only will it help you think outside the box, but it will also help you take responsibility for all your actions and become aware of solutions you were unaware of when responding from an emotional state. Reflecting on the bigger picture objectively on a regular basis.

By no means is reflective practice limited to office jobs. It applies and should be taken into account across all professions, particularly by individuals with influential roles in society.

In fact, a few examples of influential roles in society that continue to adopt and benefit from regular reflective practice habits are politicians, healthcare workers, and teachers.

2. Emotional intelligence and higher self-awareness

The more you look back on experiences in your personal or work life using reflective practice , the more your consciousness will expand.

Self-awareness is a state of consciousness-a form of meditation in itself by reflecting from a non-judgmental point of view most of the time. The more you become aware of your thoughts, actions, and surroundings, the more resilient you are going to become in handling all the stressors that come your way in life.

As your awareness grows, as a human being, you will also get to know your real limits and abilities that you would otherwise overestimate or underestimate in advance.

Knowing that you can objectively look back on any situation in your life and take corrective action will give you increased trust and emotional intelligence in any area of your life to take more positive risks and steps!

3. Healthier connections

Your relationships also benefit, be it with yourself or others, from reflective practice .

Nowadays, the issue with relationships is the lack of effective communication and our over-reliance on assumptions. Many individuals tend to believe what others think or feel and, in return, expect others to know what they expect from others and their lives.

Sorry to say, relying on assumptions and expectations, as assumptions are often wrong and expectations are often broken, will almost always lead to feelings of disappointment.

But don’t fret! Take a second to reflect on what’s happening if you snap on people easily, take things personally all the time, or notice a drift in any of your close relationships, be it your marriage or with other close family or friends.

You may wish to be a counsellor of your own. Sit down either alone or as a couple and understand the underlying reasons behind any communication breakdown (assumptions and expectations) that each of you has.

To understand the restrictive thoughts and beliefs that have held you back from experiencing breakthroughs in your personal life, you can apply the same process to yourself. Not only will you mend your rocky internal or external relationships by doing so, but as your self-awareness and trust grow, you will cultivate stronger emotions of joy and love.

Read on to find out exactly how you can get started and transform your life if you want all of these benefits in your life.

What it takes you to unlock your potential

Different philosophers, mental health professionals, and educational theorists have brought forward theories over the years as to how to apply reflective practice .

However, when participating in a reflective review, I’m going to present to you the two most popular and valuable methods most people use and refer to today.

1. Terry Borton’s Reflective Practice Model

Terry Borton’s most basic model of reflective practice is that of (1970). The Borton model is the simplest and most straightforward model that you can understand and implement.

A) What?

The most important questions to begin with are “what.” By providing you with the facts of a situation, they will help you describe the experience you are looking back on.

Ask yourself, for instance: What happened? What was the result of the experience that I had? In that situation, what did I or other individuals do? What is the reason why I look back on this specific moment in time?

B) So What?

Your critical analysis of the situation comes next. What lessons can you learn and understand from what happened and what corrective measures can you become aware of that will assist you to approach the situation differently in the future?

Start your chain of questions with a question like “So what?” As you continue trying to analyse, question the position and work your way into detail.

You may want to proceed along these lines, for instance:

So, at the moment I’m thinking back, what was my emotional state? At that time, what were my thoughts and feelings and how did I feel afterwards? Did I feel different or the same?

First, what were the implications of my acts, or of not taking action at the moment? Have I upset somebody with what I’ve done or said? If I intervened or spoke up, could I prevent something from happening? From my words or actions, what did others understand or conclude?

Go on, so what positive lessons from this moment can I learn? What do I notice from my behaviours and behaviour and from others’ responses that can help me shift my potential perspective?

The “So what??” list. Questions remain limitless, but you would almost definitely be able to handle a chunk of your logical, objective thinking with the above trio.

C). Now What?

Finally, the stage is where you determine action actions to resolve what you have learnt from the experiences learned and understood implications. In any particular circumstance in your life, taking different steps can almost certainly lead to new consequences, and this is what you want to watch out for.

Continue to question yourself, for instance: Now, what will most definitely happen if I did one thing over the other? If I were to do something or hold back, what will happen? The measures in action can I prioritise? Continue in such lines.

2. Reflective Loop by Gibbs

The Graham Gibbs model is another useful tool for you to turn to. Most other styles of reflective practice today are based on Terry Borton’s job.

The paradigm of Graham Gibbs (1988) is among the most common models used today to focus on job conditions and to understand them.

Having said that, it is also possible to adapt the model to your personal life.

To introduce the Gibbs Reflective Loop, below are the required steps:

1. Description-Describe what took place?

2. Feelings: What did you think and feel?

3. Assessment: What was positive and negative in the situation?

4. Analysis-What meaning will the condition render you of?

5. Conclusion: What more were you prepared to do?

6. Action Plan- What would you do if it comes up again?

You will add the same train of thinking and questions as the Borton Model here. Gibbs only breaks down the categories in more depth for you.

For most of your problems, the flexible approach

You are now trained with how to apply your life’s reflective exercise, while I’m sure you’re telling yourself when a reflective analysis will be best. And I have it covered for you.

Ideally, after you have cooled down from some particular circumstance, be it hours, days, or weeks after a case, reflective work is carried out. You will better perform an impartial, non-bias analysis of any experience or circumstance of your life only from a non-emotional state.

That said, subjective feedback exist, too. When the passions are already pumping and running fast after an encounter, subjective evaluations take place. You should also decide how you actually believe and what implicit biases emerge during an encounter or case, when the subconscious automatically distorts truth against your skewed views.

A subjective analysis, though, is not a must and is merely complimentary to an analytical review to provide you with a clearer overall image and interpretation of stuff. You would then carry out an analytical reflection until the feelings cool down.

Applying is Easier than you Think,

Now for the fantastic news! Any time and wherever, at home or work and even when exercising and commuting, you can actually perform a reflective analysis. Call it yourself!

You may imagine entering or creating a reflection community within your company in job settings.

Reflection groups are gaining popularity today as they encourage you to honestly address work scenarios with peers in order to collect positive input from conversations conducted. It is probably safest to find and devote some quality time to yourself while you are at home. In your own reflective book, you may also choose to publish. From your mindless tasks, the best time can also come!

Therefore, while you are scrolling via social media or bingeing on Netflix, if you ever catch yourself at home daydreaming, why not use your moment more effectively instead and save a few minutes of reflection? In addition to adding to your personal growth, you’ll also feel much better about yourself as a sloth.

• Final Thought

A Basic Human need is the need for growth and progress, and you can now have all the evidence you need to tick the checkbox of reflective practice.

Reflecting on your existence can not only fulfil your emotional needs, but you are also always one step closer to unlocking your fullest ability as a human being as you begin to understand, discover, and affect your underlying thinking processes.