Social media paired with the evolution of cell phones has significantly hindered our ability to live in the present moment. It’s made it near impossible to simply just take a few moments out of our day to sit with our own thoughts.
When was the last time you were bored, like really bored? Remember what it was like (anybody born before the mid 90s) to actually be bored?!?
The average attention span of an adult in today’s society (per a few different articles that I came across) is around 8 seconds. Apparently a goldfish has a longer attention span (around 9 seconds) than us these days.
Over the years there’s been a wave of different apps that have come out, as well as more content focusing on improving your life and mental focus through activities such as yoga, guided meditation, brain games and so on.
But do these methods really work?
Have you ever really stuck with a meditation app for more than a few weeks (if that) consistently?
More likely than not, the answer for the large majority of people is no.
Luckily, there’s a better way (although, I am a huge proponent of yoga, meditation and brain games :D)
Enter the secret power of reflection.
Through reflection you can gain all that you may be seeking. From reducing stress, feeling more fulfilled and being more appreciative of your life, to increasing your ability to focus while simultaneously coming to a realization on what’s most important in the present for yourself as well as in the very near future.
F THE BS: It’s time to elevate your life to the next level
So how does it work?
There’s no one size fits all approach to tapping into your reflecting potential. Personally, I would say once a week, maybe even once every other week, I intentionally set aside time to do nothing more than sit alone in a calm environment with just my thoughts.
Quick and obvious disclaimer: Just like anything worth doing/having in life, if you don’t allocate the time necessary to reflect, or don’t make a serious and conscious effort to incorporate the exercise into your habits, you’ll never get the chance to enjoy the incredible impact that it could have on your life.
The amount of time you spend doing this is totally up to you. You can always start small and grow from there. Heck, sometimes my most profound discoveries come to me within the first few moments of reflecting.
So what really happens when you reflect?
Taking the time to just sit with your thoughts is a major accomplishment that you should be very proud of implementing into your life (remember our friend the goldfish who’s attention span beats ours?).
When you sit quietly with your thoughts (relaxing your facial features as well as your shoulders and the rest of your body), without judging them, you begin to open the eye of your mind. Similar to when you shower or the few minutes before you fall asleep (the moments when social media and your phone are not in use, ironic or not?) thoughts on top of thoughts fill your head. It’s like a never ending train track that’s paved with one thought after the other, sometimes related to stress while other times completely random.
If you can endure this initial phase when reflecting, and take a step back in your mind from “being” these thoughts and instead begin to “watch” them, your trail of thought will start to slow down. You’ll be able to begin seeing the forest for the trees.
When you achieve this state of mind (it’s not that hard, it just takes a little bit of practice, persistence and consistency), you’ll discover and connect certain dots together that you might’ve never connected before (or even come up with the idea or thought of connecting).
I cannot stress enough how vital this tool has been for me throughout the last few years of my life. It’s a groundbreaking and revolutionary strategy (at least it has been for me!) that can take you deep into your subconscious mind and allow you to extract thoughts, memories, feelings, emotions, experiences, and ideas and bring them to the surface, to your conscious state.
With this newfound ability you’ll inevitably gain invaluable insights that will elevate and accentuate your life for the better, while organically discovering ways to see and handle all of life’s situations more clearly.
“Time and reflection change the sight little by little ’till we come to understand.” – Paul Cezanne