The 6 Concepts of Self Reflection

The process of self reflection is more aligned with a lifestyle.

We become more self Aware.

Self Awareness leads to more alignment with our purpose, better boundaries, more ease through relationships, greater self worth and the list could go on and on.

One of the greatest things I believe we can do for ourselves, and others is to become more self aware. To actually invest time and energy into learning about who we really are and how we interact in the world.

I think the biggest hurdle for people is why.

Why would I start to look at my life in a different way?

I’ll be honest, there is nothing easy about choosing the path of awareness, in fact to begin with it is incredibly messy and unpleasant. Having to look at yourself, your relationships and your life with Radical honesty is enough to make most of us sick.

Yet, in the same breath self awareness offers us life with the greatest rewards. The reward of presence, to enjoy the small moments, to rest into states of awe and gratitude toward the life we have. A life of awareness allows us to see, accept and transform difficult emotions and aspects of ourselves.

Transformation into something worth fighting for, something worth living for.

Self awareness allows us to take action in our lives that we can truly be proud of.

Self awareness is the path to freedom. Through our chosen (self reflective) discipline, comes true personal freedom.

I would like to share with you my personal understanding of self reflection and the 6 concepts to start unpacking who we are and how to live a more self aware life.

This has come from my own learning, my process of self reflection, my awakening and ultimately my personal transformation.

You may resonate with some and not all, you may resonate with none, you may resonate with all. Healthy awareness is the ability to question, listen, learn and decipher for ourselves what feels right.

The purpose of this blog is to share and offer any form of support that may help you discover the greatness of who you truly are.

The Radical Awareness principles of Self Reflection:

Self Reflection looks different for all of us. The process is to understand how you work and what becoming more self aware means to you.

You may like to start with a few questions,

Am I willing to honestly look at myself and my life?

How do I truly feel about change?

Am I committed to my own positive growth?

Can I understand that things don't usually unfold how I think they should?

Am I ready to start fully trusting myself and the process?

Am I ready to love myself fully for who I am?

Being Radically honest is an essential pillar to self Reflective work. Initially, due to our early life conditioning we may hold quite a righteous view of ourselves, and therefore struggle to ever see our own faults. On the other hand, we may only see our faults and always perceive ourselves as a victim. The essence of becoming self aware is recognising that in fact we are both.

What is key is the ability to reflect from the middle space.

There are six main concepts. These concepts tend to overlap each other in some way, and together they provide an array of tools and questions to unpack our lives and the myriad of situations and relationships that are constantly presenting wonderful growth opportunities for us, if we are willing and able to accept the task.

The 6 Main Concepts:

Interoception “8th sense”

Difficult Questions

Daily Micro Reflections

Empathy

Personal Accountability

Taking Action

Interoception is the ability to know what is going on within our own body (including physical, mental, emotional and spiritual) Interoception is the felt experience that we can know ourselves from the inside out.

Examples may include the ability to sense our heart beat, or notice changes in our breathing. We may notice our jaw tightens when we are around a particular person, or how our heart softens and feels warm when we hug a beloved pet.

Interoception is an ability that can be trained to radically subtle levels where we become very aware of what is happening from the inside out.

Interoception is very important when we start to become more self aware, mainly because without a degree of interoception, we basically don't know who we are, without knowing who we are we have no idea what to do.

It may seem logical, and that is because it is logical and something that is built into humans for very beneficial reasons. Including basic safety.

Yet if interoception is not nourished and supported it is easy to lose this sense and be relatively disconnected from our feeling sense. Where we lack the ability to feel our own bodies with a sense of curiosity and patience, we may feel angry or even scared toward our own body, or we have decided it holds less importance.

Without interoception we lack a deep understanding for how sacred the human body is. I believe this is truly one of the most damaging things that has happened to the human race and has manifested in many harmful and toxic ways.

This is why interoception is concept one.

Once we know how to sense our own being, we can start to feel truly safe within ourselves, which allows us to go deeper into the self reflective work.

The second concept is Difficult Questions, this is where we have come to a point of feeling safe and connected to ourselves once again. Now we can start to challenge ourselves and ask these bigger questions, that in most cases are really quite difficult (or lets say, something we may prefer to avoid).

This is the place where radical honesty is front and center. By having the strength to look at ourselves in the mirror as everything we are, have been and desire to be.

The third concept is Daily Micro Reflections, meaning once we have started to look at all the difficult aspects of who we are and what we believe, we then begin to translate this into our daily life and interactions. Unwinding the conditioned behaviour that shows up in our daily movements, behaviors, reactions and interactions with others. We start to become curious and notice why we are the way we are.

The fourth concept is Empathy. Empathy for the whole. This refers to having greater understanding and empathy toward ourselves and toward others involved in our personal world. Empathy also expands outward to understand how we are connected and interconnected to all beings on this beautiful planet, including the planet herself.

Empathy does not mean we have no boundaries or always consider someone else's point of view before our own. Empathy is leaning into a deep knowing and trust that there is a way to understand all perspectives, there is always a way to love and hold our own truth and boundary.

Empathy has integrity and is a profound strength on the path of self awareness.

The fifth Concept is Personal Accountability, quite simply put, we need some form of accountability. As humans we are wired for connection and this is incredibly true when it comes to self Reflection. Having meaningful connections with others who are on a similar path can be one of the most beneficial resources to maintain the strength to keep going. Someone who can cheer you on, yet will still call you on your sheet. What's important about this type of relationship is that it is reciprocal, meaning it is a balanced relationship between two people where they each have an equal voice. Where there is a power imbalance, accountability doesn't work.

The final concept is Taking Action. Theory is great, discussing reflective processes is interesting, policing others feeds the ego. Yet actually diving into the knitty gritty of our own practice can be the hardest.

In fact it's a fascinating process of reflection in itself watching ourselves trying to avoid reflection. Taking action is the most important thing we can do to actually experience the change we so long for.

So I guess the real question is…

What does taking action to become more radically aware look like for you?