They say, “We need to reflect on our life.”

What does that mean?

This “reflection”, what does it do? 

Why should we do it?

How and when should we do it?  On-going?  Random? Weekly?

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Reflection, in its simplest form, allows you to “take a break”, either from your project, or gives you a time-out from your daily grind and the turmoil of your busy schedule.

It gives you space to “breathe” for a moment, so you can “take a step back” and sort-of assess “where you are” in this exact bit of time.

Occasionally everyone needs “a break” from ACTION.  It helps us to regenerate and make more sound judgments.

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Reflection can help you to “self-heal” by allowing you to consider your true state of being in this particular moment.

We can write our goals, and our Vision for our future, and at the same time reflect on our life in this moment, to see if we’re getting off-track, and to see what obstacles have cropped up. 

This reflection time can show us what changes we can consider making in our day-to-day living.

This will help you be in a place to realize there’s a need to re-think things, clear out the problems.  This is also a way to keep constant improvement in your life.

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Have you ever lay down on the ground and looked up at the clouds?  When I was a kid, things like that came naturally.  I loved it.  Well, it’s awesome for us today, too.  Hard to squeeze into our day, I know.  But it will do wonders for our life if we do things like this!

Have you ever sat beside a river and creek (or the ocean, for sure!) and watched the water, and listened to it as it flowed across the rocks or other intrusions in its path?  Ahhhh….

Have you taken the time to relax in a quiet place alone, and just sit and ponder… dream… ?

You can make these feelings happen when you decide to.  It seems we just don’t take the time to slow down enough to decide to do it. 

If you begin the habit of taking moments at random times—weekly would be good, your lifestyle will begin to change.  Your priorities will begin to shift. 

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In reading an article of Institute of Functional Medicine from earlier this year, there are several ideas of changes that can be made in our lives that can affect our healing.

It suggests some of those things to be prayer, expressing gratitude, mindfulness, and yoga, among other things.  It states that these things can improve our mental state, and also our physical health, plus speed health recovery especially from a stress-induced lifestyle.

It suggests that it benefits us to take a few moments in the day to reflect on any accomplishment, also suggesting listening to music, reading inspirational writings, and praying, with prayer having an undeniable impact on health.

It says that practices of mindfulness and meditation have both been shown to benefit blood pressure management. 

It found that prayer and spirituality showed the benefits of giving feelings of hope, patience and tolerance, and that church attendance was associated with lower incidence of all-cause mortality.  It found that those with religious affiliations had higher levels of purpose, belonging and resilience.

It found that social relationships play a strong role in maintaining positive emotions, counteracting negative stress responses, including anger.  It also found that feelings of optimism, satisfaction and purpose are associated with better cardiovascular outcomes.

If you want things to be different in your life…if you want your life to be less hectic, less rushed, less missing out on important life happenings… now would be a good time to change some habits.

Make the Decision.  Do some things.  If you make up your mind, and make changes, it will change your life.

Want to try Reflection?

Journaling is an excellent way to reflect, and can be done every day.  It’s very valuable in keeping yourself grounded, and in just keeping your life on track for the direction you want it to go.  You could Journal weekly, maybe schedule in some time on a certain day of the week.

I don’t want to be known as the mom who rushed through everything in her whole life, and was always behind… oh… I guess it’s too late for that.  So I’ve missed out on lots of instances of the grandchildren’s lives.  Well, their parents too.

Life in the business world grew to feel like a burden over the years; that’s how I knew I had gone far enough with it.  Actually, I went a little further than I would have ever wanted to go. 

I could have stopped and reflected occasionally on how I was living during those days.  I never thought I had the time to do that.

When it’s that very thing that could have given me more life, and could have given me life in areas where I missed out because I was so “busy”.

But the truth is, I had already passed the time that the changes could have reclaimed those days.

I’ve been reflecting the past two or three years, being out of the real estate business world for that length of time.  I’ve been reflecting and re-arranging my life.  Habits are hard to change.  It takes time for you to realize for sure “where you are” and “where you want to go”.  Then it’s up to us to make that Decision, then to go there.

The main key is, First of all, before anything else, to figure out what you really want in your life, and think… Really Think … how you really want your life to look… and Decide … Do you Really want that?

If you do, make a few goals.  Then

Just take a couple of small steps toward those goals.

That’s how you do it when you’re so very busy.

It doesn’t have to be done all at once.  (Well, actually, it just can’t be done all at once.  Your mind has to have time to catch up to your heart). 

The small steps help you reflect again on where you are.  And it won’t take long before you’ll see you’ve made some progress.  That’s how you build your life.  And that’s how reflecting on your life at different times, helps you.

So; Figure out what you want your life to look like.  (Don’t say “it’s impossible”… Would that be True?  We pretty-much ALWAYS have choices.

We may not like our options, but you never know what a difference a concrete decision will make, followed by a very few steps in the right direction.  And, that’s the truth.

Second; Reflect on Where you are, alongside where you want to be.  Just see how much difference there is in those two things, and see what small things could give you the feeling of going toward what you really want.

Third; Reflect on what challenges you see that are already there, or that could pop up and derail you.  Think about how you’ve overcome challenges in the past and see if you can use those same strategies now.  Or just consider deeply how you can gradually overcome one challenge after another, to clear your path a little bit.

Fourth, Put a reminder on your calendar to measure yourself after a month.  At the end of that month, Reflect on where you are—see if you made a small bit of progress. 

Think if you could have done something differently with some small tweak in some area.  (Don’t let this keep you up a tight; just set aside a little time, and consider it.  Then let it go.)

Think about if you have cultivated a new small habit, or think about if you have strengthened or developed yourself in some way in the past month.  (Repeat this at least every month)

Fifth, Remember your mood a month ago.  Think of all the descriptions of it that you can.  Compare it with your mood now.

Sixth, Write down as many good things as you can about any changes you’ve made, or just even planned to make.

Then write down in present tense, your life as you want to see it, except write it in present tense as if you were living it right now.

Please be patient with yourself.

You can improve your life.

You can have a more peaceful life—while being productive.

You can do more things that you want to do.

And for the most important foundation for change in my life, I talk to God about it, and ask for his guidance.

Thank you for reading; I appreciate you.

If you would like for me to help you, September will have a reduced price for coaching.

Typically the cost of 4 sessions is $300, but for the month of September, it will be $250.

This includes an introductory meeting (no charge) and four 45-minute coaching sessions.

Sign up here!

Prayers for your Best Life.

Sharon