self reflective writing prompts

self reflective writing prompts

Exploring Personal Growth through Self-Reflective Writing

1. The Power of Self-Reflection

Maintaining a personal journal or diary can provide just such a library, and it will often be the case that when rereading old entries, we are able to ‘relive’ events and the emotions that were experienced at the time. This can be an intense and immersive travel back into the past. David Barton (2002) in his book on life history and the ‘literacy of the self’ argues that keeping a journal is a fundamental aspect of creating one’s life story. He suggests that through the emotional release involved in writing, past events can become more recontextualized as they are seen in the light of the present self.

“What I thought I already knew becomes more intricate and complex when I express it on paper” (Carr & Kemmis, 1986, p.185). Kenneth Gergen (1994) has suggested that the creation of a written narrative can enhance our sense of self and identity. He argues that the very organization of an experience into a storyline can create a stronger self-narrative. Gergen also speaks of the value of having a personal library of narratives that can be used to reconstruct the past and to preserve and recreate different aspects of the self.

Let’s now explore the value of keeping a reflective journal or diary to see how it can encourage the process of personal growth and development. Keeping a journal can be a way of tracking the learning process because often, when we are prompted to write about events, we are forced to think about them more deeply than we otherwise might have done.

2. Uncovering Your Inner Thoughts and Emotions

The next experience starts with a verbal interview, during which the laboratory assistant asks how gamers feel approximately the approaching activity. They are asked to observe the Sparseness Topography Index (STI), which measures the range of spaces among phonemes or sentences, and a sentence with first-rate or low Sparseness Topography is written for them. The player is then separated right into a manage cluster, who are asked to definitely roleplay the person inside the virtual reality simulation, and a speculative cluster. Members of the suppositional cluster must attempt to change the personal attitudes and emotions of the control organization by seeing the STI and listening to the sentences which have been written via the laboratory assistant—although they don’t have any information approximately how attitudes and feelings were determined.

3. Gaining Clarity and Insight through Self-Reflective Writing

We are all familiar with that feeling of insight or clarity—a feeling that various writers have tried to capture with an equally varied terminology. Sometimes it’s an “aha moment,” “epiphany,” or “moment of clarity.” Regardless of the term used, this experience often occurs when we have a considerable amount of chunked or “messy” data that our brain needs to organize and make sense of. Without reflection, this sense-making process can occur haphazardly. When we let things sit and come back to them later, we engage in a process called “reflective digestion” in which our brain continues to try and make sense of the data even if we are not consciously thinking about it. With self-reflective writing, the learning environment can be replicated in which we provide our brain with sufficient time and a concrete record to facilitate the sense-making process. Through reflecting on our experience, we can move from fragmented understanding to a state of coherence and integration. This cognitive organization is what gives us a sense of clarity and often results in changes to our underlying schemas. An example of this may be a friend realizing through journal reflection that he has unfairly judged someone. This realization will stem from a comparative analysis of his experience with this person against fairly judging situations. As he weighs these two different sets of data, he will likely experience a state of cognitive dissonance and eventually a shift in beliefs. This shift represents a change to his schema for judging others and the cognitive dissonance can act as a catalyst for lasting change in behavior.

4. Overcoming Challenges and Limiting Beliefs

Identifying our fears and the conscious and subconscious beliefs we have about ourselves is the first step to changing them. Our attitudes and feelings about ourselves are the product of our experiences. The emotional charge attached to these experiences affects how we see and feel about ourselves. Whether positive or negative, we hold onto these beliefs, and they affect how we react to certain situations. Many of these beliefs don’t even belong to us; we don’t necessarily take them on because we believe them when we initially hear them. It’s more that we’ve been conditioned to think and behave in certain ways, and we identify these beliefs from being told the same thing over and over. Like if someone constantly told you that you’re too sensitive, you’d eventually form a belief about being a sensitive person. These beliefs have a profound effect on our behaviour, our thoughts, and how we see the world and we often accept them as being true without ever questioning if they are helping or hindering us. Any belief that takes away from who you really are (a unique and valuable being) would be considered a ‘limiting belief’. Once we understand that a belief is limiting, we are able to challenge it and work on changing it to a more positive and empowering belief. This helps us to get in touch with our authentic selves and move closer to being who we really want to be.

5. Transforming Your Life through Self-Reflection

Back in a time or situation when you have experienced change in yourself, there was probably a long period in which you were vaguely aware of the need to make changes. It is likely that changes would have been forced upon you at times, with some resistance and a certain amount of failure to truly change the old ways. If you were committed to the change, you would have reached a time when you could see what you really wanted, and that it was possible. This is the point of commitment to change. At this point, you can consider the person you are at the time, the person you wish to be, and the ways in which you can make the change. Self-reflection during this period may involve consideration of specific incidents that have led to the change in commitment, or some thought about how this change can be made most effectively. It is a valuable exercise in becoming more self-aware and proactive in your own development. Any self-reflection activity will be enhanced by recording and analysis of your thoughts and the changes in your thoughts over time which led to action.

If you are on a journey of personal growth, it is important to realize that there is no destination. The paths are many, often winding and taking us over old ground through new experiences. It is the process of continually moving forward, seeking new approaches or new understandings that is the essence of the journey. Yet there are times when we reach a turning point, a place that can be recognized as a beginning of an important new phase. These are the times when we can make best use of self-reflection. This chapter is about those turning points and the use of self-reflection in making the most of them.