How To Downshift and Welcome Reflection Into Your Busy Life
“I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately… to front only the essential facts of life … and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived.”
- Henry David Thoreau
Why should one incorporate reflection into ones life?
It’s a good question, especially in our already jam-packed lives.
At it’s core, reflection time requires a different kind of thinking that what we’re used in our productivity-focused world.
Our minds often resemble a frantic race, tuned to operate as fast and effectively as possible. Great for many things, until we found we have driven 100kph down the wrong road.
Contemplation is when we temporarily pull over and check the map to make sure we’re going the right way. The aim is the increase your depth of experience in contrast to simply reacting to life.
Here’s are 4 methods from the book “Stepping Back” by Joseph L. Badaracco to help you build a reflective practice.
1. Mental Meandering
The simplest form we can start with; simply letting your mind wander for some time.
It can come in a few forms.
Simply sitting back and observing your surroundings is a great start, whether at work or at home. Paying soft attention to what you’re feeling at that moment can also help diminish the power those feelings may have over you.
This can be challenging, especially in the thick of the day, where are our minds are mid-race and a pitstop may be difficult to accept.
One trick I find is to take out a journal and simply write whatever I’m thinking into it. This way you get the feeling of ‘productivity’ by physically writing something tangible and ‘doing’ with the benefit of downshifting for a bit.
2. Slow Down
This is the basic idea of noticing something you are doing, consciously doing it more slowly, and simply noticing what you experience.
In Stepping Back, one manager described how he and his wife would say the word ‘behold’ out loud whenever their young child would do something special notable to them.
This simple method would snap them out of automatic-mode and bring mindful attention to whatever their child was doing.
Again, this can also be a form reflection can also be diary keeping.
As Anaïs Min writes,
“We write to taste life twice, in the moment and in retrospect”
One in five managers stated in keeping a journal as the very act of keeping a diary — taking the time, sitting down, writing by hand — was an exercise in slowness for them.
As one manager put it, “My goal in life is to figure out on a daily basis how to slow down and to slow myself down.”
3. Turning to Nature
“Remember how small a part you are of universal nature; how small a moment of the whole duration is appointed for you.”
- Marcus Aurelius
Psychologists, use the word biophilia to describe how the experience of nature can put you in a contemplative frame of mind.
Via the way our ancient ancestors evolved in close proximity to nature, it’s no wonder pets enhance our lives. Even hospital patients with a window have been onbserved to recover more quickly.
We don’t have to don our boots and go for a hike during our lunch break though. Simply gazing out the window at a tree, going for a swim in the pool or even having some desk plants around can do the trick.
4. Celebrate
This form of contemplate I, and I’m sure many others, struggle with the most is taking the time to note your achievements over a period of time.
The constant expectation and indeed willingness to improve oneself can ultimately become destructive if not kept in check.
The Japanese of course have a word for this: kaizen
Kaizen: The basic idea is a never-ending and endless search for improved performance.
Starting this exercise will also begin to break the negative-erring, thought-pistes of the mind and facilitate a more positive and grateful approach to your life.
Though reflection can be a serious affair, as it sometimes should be, celebrating life can give a much need sense of fresh air from the more somber thoughts.
Celebrating your wins not only will boost your morale on how far you’ve come but will encourage you to keep going when times get tough. A critical exercise for the ambitious mind.
In order to facilitate this for myself, I have created templates within Grid Diary with writing prompts to get me started.
Questions such as “What was something challenging that happened today which you are grateful for?” — act as guideposts and immediately prompt a reflective mindset.
Don’t Just Do Something
“Meandering, slowing down, experiencing nature, and celebrating can filter out some of the stimuli that constantly bombard us.”
It can be difficult to fight the small voice in your head which inevitably will pipe up and criticise you for wasting time.
Giving into this pressure comes at a price.
These methods can be critical to not only gain a deeper experience of your life but to keep too much of your life from going by in a highly-productive blur.
They’ll give you purposeful time and meaning to stopping, observing and simply not-doing for a short while.
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