Episode 162: What Do We Mean by “Reflection”

A listener of this podcast asked us to explain what we mean when we tell people to “reflect.”  When we’re trying to understand ourselves and life, we tend to ask ourselves “why” questions.  Why is this happening to me?  Why can’t I come up with an answer?  Why did so-and-so do this to me?  The list is endless.  “Why?” takes us in the wrong direction because it gets our personal thinking going — we start scrambling through the memory library looking and feeling worse and worse.  Reflection means wondering, being curious about what we don’t know or see yet, keeping our minds open for insights, inspiration, fresh ideas, staying in the present moment.  Everyone can recall “effortless” times in their life when things just flowed.  Those times seem “magical;” they are the actual magic of living naturally in the present, in a state of reflection, trusting that you’ll know what to do and knowing, when it comes to mind, that it’s right.  Answers that emerge from reflection feel obvious and simple, no second-guessing.