Tag Archives: reflection

Embrace the new year and take the time to be renewed and reborn

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Embrace the new year and take the time to be renewed and reborn.

—Calm app Reflection

Image from Unsplash by Lukas Szmigiel

It is very common this time of year for many of us to review and reflect on the past year. TV shows and all types of media provide us with the top stories, photographs, and events that impacted and shaped us. How have you changed? What have you learned? What wisdom have you gained?

Instead of looking within, we may wish to look outside at nature’s mirror for guidance on living.  What can you observe regarding how our natural world reveals clear examples of ongoing growth, renewal, and transformation?

EXERCISE:

Sometime this week, get out of your home and your vehicle and step more fully into the natural world.

Take a walk, visit a body of water, look up at the sky and even try a forest bath.

What lessons are being offered to help you more fully embrace the year ahead?

Let us keep our silent sanctuaries, for in them the eternal perspectives are preserved

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“Let us keep our silent sanctuaries, for in them the eternal perspectives are preserved.”

—Etienne Pivert de Senancour, 19th Century French essayist and philosopher

Image from Unsplash by David Edelstein

Where do you go to do a little soul searching? Where are the silent sanctuaries in which you can reflect on the most important aspects of your life? How often and how much time do you commit to these inner journeys?

Our new home in Pennsylvania has a loft that, with a set of two doors closed, provides for the silence and solitude I seek to do some of my most valuable reflective work. I’ve also found that walking in the very early morning hours makes most places a silent sanctuary to examine one’s eternal perspectives.

EXERCISE:

What are some of your own silence-seeking strategies and tactics that you preserve and protect to recharge and do your most important work? Please reply to this post with the approaches that work best for you.

Friday Review: Reflection

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FRIDAY REVIEW: REFLECTION

How often do you step outside your routine just to reflect on your life? Here are a few reflection-related posts you may have missed.

 

“I have always tried to make room for anything that wanted to come to me from within.”

 

 

 

 

“Respect yourself enough to walk away from anything that no longer serves you, grows you, or makes you happy.”

 

 

 

 

“Don’t worry so much about knowing the right people. Just make yourself worth knowing.”

 

 

 

“Many of life’s treasures remain hidden because we never search for them.”

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“Many of life’s treasures remain hidden because we never search for them.”

—Andy Andrews, The Noticer

Image from Unsplash by Marten Newhall

Looking again and again at your everyday life is an interesting exercise. How much has it changed over the past year? Where has it gotten worse, stayed about the same, or improved? Where are you discovering lumps of coal, or finding diamonds?

Searching more carefully and deeply for the hidden treasures beyond our current outer and inner horizons is accessible to everyone. With the many challenges facing us over the past fifteen months, some have actually transformed their lives.

Just as an able sailor heads out to sea rather than remaining in the harbors of the past or perceived safety, we can all benefit from venturing beyond our current view of things.

EXERCISE:

How and in what ways can and will you lead your own search party to discover even more of the hidden treasures life has to offer?

“When making choices in life, combine cognitive, emotional, spiritual, intuitive, and social intelligence.”

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“When making choices in life, combine cognitive, emotional, spiritual, intuitive, and social intelligence.”

—Bill Burnett & Dave Evans, in Designing Your Life

Image from Unsplash by Matthew Henry

When you examine your humanness, what do you notice? Look again at your first answer and keep digging through your crust, your mantle, your outer core, and your inner core.

Where have you only glimpsed the precious resources within? Where are there new sources of heat, pressure, and magnetism within, waiting to be captured or released?

How would you rate yourself in relationship to your IQ and EQ? Instead of the old paradigms of intelligence, let’s simply determine our capacity to live better by embracing all aspects described in today’s quote.

EXERCISE:

Examine a few of the significant choices you have made this past year. How can the further development of your head, heart, and gut intelligence support you in making even wiser choices today and in the future?

“Reading can teach you the best of what others already know. Reflection can teach you the best of what only you can know.”

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“Reading can teach you the best of what others already know. Reflection can teach you the best of what only you can know.”

—James Clear, author, entrepreneur, and photographer

Image from Unsplash by Ben White

How are reading and reflecting a bit like eating and digestion?

Depending on what you read, you may consume both good and not so good nutrients. Just like reading the labels on packaged foods, we all need to be more discerning as to what we take into our minds as well as our bodies.

With many having made resolutions to be healthier and fit in 2021, we could all more carefully reflect on concepts worthy of digesting and assimilating into our lives.

EXERCISE:

How would greater selectivity in your reading and far more thoughtful reflection help you lead a more wonderful and wiser life?

FRIDAY REVIEW: REFLECTION

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FRIDAY REVIEW: REFLECTION

How often do you take some time to reflect on your life? Here are a few reflection-related posts you may have missed.

“It’s on the strength of observation and reflection that one finds a way.”

 

 

 

“There are two ways of spreading light: to be the candle or the mirror that reflects it.”

 

 

 

“Respect yourself enough to walk away from anything that no longer serves you, grows you, or makes you happy.”

 

 

 

 

“It’s hard to see your own face without a mirror.”

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“It’s hard to see your own face without a mirror.”

—Phil McGraw, American TV Personality “Dr. Phil”

Image from Unsplash by Laurenz Kleinheider

I recently facilitated a team-building workshop with one of my favorite clients. Half of the twelve participants had worked with me before. The other six were with me for the first time. The senior leader has been coaching each of them for more than a decade and he wanted to boost his efforts with this session.

We discussed a variety of topics, and did a strength/weakness exercise, which is fairly standard for such meetings. Surprisingly, the feedback and comments from their colleagues made an even bigger impression on the participants than most expected.

EXERCISE:

Where are or could you more fully use the people in your personal and professional communities as a mirror, to realize more of your fullest potential?

By going out of your mind you come to your senses

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“By going out of your mind, you come to your senses.”

—Alan Watts, 20th Century British-American philosopher

Image of a man facing the sunrise with arms outstretched

Image from Unsplash by Zac Durant

Have you ever considered that going out of our minds was a good thing?

Not in the One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest way, but in a quieting the inner voice/monkey mind way.

During a recent meditation session, the instructor led me through an exercise that focused on each of the five senses. With this shift of focus, I noticed a considerable reduction and even a few momentary stoppages of mental chatter and a greater sense of calm and presence.

EXERCISE:

Consider spending 60 seconds on each of your five senses. Make a note or two regarding what you perceived:

  • Sight
  • Hearing
  • Touch
  • Taste
  • Smell

Where in your life would going out of your mind and coming to your senses have the greater benefit?

The Most Important Things are the Hardest to Say

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“The most important things are the hardest to say, because words diminish them.”

—Stephen King, American Author of horror, suspense, and science fiction

Image from Unsplash by Aaron Burden

Last August, my wife Wendy and I took an extraordinary vacation with two friends. We went to Africa, Ireland, and Iceland.

As I so often do, I took a journal to capture our daily adventures, but found that I had surprisingly little interest in detailing our many wonderful experiences through the written word.

When I did write something, it felt like a recounting or summary of the days, and had none of the emotions and deep feelings of awe we experienced. I did, however, find that taking pictures lived up to the “thousand words” motto – and we sure took a bunch!

EXERCISE:

Reflect on some of the most important things in your life and consider how you experience them beyond the limits of any words. Feel free to reply to this post with your best description of what you observe, even if it falls a bit short of the full experience.