In preparation for writing this post, I looked up the official Google dictionary definition of the word “reflection,” which is - "serious thought or consideration."
Then I saw what Google’s example sentence for the word reflection is and literally LAUGHED OUT LOUD. Get this - it’s, "he doesn't get much time for reflection."
Well Google, that sentence just about sums it up. Not many of us seem to “get” much time for reflection, or a better way of saying it would be, not many of us “take” much time for reflection.
In our society, taking time to reflect is treated as a waste of time instead of a necessity. We live in a culture that values busyness, through things such as long hours spent working, a million fleeting extracurricular activities, and technology demanding our constant attention through inescapable screens.
The irony is that while we have never had so much access to information, we have never had so little time to absorb all of this information and reflect upon all of these things we are constantly seeing and hearing.
Our brains are always receiving new information, from what we read in a book (or more likely an online article) or hear on a podcast, from conversations we have or overhear, from what we see in nature, etc., but we often don’t give ourselves time to process and just “think about” the information and how we want to apply it to our lives. As a result, the information passes us by without adding much if any value to our lives.
When we acquire information, if we let it settle in our brains long enough to be vetted and then take root, it becomes knowledge. But what good is that knowledge if we don’t take the time to reflect on it and use it to help us understand more about life and about ourselves.
In his book Blink, Malcolm Gladwell sums this up perfectly - “We have come to confuse information with understanding. The key to good decision making is not knowledge. It is understanding. We are swimming in the former. We are desperately lacking in the latter.”
Gaining understanding = a richer life. I’ve chosen to take some small steps to help myself move toward the goal of understanding more by taking more time for reflection. I often give myself moments of space, such as being on the Metro without looking at my phone, or riding in the car without the radio on, or going for a walk without a podcast or music filling my ears, or my favorite, sitting and coloring a coloring page in silence. Sometimes I even just sit on the couch and stare into space while letting my thoughts come and go.
These moments give me a break from the constant input and allows my brain to “catch up” on whatever it wants to think back to, ponder over, or even daydream about.
Prior to taking these steps I always thought I was just really bad at remembering things, but now I see that I was not giving myself the time to reflect, and thus, the input of information was not given the opportunity to become knowledge, and was certainly not given the chance to become understanding. It’s no wonder I had trouble recalling things.
Often in these places of mental space I’ll find myself naturally reflecting on something I had heard or read earlier, and it’s no longer just in one ear and out the other. My memory is much improved these days.
Our brains want this time. Our brains NEED this time.
Particularly in the midst of this unusual but still potentially busy holiday season, consider taking time to reflect. Turn off the phone and TV, take a walk, break out a coloring page, or just stare into space, and let your mind do what it does best.
Let’s end this crazy year with deep reflection so that we can have a greater understanding of the world and ourselves. Let’s be ready for a new year and better days ahead.
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