Why you should reflect at the end of the challenge

Self-reflection is a really important tool to use if you want to be the best version of yourself. By doing this, you are able to process any thoughts and feelings that you have and why you have them. This could be in relation to a specific event, like our walking challenge, or just at a set frequency, like at the end of each week.

Why is self-reflection important?

We live in a world where there is so much going on around us all the time. It can be difficult to find a little calm amongst the chaos. Thoughts fly through our brains at a million miles an hour and we take in so much information all the time. Scientists have found that an average person living today processes as much as 74GB of information every day, that’s the same amount as watching 16 films. To put this into perspective, this is the amount of information a highly educated person would have consumed in their entire lifetime 500 years ago.

Self-reflection is important as it helps us to find that calm. It gives us a chance to sort through our thoughts, observations and experiences, and make sense of them to create meaning. When we attach meaning to an experience, this helps us to learn, which will then form the basis of our future mindsets and actions.

How to reflect

There are so many different ways that you can reflect about yourself and your experiences. The way you reflect could be completely different to how someone else reflects. It’s great because it’s completely personalised to you. 

Here are some different tools that can help you to reflect:

• Journaling can help you to look back and see patterns in your habits and thoughts.
• Writing exercises – set a timer for 5-10 minutes and write down absolutely everything that comes to mind. These could be fleeting thoughts or ones that stick with me. Are there any patterns in what has come up? Which of these are important?
• We’ve just done a challenge about the importance of walking and how it helps you to take a step back, so why not take a walk in nature to reflect in a calm environment.
• Make sure you make a list of the important questions that you need to answer so that your reflection is guided. We have listed some questions below that will help you to reflect on the walking challenge.

Reflecting on the challenge

Now that the challenge is over, it’s a good idea to reflect on the progress you have made. The progress you have made is a very personal thing, so don’t compare it to others. If you have achieved even the smallest of improvements, that is something to celebrate. 

It’s not the time to let your daily walking routine slip either. It’s a habit that should be in your daily routine, but it takes time for a habit to form (anywhere upwards of 18 days, it varies person to person). A little movement can go a long way with your spinal health.

Answer these questions to help guide your reflection:

• What did you enjoy most about your walks?
• Is there anything you would you like to improve?
• What are your favourite walks that you’ve been on?
• How are you going to make sure that you continue with your daily walks?
• How did you feel walking in nature? Did you feel calmer and more at ease?

There are other questions you could ask yourself too, but hopefully these will give you a good starting point. 

Benefits of reflecting

There are two main benefits of self-reflecting that you will start to notice the more you practice it. 

1. Stronger decision making skills

The more that you self-reflect the better you will know yourself. You will know what decisions you have made in the past that gave you the outcome you wanted and the ones that didn’t. This will help you to streamline your internal decision making processes so that you can make them more simply.

2. Greater sense of self

Self-reflecting gives you a chance to silence any outside noise. You can focus on what you want and parts of your well-being like your energy levels and health status. This links to the benefit above. Once you have a greater sense of self and you know yourself better, you will have stronger decision making skills.

It’s important to be in the present moment, and self-reflection forces us to focus on what is happening in the present and how we are feeling. By doing this it will help us to be better in the future. It is a great tool to use for personal growth.

Make sure you continue to self-reflect as you go through life, not just at the end of the walking challenge. It’s not a habit that you will ever regret adopting.