The Importance of Self-Reflection

Hey guys,

Today I am going to be writing on the importance of self-reflection we live in a society where everything is about being extroverted about telling the world about every piece of movement going on in your day. Between Facebook, Twitter and YouTube there is an endless source of ways to tell everyone about who you are, where your from and what is going on. We are in a society where the majority of the people have the Internet on their phone, a facebook app, and a way to be connected 24/7 you honestly can be surround by people in one way or another at all times. But is this necessarily a good thing? When you spend so much time trying to be liked, be wanted or to be whatever what are you actually missing out on? I myself and an extroverted person basically means I get categorized. People believe that being extrovert means you have to be friendly and outgoing, this is somewhat true but not the full truth. Extroversion is someone who gets energized by people. When we are alone or when I am alone I tend to get bored, I would much rather talk to another human then sit alone. "Extroverts often think best when they are talking. Concepts just don't seem real to them unless they can talk about them; reflecting on them isn't enough." that is an interesting idea. I agree and disagree with this statement. Further more we seek out being around people and in this day and age we are considered to be the standard of youth. I love being an extrovert and talking to people and being surround by people at all times BUT there is some truth in thinking through things alone, spending some time in reflection and figuring out who you are.

Being an extrovert I love to be around people 24/7 and most of the time I will have to remind myself that yes it is good to be around people but I do need some of my time alone to think about what is actually going on. When I was suffering through my depression I spent a little to much time alone but I am starting to realize that being alright with being alone at times or being self-reflective is a healthy thing. The scary thing with being extroverted is that I often find joy or figure out who I am through other people rather then sitting down and thinking to myself. This is not always the healthiest thing. The older I get the more I realise the importance of sitting down and just thinking about my values, morals, and who I think I am. As I battled through my depression I always knew when it was getting worse and worse because I would lose my motivation to see people. I am through the worst of it but that does not mean that it still does not creep up on me sometimes. However there is a huge difference between feeling alone and taking the time to be alone. I think one of the biggest things that pushed my depression further and further in was that my entire life I have ALWAYS found comfort in other people so when I would have a healthy amount of alone time my thoughts would change from reflection to doubt that no one want to see me or spend time with me or care. Now I am still working through my depression but I am starting to understand that 1. You cannot be full extrovert or else there is a fear of getting depressed easy and 2. There needs to be value of self-reflection / alone time.

So what is the importance of self-reflection? Well it is as simple as this no matter who you talking to, no matter who you think things out with or anything like that they are always going to have a small bias no matter what. In this day an age we need to take the time off without a phone, without a computer with anything and just focus on yourself. It is kind of a scary thing at times it seems easy but to actually go and be disconnected from the world around you is a fearful thing. Over this Christmas break being separated from my campus and my friends I had sometime to reflect on who I was and what I stood for. It was an interesting thing because I sat there and was not 100% happy with who I was and who I was becoming. When you sit down and actually reflect on yourself you start to notice trends that are happening. One for me is the trend of getting my arrogance back and not in a good way, a trend of starting to make girls a competition again, and a trend of no having my life on track. Self-reflection is only good if you actually have something to change in you're life if you are 100% happy with where you are at. See me I am not entirely happy with where I am at so when I had time to self-reflect I started to think about:

1. Where I wanted my 2011 year to go

2. How to be more selective with females (and also to stay away more)

3. What relationships and friendship I needed to fix

4. What friend I was being

I do not claim to be perfect but with a little self-relfection I am going to try and be a better man and a better friend. Take some time to self-reflect today and see what you find!

Goodbye for now,

Christian Sawka