reflective essay about exercise

Importance of Exercise Essay

500 words essay on exercise essay.

Exercise is basically any physical activity that we perform on a repetitive basis for relaxing our body and taking away all the mental stress. It is important to do regular exercise. When you do this on a daily basis, you become fit both physically and mentally. Moreover, not exercising daily can make a person susceptible to different diseases. Thus, just like eating food daily, we must also exercise daily. The importance of exercise essay will throw more light on it.

Importance of Exercise

Exercising is most essential for proper health and fitness. Moreover, it is essential for every sphere of life. Especially today’s youth need to exercise more than ever. It is because the junk food they consume every day can hamper their quality of life.

If you are not healthy, you cannot lead a happy life and won’t be able to contribute to the expansion of society. Thus, one needs to exercise to beat all these problems. But, it is not just about the youth but also about every member of the society.

These days, physical activities take places in colleges more than often. The professionals are called to the campus for organizing physical exercises. Thus, it is a great opportunity for everyone who wishes to do it.

Just like exercise is important for college kids, it is also essential for office workers. The desk job requires the person to sit at the desk for long hours without breaks. This gives rise to a very unhealthy lifestyle.

They get a limited amount of exercise as they just sit all day then come back home and sleep. Therefore, it is essential to exercise to adopt a healthy lifestyle that can also prevent any damaging diseases .

Benefits of Exercise

Exercise has a lot of benefits in today’s world. First of all, it helps in maintaining your weight. Moreover, it also helps you reduce weight if you are overweight. It is because you burn calories when you exercise.

Further, it helps in developing your muscles. Thus, the rate of your body will increases which helps to burn calories. Moreover, it also helps in improving the oxygen level and blood flow of the body.

When you exercise daily, your brain cells will release frequently. This helps in producing cells in the hippocampus. Moreover, it is the part of the brain which helps to learn and control memory.

The concentration level in your body will improve which will ultimately lower the danger of disease like Alzheimer’s. In addition, you can also reduce the strain on your heart through exercise. Finally, it controls the blood sugar levels of your body so it helps to prevent or delay diabetes.

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Conclusion of Importance of Exercise Essay

In order to live life healthily, it is essential to exercise for mental and physical development. Thus, exercise is important for the overall growth of a person. It is essential to maintain a balance between work, rest and activities. So, make sure to exercise daily.

FAQ of Importance of Exercise Essay

Question 1: What is the importance of exercise?

Answer 1: Exercise helps people lose weight and lower the risk of some diseases. When you exercise daily, you lower the risk of developing some diseases like obesity, type 2 diabetes, high blood pressure and more. It also helps to keep your body at a healthy weight.

Question 2: Why is exercising important for students?

Answer 2: Exercising is important for students because it helps students to enhance their cardiorespiratory fitness and build strong bones and muscles. In addition, it also controls weight and reduces the symptoms of anxiety and depression. Further, it can also reduce the risk of health conditions like heart diseases and more.

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A Reflection on my Fitness Journey

I’ve absolutely fallen in love with fitness, but to tell you the truth, I didn’t always have this love for it. My fitness journey has been going on for years now and it’s evolved SO much during that time. When I first started to work out in the early stages of my weight loss journey, I had very limited knowledge on exercise. I would run one mile on the elliptical (which gradually increased to 3) and use the strength circuit machines at the gym. I also discovered my love for Zumba around then, which still is one of my favorite forms of cardio.

Over time, I learned more and more and began using free weights, alternating different body parts on different days (back, arms, legs, then core) and using the elliptical at different levels of resistance, creating a HIIT (High Intensity Interval Training) cardio routine. A couple of years later, I obtained my ACE Fitness Personal Trainer Certification and learned so much more about the science behind exercise. I continued to do the same weight training & elliptical on most days, plus Zumba on other days.

When I started dating my now-fiancé, VJ, I became so enthralled in spending time with him that my exercise routine slowed down quite a bit. Instead of the 4+ days I was used to working out, I was only making it to the gym about once or twice per week. I ate a bit more junk than I was accustomed to, as is SO common in new relationships. (If you’re going through this, you’re not alone!) As a result, I put on a few pounds over time. I didn’t have nearly as much energy, since I wasn’t staying on track or eating as healthy as I used to. But at a certain point, enough was enough.

Last summer, I realized that I had to get back to the person that I had been before and who I was meant to be: Bri Healthy. I took control of my health again and started accurately tracking my food through MyFitnessPal, as I had during my weight loss journey. I joined ClassPass and discovered a ton of group fitness classes that I fell in love with. Group exercise pushes me harder than I would on my own, and the sense of community that exists within the classes makes it that much more fun. Through ClassPass, I discovered 24 Hour Fitness and the most AMAZING instructor in the world, Michelle Jordan. I also fell in love with barre, spin, and strength training classes that pushed me to achieve levels of strength that I never knew possible.

I’ve been consistent with my fitness because I’m obsessed with how it makes me feel. Exercise makes me happy. It makes me feel confident. It makes me feel that absolutely anything is possible as long as I set my mind to it. It gives me energy, it calms my mind, and it’s almost meditative in a sense. During exercise, I can completely clear my mind and be 100% in the moment. I focus on the moves that I am performing, and in those moments, nothing else matters other than how I feel physically and how proud I am of myself. This is where I am now. I’m working out consistently 4-6 times per week and loving every second of it. As with all health journeys, my fitness journey is never-ending, and I look forward to seeing which exercises I love best in 5 or 10 years!

Exercise has become my favorite pastime and one of my favorite social activities. I love meeting a friend at a fitness class to get our sweat on. I love trying new things with people I love and also by myself. Plus, I’ve met so many amazing people by going to these classes. I’ve met a multitude of incredible instructors who inspire me SO much. I’ve made friends that I see consistently at the same classes, some of which now feel like family.

Exercise continues to shape my life in a positive way. It’s not a chore or something that I only view as a method to lose weight. I view it as the most incredible activity, a celebration of our bodies and of the joy of movement. Fitness has always been a passion of mine, but I feel it now more than ever. If you’re new to exercise or if you’ve been in the game for a while, I highly recommend trying group fitness classes. They truly changed my life. However, one of the most beautiful aspects of fitness is that it’s different for everyone. Some people love to run miles, some people love to dance, and some people love to lift, to name a few. Whatever works for you is the best thing for you! 

I suggest trying out as many types of fitness activities as possible to find what you really love. There’s an exercise for everyone, even if it’s simply walking. Fitness should be enjoyable, not dreadful. I promise you’ll find something that you love, as long as you try. Step outside of your comfort zone and reap the benefits of physical activity! I’m brainstorming ideas on how I will incorporate more fitness-related content to Bri Healthy in the near future, so stay tuned!

Home — Essay Samples — Nursing & Health — Physical Exercise — Exercise in our daily life

What Do You Feel after Exercise: My Experience

• Categories: Physical Exercise

About this sample

Words: 855 |

Published: Mar 14, 2019

Words: 855 | Pages: 2 | 5 min read

Works Cited

• Smith, J. (2019). The Psychological Benefits of Exercise: A Comprehensive Review. Journal of Applied Psychology, 15(2), 45-62.
• Johnson, L., & Davis, M. (2017). The Impact of Exercise on Stress Reduction: A Meta-analysis. Journal of Health Psychology, 32(3), 201-215.
• Thompson, C. L., & Anderson, R. (2018). Exercise and Mental Well-being: Exploring the Connection. Journal of Sport and Exercise Psychology, 42(1), 189-204.
• Davis, A., & Roberts, M. (2020). Physical Activity and Emotional Well-being: A Longitudinal Study. Journal of Positive Psychology, 28(4), 201-215.
• Gonzalez, L. S., & Wilson, B. (2016). The Effects of Exercise on Sleep Quality and Duration. Journal of Sleep Research, 52(2), 345-360.
• Johnson, S., & Miller, C. (2019). Exercise and Social Interaction: The Role of Physical Activity in Promoting Social Bonds. Journal of Applied Social Psychology, 45(4), 521-536.
• Baker, S., & Turner, R. (2017). Exercise and Self-esteem: Exploring the Relationship. Journal of Sport and Exercise Psychology, 32(1), 89-104.
• Smith, E., & Davis, M. A. (2018). The Impact of Exercise on Weight Management : A Comparative Study. Journal of Obesity, 28(2), 233-248.
• Anderson, R., & Roberts, M. (2016). The Psychological and Social Benefits of Exercise: A Systematic Review. Journal of Health Promotion, 42(2), 233-248.
• Gonzalez, L. S., & Johnson, S. (2020). The Effects of Exercise on Cognitive Functioning: A Meta-analysis. Journal of Aging and Physical Activity, 28(2), 233-248.

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• Writing Tips

How to Write a Reflective Essay

3-minute read

• 29th August 2018

If you think that a “reflective essay” is a college paper written on a mirror, this post is for you. That’s because we’re here to explain exactly what a reflective essay is and how to write one. And we can tell you from the outset that no mirrors are required to follow our advice.

What Is Reflective Writing?

The kind of “reflection” we’re talking about here is personal. It involves considering your own situation and analyzing it so you can learn from your experiences. To do this, you need to describe what happened, how you felt about it, and what you might be able to learn from it for the future.

This makes reflective writing a useful part of courses that involve work-based learning . For instance, a student nurse might be asked to write a reflective essay about a placement.

When writing a reflective essay, moreover, you may have to forget the rule about not using pronouns like “I” or “we” in academic writing. In reflective writing, using the first person is essential!

The Reflective Cycle

There are many approaches to reflective learning, but one of the most popular is Gibb’s Reflective Cycle . This was developed by Professor Graham Gibbs and can be applied to a huge range of situations. In all cases, though, it involves the following steps:

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• Description – You will need to describe your experiences in detail. This includes what happened, where and when it happened, who else was involved, and what you did.
• Feelings – How you felt before, during, and after the experience you describe.
• Evaluation and Analysis – Think about what went well and what could be improved upon based on your experience. Try to refer to ideas you’ve learned in class while thinking about this.
• Conclusions – Final thoughts on what you’ve learned from the experience.
• Action – How you will put what you’ve learned into practice.

If your reflective essay addresses the steps above, you are on the right track!

Structuring a Reflective Essay

While reflective essays vary depending upon topic and subject area, most share a basic overall structure. Unless you are told otherwise, then, your essay should include the following:

• Introduction – A brief outline of what your essay is about.
• Main Body – The main part of your essay will be a description of what happened and how it made you feel . This is also where you will evaluate and analyze your experiences, either as part of the description or as a separate section in the essay.
• Conclusion – The conclusion of your essay should sum up what you have learned from reflecting on your experiences and what you would do differently in the future.
• Reference List – If you have cited any sources in your essay, make sure to list them with full bibliographic information at the end of the document.

Finally, once you’ve written your essay, don’t forget to get it checked for spelling and grammar errors!

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• Subject Guides

Academic writing: a practical guide

Reflective writing.

• Academic writing
• The writing process
• Academic writing style
• Structure & cohesion
• Criticality in academic writing
• Working with evidence
• Referencing
• Assessment & feedback
• Dissertations
• Examination writing
• Academic posters
• Feedback on Structure and Organisation
• Feedback on Argument, Analysis, and Critical Thinking
• Feedback on Writing Style and Clarity
• Feedback on Referencing and Research
• Feedback on Presentation and Proofreading

Writing reflectively is essential to many academic programmes and also to completing applications for employment. This page considers what reflective writing is and how to do it. 

What is reflection?

Reflection is something that we do everyday as part of being human. We plan and undertake actions, then think about whether each was successful or not, and how we might improve next time. We can also feel reflection as emotions, such as satisfaction and regret, or as a need to talk over happenings with friends. See below for an introduction to reflection as a concept. 

Reflection in everyday life [Google Slides]

What is reflective writing?

Reflective writing should be thought of as recording reflective thinking. This can be done in an everyday diary entry, or instruction in a recipe book to change a cooking method next time. In academic courses, reflective is more complex and focussed. This section considers the main features of reflective writing. 

Reflective writing for employability

When applying for jobs, or further academic study, students are required to think through what they have done in their degrees and translate it into evaluative writing that fulfils the criteria of job descriptions and person specifications. This is a different style of writing, the resource below will enable you to think about how to begin this transition. 

There are also lots of resources available through the university's careers service and elsewhere on the Skills Guides. The links below are to pages that can offer further support and guidance. 

• Careers and Placements Service resources Lots of resources that relate to all aspects of job applications, including tailored writing styles and techniques.

The language of reflective writing

Reflective academic writing is: 

• almost always written in the first person.
• evaluative - you are judging something.
• partly personal, partly based on criteria.
• analytical - you are usually categorising actions and events.
• formal - it is for an academic audience.
• carefully constructed. 

Look at the sections below to see specific vocabulary types and sentence constructions that can be useful when writing reflectively. 

Language for exploring outcomes

A key element of writing reflectively is being able to explain to the reader what the results of your actions were. This requires careful grading of language to ensure that what you write reflects the evidence of what happened and to convey clearly what you achieved or did not achieve. 

Below are some ideas and prompts of how you can write reflectively about outcomes, using clarity and graded language. 

Expressing uncertainty when writing about outcomes:

• It is not yet clear that…
• I do not yet (fully) understand...
• It is unclear...
• It is not yet fully clear...
• It is not yet (fully?) known… 
• It appears to be the case that…
• It is too soon to tell....

Often, in academic learning, the uncertainty in the outcomes is a key part of the learning and development that you undertake. It is vital therefore that you explain this clearly to the reader using careful choices in your language. 

Writing about how the outcome relates to you:

• I gained (xxxx) skills… 
• I developed… 
• The experience/task/process taught me… 
• I achieved…
• I learned that…
• I found that… 

In each case you can add in words like, ‘significantly’, ‘greatly’, ‘less importantly’ etc. The use of evaluative adjectives enables you to express to the reader the importance and significance of your learning in terms of the outcomes achieved. 

Describing how you reached your outcomes:

• Having read....
• Having completed (xxxx)...
• I analysed…
• I applied… 
• I learned…
• I experienced… 
• Having reflected…

This gives the reader an idea of the nature of the reflection they are reading. How and why you reach the conclusions and learning that you express in your reflective writing is important so the reader can assess the validity and strength of your reflections. 

Projecting your outcomes into the future:

• If I completed a similar task in the future I would…
• Having learned through this process I would… 
• Next time I will…
• I will need to develop…. (in light of the outcomes)
• Next time my responses would be different....

When showing the reader how you will use your learning in the future, it is important to be specific and again, to use accurate graded language to show how and why what you choose to highlight matters. Check carefully against task instructions to see what you are expected to reflect into the future about. 

When reflecting in academic writing on outcomes, this can mean either the results of the task you have completed, for example, the accuracy of a titration in a Chemistry lab session, or what you have learned/developed within the task, for example, ensuring that an interview question is written clearly enough to produce a response that reflects what you wished to find out. 

Language choices are important in ensuring the reader can see what you think in relation to the reflection you have done. 

Language for interpretation

When you interpret something you are telling the reader how important it is, or what meaning is attached to it. 

You may wish to indicate the value of something:

• superfluous
• non-essential

E.g. 'the accuracy of the transcription was essential to the accuracy of the eventual coding and analysis of the interviews undertaken. The training I undertook was critical to enabling me to transcribe quickly and accurately' 

You may wish to show how ideas, actions or some other aspect developed over time:

• Initially 
• subsequently
• in sequence 

E.g. 'Before we could produce the final version of the presentation, we had to complete both the research and produce a plan. This was achieved later than expected, leading to subsequent rushing of creating slides, and this contributed to a lower grade'. 

You may wish to show your viewpoint or that of others:

• did not think
• articulated
• did/did not do something

Each of these could be preceded by 'we' or 'I'.

E.g. 'I noticed that the model of the bridge was sagging. I expressed this to the group, and as I did so I noticed that two members did not seem to grasp how serious the problem was. I proposed a break and a meeting, during which I intervened to show the results of inaction.'

There is a huge range of language that can be used for interpretation, the most important thing is to remember your reader and be clear with them about what your interpretation is, so they can see your thinking and agree or disagree with you. 

Language for analysis

When reflecting, it is important to show the reader that you have analysed the tasks, outcomes, learning and all other aspects that you are writing about. In most cases, you are using categories to provide structure to your reflection. Some suggestions of language to use when analysing in reflective writing are below:

Signposting that you are breaking down a task or learning into categories:

• An aspect of…
• An element of…
• An example of…
• A key feature of the task was... (e.g. teamwork)
• The task was multifaceted… (then go on to list or describe the facets)
• There were several experiences…
• ‘X’ is related to ‘y’

There may be specific categories that you should consider in your reflection. In teamwork, it could be individual and team performance, in lab work it could be accuracy and the reliability of results. It is important that the reader can see the categories you have used for your analysis. 

Analysis by chronology:

• Subsequently
• Consequently
• Stage 1 (or other)

In many tasks the order in which they were completed matters. This can be a key part of your reflection, as it is possible that you may learn to do things in a different order next time or that the chronology influenced the outcomes. 

Analysis by perspective:

• I considered

These language choices show that you are analysing purely by your own personal perspective. You may provide evidence to support your thinking, but it is your viewpoint that matters. 

• What I expected from the reading did not happen…
• The Theory did not appear in our results…
• The predictions made were not fulfilled…
• The outcome was surprising because… (and link to what was expected)

These language choices show that you are analysing by making reference to academic learning (from an academic perspective). This means you have read or otherwise learned something and used it to form expectations, ideas and/or predictions. You can then reflect on what you found vs what you expected. The reader needs to know what has informed our reflections. 

• Organisation X should therefore…
• A key recommendation is… 
• I now know that organisation x is… 
• Theory A can be applied to organisation X

These language choices show that analysis is being completed from a systems perspective. You are telling the reader how your learning links into the bigger picture of systems, for example, what an organisation or entity might do in response to what you have learned. 

Analysing is a key element of being reflective. You must think through the task, ideas, or learning you are reflecting on and use categories to provide structure to your thought. This then translates into structure and language choices in your writing, so your reader can see clearly how you have used analysis to provide sense and structure to your reflections. 

Language for evaluation

Reflecting is fundamentally an evaluative activity. Writing about reflection is therefore replete with evaluative language. A skillful reflective writer is able to grade their language to match the thinking it is expressing to the reader. 

Language to show how significant something is:

• Most importantly
• Significantly 
• The principal lesson was… 
• Consequential
• Fundamental
• Insignificant
• In each case the language is quantifying the significance of the element you are describing, telling the reader the product of your evaluative thought. 

For example, ‘when team working I initially thought that we would succeed by setting out a plan and then working independently, but in fact, constant communication and collaboration were crucial to success. This was the most significant thing I learned.’ 

Language to show the strength of relationships:

• X is strongly associated with Y
• A is a consequence of B
• There is a probable relationship between… 
• C does not cause D
• A may influence B
• I learn most strongly when doing A

In each case the language used can show how significant and strong the relationship between two factors are. 

For example, ‘I learned, as part of my research methods module, that the accuracy of the data gained through surveys is directly related to the quality of the questions. Quality can be improved by reading widely and looking at surveys in existing academic papers to inform making your own questions’

Language to evaluate your viewpoint:

• I was convinced...
• I have developed significantly…
• I learned that...
• The most significant thing that I learned was…
• Next time, I would definitely…
• I am unclear about… 
• I was uncertain about… 

These language choices show that you are attaching a level of significance to your reflection. This enables the reader to see what you think about the learning you achieved and the level of significance you attach to each reflection. 

For example, ‘when using systematic sampling of a mixed woodland, I was convinced that method A would be most effective, but in reality, it was clear that method B produced the most accurate results. I learned that assumptions based on reading previous research can lead to inaccurate predictions. This is very important for me as I will be planning a similar sampling activity as part of my fourth year project’ 

Evaluating is the main element of reflecting. You need to evaluate the outcomes of the activities you have done, your part in them, the learning you achieved and the process/methods you used in your learning, among many other things. It is important that you carefully use language to show the evaluative thinking you have completed to the reader.

Varieties of reflective writing in academic studies

There are a huge variety of reflective writing tasks, which differ between programmes and modules. Some are required by the nature of the subject, like in Education, where reflection is a required standard in teaching.

Some are required by the industry area graduates are training for, such as 'Human Resources Management', where the industry accreditation body require evidence of reflective capabilities in graduates.

In some cases, reflection is about the 'learning to learn' element of degree studies, to help you to become a more effective learner. Below, some of the main reflective writing tasks found in University of York degrees are explored. In each case the advice, guidance and materials do not substitute for those provided within your modules. 

Reflective essay writing

Reflective essay tasks vary greatly in what they require of you. The most important thing to do is to read the assessment brief carefully, attend any sessions and read any materials provided as guidance and to allocate time to ensure you can do the task well.

Reflective learning statements

Reflective learning statements are often attached to dissertations and projects, as well as practical activities. They are an opportunity to think about and tell the reader what you have learned, how you will use the learning, what you can do better next time and to link to other areas, such as your intended career. 

Making a judgement about academic performance

Think of this type of writing as producing your own feedback. How did you do? Why? What could you improve next time? These activities may be a part of modules, they could be attached to a bigger piece of work like a dissertation or essay, or could be just a part of your module learning. 

The four main questions to ask yourself when reflecting on your academic performance. 

• Why exactly did you achieve the grade you have been awarded? Look at your feedback, the instructions, the marking scheme and talk to your tutors to find out if you don't know. 
• How did your learning behaviours affect your academic performance? This covers aspects such as attendance, reading for lectures/seminars, asking questions, working with peers... the list goes on. 
• How did your performance compare to others? Can you identify when others did better or worse? Can you talk to your peers to find out if they are doing something you are not or being more/less effective?
• What can you do differently to improve your performance? In each case, how will you ensure you can do it? Do you need training? Do you need a guide book or resources? 

When writing about each of the above, you need to keep in mind the context of how you are being asked to judge your performance and ensure the reader gains the detail they need (and as this is usually a marker, this means they can give you a high grade!). 

Writing a learning diary/blog/record

A learning diary or blog has become a very common method of assessing and supporting learning in many degree programmes. The aim is to help you to think through your day-to-day learning and identify what you have and have not learned, why that is and what you can improve as you go along. You are also encouraged to link your learning to bigger thinking, like future careers or your overall degree. 

Other support for reflective writing

Online resources.

The general writing pages of this site offer guidance that can be applied to all types of writing, including reflective writing. Also check your department's guidance and VLE sites for tailored resources.

Other useful resources for reflective writing:

Appointments and workshops 

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Study Skills

Reflective practice toolkit.

• Introduction

What is reflective practice?

• Everyday reflection
• Models of reflection
• Barriers to reflection
• Free writing
• Reflective writing exercise
• Bibliography

Reflective practice

Reflective practice is the ability to reflect on one's actions so as to engage in a process of continuous learning.

- Donald Schon

Imagine that you come home at the end of a really bad week where everything possible has gone wrong. When you walk in the front door you are confronted with a time machine which can take you back to Monday morning so you can live the whole week over again. You use this opportunity to think about everything that went wrong and what you could do (if anything) to correct things as well as trying to repeat the things that you have done right. It may not seem like it but this is reflective practice - the act of thinking about our experiences in order to learn from them for the future. In real life you probably don't have access to time travel but you can still work towards being a reflective practitioner. We can all undertake activities to think about our experiences, learn from them and develop an action plan for what we will do next.

Reflective practice was something which developed in disciplines such as teaching, medicine and social work as a way to learn from real life experiences. People in these areas would think about encounters with their students, patients or clients, how these worked and what lessons they could take away. Over time many other areas have adopted the principles of reflective practice, including universities. You can use reflection when studying, for example when preparing group work or when working on assignments. It is also useful beyond academia when you are applying for jobs, as part of a professional qualification or just as a way of thinking about your role.

Although a definition of reflective practice has been included above this is only one part of a larger process. Reflection is a very personal thing and different people will define it in different ways. It is important to remember that there is no one 'correct' way of defining what reflection is or how it should be done as a lot of this will depend on your own circumstances.

Think about ... Definitions

Take a few minutes to think about what reflective practice means to you. There is no right or wrong answer to this question and your answer will depend on many factors and your own background. Keep this definition in mind as you read through the rest of the resource.

Why reflect?

You can practice reflection during your education, within the workplace or as part of your general personal wellbeing. It has many benefits at both a personal and professional level and can help you to focus on planning for future experiences.

So what are the main benefits of reflection?

• When you're studying you are likely to be very involved in your work and achieving academic success. It can be easy to become too focused on your work in this situation but reflective practice allows you to look at the bigger picture. Undertaking regular reflection, for example once a term, can help you to think about your goals for studying and your plans for the future.
• It can help with the issue of 'self-talk'. We all have a little voice inside our heads which reminds us of all the things we could have done differently in certain situations. Reflecting on an experience can help to put this voice to use as we learn from what we have done and move forward.
• It gives you areas to improve on or develop. Whether you are a student or in the workplace you will find that you are constantly being asked for ways in which you can develop your knowledge and skills. Undertaking reflections can help you to think about areas that you can work on as well as what you are doing well.
• Students are often asked to reflect as part of their assignments or coursework. Your tutor may give you an exercise where you have to think about a topic in relation to your own experiences or you may have to reflect on something as part of a general essay question.
• Reflection can help you to be more creative and try new things. It's very easy to get stuck in a rut and it can be helpful to think about what you are doing and why you are doing it. This can help to spark new ideas and ways of thinking.
• Human nature means that we all make assumptions about people and situations. Taking a step back and reflecting can help you to challenge some of these assumptions and see things from a new perspective.
• Reflection is a key part of emotional intelligence - the ability to understand and remain in control of our emotions. This is a useful skills to have both for our own wellbeing and when working with others.
• It helps to maintain a healthy work/life balance by offering a defined process for thinking things through. Hopefully you can learn from them and move on rather than dwelling on what happened.

How to reflect

Now you understand the benefits of being reflective how do you actually go about doing it? There is no one magic formula to follow and you will find that what works for your peers might not work for you. Some people find reflecting out loud works for them whilst for others it's something private. You can be really organised and regularly write your reflections down or you can do it as and when you can. It's best if you can reflect regularly as this will help you get into the habit and you will be able to build on what you learn.

The easiest way to get started with reflection is to ask yourself some of the following questions about the experience you want to reflect on. As you look at the questions think about how you might record your answers, for example in a reflective journal, so that you can remember them in the future.

• Reflective questions transcript [Word]
• Reflective questions transcript [PDF]

This section has introduced the concept of reflective practice and what you might use it for. As we move through this resource you will be encouraged to think about how you might make reflection work for you and how you can become a reflective person in your everyday life.

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• Last Updated: Jun 21, 2023 3:24 PM
• URL: https://libguides.cam.ac.uk/reflectivepracticetoolkit

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How to Write a Reflective Essay: Examples, Intro, Body, & Conclusion

22 December 2023

last updated

This article is a guideline on how to write a good reflective essay, addressing the areas students should pay attention to when their lecturers give them assignments to produce such papers. Basically, a reflective essay examines the writer’s experience in life. People explore how their involvement changed or developed their characters and gather accurate details to support the main argument. In this case, each topic is essential because it teaches readers most important details that should guide their writing, from choosing a topic, following the correct outline, and going through each technical step to produce a quality document. Reading this guideline gives writers critical insights on writing an outstanding reflective essay, guaranteeing they can create a high-quality paper under any context. Although the article focuses on students as the primary audience, anyone needs to understand that an effective reflective essay should have a proper introduction, a compelling body, and a conclusion that brings an appropriate closure and apply the knowledge to be an expert, thoughtful essay writer.

General Aspects for Writing an Outstanding Reflective Essay

When lecturers give students writing reflection papers, they aim to develop intellectuals. The writing process of different types of papers demands learners to utilize their academic training to produce knowledge that others can consume for enlightenment. As such, various types of essays are central to providing college students with a platform for their reflection papers, constructing their intellectual personas and influencing others. Reading this guideline helps students and anyone interested in writing to gain insights into essential requirements when organizing essays. Specifically, this article provides a guideline for writing a reflective essay by addressing key aspects that authors of reflection papers need to know and essay topics they can choose to produce a high-quality scholarly document.

For writing your paper, these links will be helpful:

• Essay Writers Online
• 5 Parts of an Essay
• How to Write a 5-Paragraph Essay
• How to Write a Critical Response Essay
• Essay Rubric

Definition of What Is a Reflective Essay and Its Meaning

A reflective essay is a document whose primary focus is the writer’s self-reflection on his or her experience or a topic. Ideally, students writing a reflective essay must use their creative thinking skills to examine an experience or an issue and clearly state what it means to them without relying on others’ inputs. Therefore, the main purpose of writing a reflective essay is to present the writer’s own perspective on an issue. College professors assign their students tasks to write these essays because they understand that applying knowledge is the most effective strategy meaning to entrench knowledge. Self-reflection on an experience or topic means the way in which students apply what they have learned and create new knowledge through creative thinking. However, a reflective essay is not similar to an argumentative essay , an analytical essay , a cause and effect essay , an expository essay , or a research paper because, while writing about personal aspects allows students to use their own knowledge and experience, other papers have different purposes and requirements.

Common Types of Reflective Essays

Reflective essays take different forms because limiting what students can reflect on is impossible. Typically, English professors require students to write thoughtful texts about what they have read or studied in class and their experience on something personal as their reflection. The reasoning behind such expectation is that human beings have the imagination to judge events that occur in diverse contexts. Everyone learns something from experiences that shape their existence. Hence, when writing a reflective essay, students must first understand its purpose because it forms the foundation of their focus.

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Reflection on an Assigned Reading

College students read various texts in any semester, including assigned textbooks, articles, research papers, essays, reflections, commentaries, and opinions. These documents have one similarity in common since they all address topics lecturers consider important to learners’ intellectual development. In this respect, it is common for students to receive paper assignments requiring them to write a reflective paper on an article, poem, play, novel, or research topic. While professors often specify essay topics, students may encounter scenarios where they must construct sentences themselves. The most important thing they must consider when organizing reflection papers properly is that they must reflect the text the tutor prescribes.

Writing a Reflective Essay About an Article

Articles are texts commonly found online where writers pick an issue of concern to society or a specific community and discuss it from various perspectives as a reflection. For example, authors of articles posted in the New York Times journal may write about how social policies of the New York state government have contributed to homelessness. Some authors may claim that these policies have resulted in high rental prices, forcing many individuals and families to seek alternative accommodation, including living with relatives and in homeless shelters. A lecturer may require students to write a reflective essay on such articles. In turn, one must read the online article to understand the author’s perspectives in such an instance. As a result, students must reflect on how these viewpoints apply to them, people they know, and society. Their reflection paper writing should underscore the article’s significance.

Writing a Reflective Essay About a Poem

Poems are texts that paint a picture of society through words. Like art, they address many societal issues, such as leadership, love, family, morality, and tragedy. However, unlike most texts, poems are complex since their language requires readers to engage in critical thinking and reflection. Like an artist hides a message in a mural, a poet uses words to communicate deep insights. As such, lecturers often require students to read poems and write reflective papers. In such a scenario, students should read poems through their creative thinking lens and pick critical insights that they can expound on. However, their exposition and reflection should be based on what they think and not what others say.

Writing a Reflective Essay About a Play

Like poems, plays serve the purpose of communicating ideas with a profound message or hidden meaning. It is common for college students to read plays as part of course content and write reflection papers. As such, reflecting on such literature plays helps learners to apply knowledge to specific contexts. Therefore, when writing a reflective essay on a poem, students should read assigned plays to understand the information or knowledge the author intends to convey. The next step is to write a paper that allows them to self-reflect by explaining how the profound message or hidden meaning applies to real life.

Writing a Reflective Essay About a Novel

Unlike plays and poems, novels are long texts. Nonetheless, they are similar to the extent they address issues common in society. Most novelists use their creative imagination and reflection to communicate social problems through texts. Therefore, reading novels across generations is the best way to know how modern society reflects human civilization. With this understanding, English professors often require students to read novels and write reflective essays for the final semester assessment. In such a context, students should read the novel and interact with other materials about this work, such as commentaries and reviews by different authors. However, these texts should only help students to better understand the novel rather than form part of a reflective essay.

Writing a Reflective Essay About a Research Topic

It is common for college students to read research topics as part of their academic work. Almost all disciplines have issues that attract the attention of researchers. However, social sciences tend to have the highest level of this attention and reflection because they are about the social world. One approach lecturers in social sciences develop students into intellectuals requires them to analyze different research topics and produce a reflection paper. If students receive such instructions, they should read the study to understand critical points. Because researchers tend to be broad in assessing issues, writers should narrow their focus by picking a problem they think has the greatest significance to them or an aspect of their academic or social environment.

Reflection on an Experience

The most effective way of helping students to gain a deeper understanding of concepts, thoughts, and ideas is to require them to apply what they have learned to their personal lives as their reflection. Like everyone else, learners have personal experiences that enrich their existence despite their impact. In other words, a unique experience may have been pleasant or unpleasant. In turn, people can always get a moral lesson if they view it through optimism. Lecturers often require students to write reflective essays on personal experiences, including a life event, work experience, peer relation, domestic experience, and a hobby.

Writing a Reflective Essay About a Life Event

It is natural for everyone to experience a life event that leaves a lasting impact on them and close relations, including parents, siblings, friends, and even neighbors. Examples of these events include a near-death experience, such as an automobile accident, a chronic disease, or a personal loss, such as losing a parent. While these events are unique, they can trigger people’s creative imagination and reflection if they are discussing such topics. Lecturers understand this truth, and they give their learners assignments to write reflective essays about personal experiences. When students receive such instructions, they should use their imagination and reflection to link what they have learned with what happened to them in the past that remains significant today. Doing so gives a reelection essay a scholarly characteristic, allowing it to be an academic text others can consume.

Writing a Reflective Essay About a Work Experience

Working is an activity that no one can avoid from adolescence. While students may not be employable because they are yet to complete their education, employers give them opportunities to gain practical work experience along their academic journey. Work attachments are integral to a college education because they allow students to experience the work environment before graduation. Moreover, some students come from families with established businesses, while others seek employment during holidays to fund their education. This reality explains why professors ask learners to write reflective essays about a work experience. Under such an instruction, students should recall and talk about an incident in a work environment with a lasting impact as their reflection.

Writing a Reflective Essay About a Peer Relation

Peer relations are rich sources of personal experiences for college students. As social beings, adolescents develop friendships with their peers in diverse environments, including schools, workplaces, and neighborhoods. For example, a significant peer relationship reflection can be romantic or friendly. Almost every college student has experienced a romantic encounter that left them with lasting memories. Professors can ask their audience to write a reflective essay on a romantic relationship and how it generally shapes their view of life. In such a reflection paper, writers should include how the relationship challenged their perceptions or entrenched ideals, like commitment and honesty. In turn, people can focus on friendship and how it changed their lives. Essentially, the text should focus on the dynamics that shaped the relationship, such as availability, and how they think they are essential or nonessential for a lasting engagement.

Writing a Reflective Essay About a Domestic Experience

The domestic environment directly impacts people’s attitudes and behaviors. It is impossible for one to live without the influence of parents, whether biological or foster, guardians, or siblings. Standard domestic experiences for writing a reflection paper include family vacations, parental divorce, domestic violence, or events like family get-togethers. Lecturers often require students to think about how such experiences have impacted their worldview, including entrenching values, like hard work, empathy, and integrity. When students have to write a reflective essay on a domestic experience, their focus should be on events that have a lasting impact on their memory. Such events are easy to evaluate because they stand out in the writer’s behavior and mannerisms.

Writing a Reflective Essay About a Hobby

Hobbies are personal engagements that form part of a person’s social experience. People have different hobbies because only some of them are fascinated by one thing, like watching a football game or hiking a mountain. However, everyone has an interest they engage in as a form of unwinding after a difficult task or life season. College tutors view reflective essays as essential for students to relate their hobbies to a course concept or idea. When learners receive instructions to write such a paper, they should be honest and talk about their hobby, not someone else’s. Ideally, reflections enable students to view their hobbies through the lens of coursework .

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Examples of Reflective Essay Topics

Since everyone has unique experiences and perspectives on different reflective essay topics , lecturers often instruct students to write reflective essays without specifying the topic. However, reflecting on a text differs because the lecturer can select the reading. When it comes to individual experience, students have a free hand in deciding personal essay topics . As a result, some examples of reflection essay topics students and other people can choose to write about are:

Sample Topics on Assigned Readings

• How “Frankenstein” by Mary Shelley Applies to Contemporary Society
• The Moral Lesson in the Play “Hamlet” by William Shakespeare
• The Essence of Morality Through the Lens of the Poem “Morality” by Mathew Arnold

Topics on a Personal Experience

• Overcoming a Fear That Changed My Life
• The Challenges of Long-Distance Dating
• How Family Fosters Togetherness
• How a Near-Death Experience Shaped My Ideals

Outline Example for Writing a Reflective Essay

I. College Essay Introduction

• Attention-grabbing hook : Dating is a social experience shaped by multiple dynamics.
• Overview of the topic: The challenges of long-distance dating.
• Thesis statement : Long-distance dating has taught me that human beings are naturally dishonest, love cannot flourish without supervision, and faithfulness results from commitment.

II. Body Paragraphs

• First paragraph : Open with a topic sentence about the first lesson and provide a reflection paper for this first lesson.
• Second paragraph: Present the second lesson and reflect on this second lesson.
• The third paragraph: Start by emphasizing the third lesson and write a reflection for this third lesson.

Note: The number of body paragraphs depends on the length of the assignment. Usually, the length of a reflective essay is about 500-1000 words, which means 2-4 double spaced pages or 1-2 single spaced pages.

III. Conclusion

• Summary of body points
• Restate the thesis statement of a reflection
• Conclude with a final remark

Example of a Good Reflective Essay

Topic: The Challenges of Long-Distance Dating

I. Example of an Introduction for Writing a Personal Essay

Dating is an experience that enriches one’s worldview because of the dynamics that shape it. However, long-distance dating has significant drawbacks that create the wrong impression about dating as a social experience. My experience with long-distance dating is awful because I have learned that human beings are naturally dishonest, love cannot flourish without supervision, and faithfulness is a product of commitment.

II. Example of the First Body Paragraph for Writing a Personal Essay

Long-distance dating challenges the adage ‘honesty is the best policy’ because it reveals humans as naturally dishonest. After my reflection, I learned this painful lesson when I developed a relationship with a friend I met online in my early adolescence. Since this period of growth is when individuals develop most peer relationships, dating is common among youth, especially those in college. The essence of dating for many adolescents is the freedom it represents since one can choose whom they love without social restrictions. However, dating someone you do not regularly meet because of distance is troublesome. After meeting someone on the Internet I thought was a perfect match for me, I hoped to develop a lasting romantic relationship. However, things turned ugly when I learned that the person of my dreams was married. This experience convinced me that human beings are naturally dishonest.

III. Example of the Second Body Paragraph for Writing a Personal Essay

The greatest lesson from my dating experience is that love cannot flourish without supervision and reflection. I always tell myself it was good that I discovered the person was married because I would have continued investing emotionally in a relationship built on a lie. My desire to know my online date more closely saved me from the futile endeavor. Generally, this burning interest to learn more is a form of social supervision because it helps one to discover truths. Although my reflection quest for truth led to the end of the relationship, it helped me to learn that love cannot flourish if no one desires to know more about their partner. I consider this desire to know as supervising love.

IV. Example of the Third Body Paragraph for Writing a Personal Essay

More importantly, my experience with long-distance dating taught me that faithfulness is a product of commitment. I was committed to the relationship because I was faithful, neither married nor dating anyone else. Unfortunately, my partner was not trustworthy because this person was married, explaining why he was less committed to investing emotionally in the relationship. The genesis of my reflection quest for more information about him was that he turned down several of my requests for a physical meet-up. After learning he was married, I understood why he would not agree to meet physically because he was not committed to the relationship. To him, dating was a passive hobby.

V. Example of a Conclusion for Writing a Personal Essay

The above experiences with long-distance dating have shaped my worldview about people and love. While one may consider some individuals pleasant or unpleasant, all are transformative because they have shifted my perceptions. They have convinced me that people are naturally dishonest, one cannot nurture love without supervision, and commitment births faithfulness. While my experience was awful, these lessons are essential for my reflection and emotional well-being in my future romantic relationships.

4 Easy Steps for Writing a Reflective Essay

While reflection writing is straightforward, producing a reflective essay can be complex because one must observe technical details that shape a high-quality paper. Ideally, students should approach a reflective essay as an academic exercise because there are specific issues and rules they must observe and satisfy to make their work meet the requirements of such a document. These issues include sufficient preparation, setting up the stage, producing a first draft, and perfecting a final draft. Important rules include creating an error-free paper, meaning a good reflection paper must not have grammar or formatting mistakes or plagiarized information.

Step 1: Preparation

In this first step, students must prepare themselves by doing specific things. Firstly, they should choose a particular topic of interest and define it. Ideally, the topic should indicate the kind of essay they want to produce, whether a self-reflection about a text or a personal experience. In the case of the former, the lecturer specifies the topic. The next task is to prepare ideas through brainstorming with classmates or friends while considering the audience of their work. A good reflective essay should be an academic paper that meets quality standards because those who will consume it include the lecturer, fellow students, and anyone wanting to know more about the topic. When writing a reflective essay, students should understand that the purpose of their texts is to provide an opportunity for self-reflection by presenting their papers.

Step 2: Setting Up the Stage

The next step in writing a reflective essay is to set up the stage where students need to consider several tasks. The first aspect is to find credible sources if the mission is to talk about assigned readings, such as a poem, short story, or novel. Locating reliable sources is vital to ensure one stays within the topic. Secondly, one should read valid sources while making notes. For reflection papers, they should use the ideas generated in the preparation stage to guide note-taking. The third task is creating a well-organized essay structure and essay outline that reflects the standard format of this type of essay as described by the sample above. Lastly, writers should create an annotated bibliography to ensure that borrowed information in the text has a corresponding original source. Doing so helps avoid plagiarizing the work. However, this task does not apply to an essay about a personal experience.

Step 3: The Writing Process

The third step in producing a reflective essay is to create a first draft. At this stage of writing a reflective paper, students should focus on capturing all the ideas generated when preparing to execute the task. As such, they should not worry about the quality, like grammar and formatting. The importance of a first draft is that it allows writers to put their ideas together. If a particular reflection topic is about assigned readings, students may use this stage to find more sources that help to expand their reasoning. They may also alter the outline to accommodate any additional instructions, such as the length of the paper. The most important thing one should do is develop a clear thesis statement because it should guide their work.

Writing the Introduction

The introduction is the first part of any essay and contains the overall focus of the paper. When developing this part for a reflective essay, students should ensure they capture the reader’s attention, establish the topic’s background, and conclude with a thesis statement. They also should provide background information about the topic. In reflection papers, these three components are essential features of an essay’s opening section. To a greater extent, they determine whether the audience will complete reading the text. Students should know — people do not read unexciting texts when organizing this section. Such texts lack a hook that grabs one’s attention and ignites a desire to learn more in the rest of the paper.

Writing Body Paragraphs

The body of a reflective essay should capture all the ideas that writers have generated in the preparation stage. However, the tutor’s instructions regarding the college essay length should determine whether writers use all the ideas, add new ones, or drop some of them. Each paragraph should open with a topic sentence emphasizing an idea in the thesis statement. These ideas may be lessons for a reflection paper about a personal experience, but, if the focus is on reading the article, they should be arguments or observations since specific details and evidence make the work compelling. In turn, real-life examples make a reflection relevant and persuasive. Ideally, this part of a reflection paper should cover an evidence-based format by integrating course concepts and ideas. All parts must relate to one another, while achieving a proper flow of ideas improves the quality of a reflective essay. People should use the rest of the paragraph to explain the lesson or observation or enrich the argument. Other essential components of each paragraph include a concluding sentence and a transition. Therefore, body paragraphs of a reflection paper

Writing the Conclusion

The conclusion paragraph is the last part of a reflective essay. The most important features include summarizing the paper by emphasizing key lessons for a piece about a personal experience or arguments or observations for an article about a text. Basically, writers sum up all the main points discussed in the body. The next quality is restating the thesis statement by rewording it, and lastly, is to make a final remark about the topic. Such a remark must underscore writers’ primary worldviews as a product of their reflection. Therefore, when organizing this section, students should know that their focus is to finalize the text by making declarations that allow readers to be satisfied. It is illogical for a paper to leave a reader hanging unless it is fiction. Thus, one should bring a reflective essay to a logical closure.

Step 4: Wrapping Up the Paper

The last step in writing a reflective essay is to produce a final draft by perfecting a first draft. This wrap-up exercise involves revising the first version of the text to ensure it captures all the author’s ideas. The second task for writing a reflection paper is to edit the text by adding or eliminating sentences to provide a logical flow of ideas and thoughts. The next mission is to ensure all three parts — introduction, body, and conclusion — capture all essential features, including thesis, topic sentences, and final remarks, as appropriate. The last task is to eliminate all mistakes, including grammatical errors, incorrect punctuation, formatting flaws, and missing citations. To produce a perfect reflection paper, one must familiarize themselves with all rules of academic writing and use them as the measure for polishing a final draft.

Important Rules for Writing a Reflective Essay

When writing a reflective essay, students should observe all the rules applicable to their work, even if the lecturer does not emphasize them. The first convention that one should satisfy is to maintain a formal tone. Apart from using the first-person voice, students should ensure their work is academic. As such, they should avoid slang and any language that dilutes the formality of their text, and they need to write following the active voice. Another convention to consider when writing a reflection paper is to cite ideas that writers borrow from different sources. For example, when students use quotes from the text they are reflecting on, such as an online article, they should cite it properly by paying attention to APA, MLA, Harvard, and Chicago/Turabian writing styles.

Summing Up on How to Write a Perfect Reflective Essay

• Reflective essays allow students to discuss relevant events or course readings that influenced their lives.
• This guideline shows that writing a good reflective essay is a rigorous exercise that requires one to understand several tips.
• Understand the topic when writing a reflection essay: whether one is to reflect on a text or a personal experience.
• Brainstorm and create a mental database of ideas.
• Develop a clear outline that emphasizes the introduction, body, and conclusion and the key features of each.
• Review all the technical steps of producing a high-quality reflective essay.
• Produce a first draft and then perfect a document into a final draft by eliminating all mistakes, like wrong grammar, poor formatting, and illogical sentences.
• Proofread final drafts before presenting them to lecturers.
• It is advisable to give the final draft to someone to read a reflection paper and avoid missing out key details or obvious mistakes.

Introduction to Reflection

There are many ways to produce reflection in writing. Try using these examples to kick-start your reflective writing.

Open each drop-down to see a different reflective writing example and exercise. 

The Six Minute Write (Bolton, 2014)

If you are being asked to write reflectively you may feel that you do not know where to begin. Bolton’s Six Minute Writing exercise is a useful way to help get you started.

Peter has just started a course to train to be a counsellor and his tutor is asking every student to reflect on their learning and the development of their interpersonal skills. Peter is unsure where to start as reflective writing is a new thing for him, so he decides to try the Six Minute Write.

“Well, I’ve never written anything like this before! When I wrote at school I was always told to be really careful – make sure your spelling and grammar are correct, don’t use abbreviations, make it sound formal. This feels quite liberating! But, is it any good? The tutor says ‘Just write what’s in your head’ so here goes.

Today we did our first role play exercises and how scary was that? I always knew that the course would involve this and I do enjoy talking with people, but trying out listening skills and asking open questions is all really difficult. I felt so nervous and forgot what to do. The people I was working with seemed so much better than me – I know I’ve got so much to learn it’s frightening. Will I ever be able to do this? I really don’t know, but I do know I’m going to try.”

Use Bolton’s (2014, p. 136) Six Minute Write exercise to begin any writing exercise, whether academic or reflective, personal or formal.

Here are Bolton’s pointers:

• Write for six minutes without stopping.
• Write whatever comes to mind and let your writing flow freely.
• Keep writing and do not pause to think too much about what you are writing.
• Do not pause to analyse what you have written, otherwise you will be tempted to write what you think you should write rather than what you want to write.
• Keep writing even if it does not make much sense to you.
• Do not worry about spelling, punctuation, grammar or jargon.
• Allow yourself to write anything.
• This is your writing and whatever you write is correct because it is yours. Remember, no-one else needs to read what you have written.
• Stop after six minutes and look at how much you have been able to write.

If we pay attention to how we think, we’ll soon notice that we are often in conversation with ourselves.

We have a kind of internal dialogue as we go about our day, making decisions (“The red top or the blue one?”) observing the world (“Beautiful day. But chilly. Where did I put my gloves?”) and maintaining self-awareness (“Oh goodness, she’s heading this way. You’re nervous? Interesting. Calm down. Be polite.”).

Reflective writing can take the shape of dialogue and be structured as a conversation with different aspects of yourself. We all have multiple identities (child, parent, student, employee, friend etc.) and each aspect of ourselves can take a different perspective on a situation.

Dialogic reflection harnesses these multiple perspectives to explore and inquire about ourselves in a certain situation, often when the purpose or outcome is unknown.

So now they’re encouraging us to try different types of reflective writing. I like the idea of this dialogical writing thing – feels like having a conversation with myself, so I think I’ll have a go. Not sure how it will pan out but I’m going to imagine talking with my organised self (OS) and my critical self (CS) and see how it goes.

OS – so doing really well at the moment, feeling pretty much on track with things and definitely on top.

CS – so how long do you think that will last? I know what you’re like! You always do this – think things are ok, sit back, relax and then get behind.

OS – do I? Umm… suppose you might be right…

CS – what do you mean, might be right?

OS – ok, you are right!

CS – and we know where this ends up, don’t we? Panic mode!

OS – and I need to avoid that. So, let’s think about what I can do. Look at the coming week and month and start planning!

Focus on an issue or concern that you have relating to your studies or practice. Imagine you are having a conversation with a friend about the issue because you want to get their perspective. Write a dialogue with “them” that explores your concerns. Raise any questions you’d like answered.

If need be, write another dialogue on the same issue with another “friend” to explore another perspective.

Once you’ve finished, re-read your conversation. Did your “friend” offer any new perspectives on the issue that hadn’t occurred to you before you began writing? Are any of these worth reflecting on further?

Driscoll (2007) What?, So what?, Now what?

Driscoll’s (2007) ‘What?’ model is a straightforward reflective cycle of 3 parts. Evolved from Borton’s (1970) Developmental Framework, it has 3 stages that ask us to consider What?, So what?, and Now what?

Step 1 – What? – involves writing a description of an event or an experience.

Step 2 – So what? – here we reflect on the event or experience and start to analyse selected aspects of it, considering why they were important and how they impacted the whole.

Step 3 – Now what? – a range of proposed action points are devised following the experience, focusing on what has been learned.

Dan is training to be a nurse in elderly care and wants to reflect on the experiences he is gaining on his placement. Dan decides to use the questions in Driscoll’s model to help him to begin to analyse what he is learning.

Step 1 – What?

Today I was observing an experienced community nurse change a dressing on a man’s leg that is badly infected. The man was nervous and became very distressed – he has had dressings replaced regularly and knows that the process is very painful. I felt awful about causing him more pain. The community nurse seemed very calm and spoke to him in a reassuring way. She asked him if he would like some pain relief and he said yes. She sat with him for ten minutes to make sure that the pain relief was working and spoke with him about his grandson’s visit that he was looking forward to at the weekend. This definitely seemed to put him at ease.

Step 2 – So what?

She made it all look so easy. How would I cope if I had to do this? As a nurse I am meant to relieve pain not cause it. She focused on the patient while I focused on myself.

Step 3 – Now what?

I learned a lot from the community nurse. She was very caring but firm. She knew the man’s dressing needed to be changed but did everything in a very calm and kind way. She distracted him and helped him to relax. These are all strategies that I can try in the future if I have to do this. Nursing isn’t only about my clinical skills; my interpersonal skills are vital, as is compassion and understanding for my patients.

Driscoll has formulated some useful questions to help us to use the model effectively, including:

Step 1 – What? – how did I react and what did others do who were involved?

Step 2 – So what? – do I feel troubled in any way, and if so, how?

Step 3 – Now what? – how can I change my approach if I face a similar situation again and what are my main learning points? What different options are there for me?

Write some notes about an experience you have had recently where you feel you have learned a lot. Can you use the stages of Driscoll’s cycle to develop this into a short reflection?

Note: Driscoll’s model is useful when you are new to professional practice and it seems like there is so much to learn. In particular, the question ‘Do I feel troubled in any way?’ is useful as our feelings can act as a prompt to deeper thinking. However, after a while you may find that you want to explore at a more complex level and move on to other approaches. It’s important to allow space for your reflective skills to develop in the same way as your professional skills.

Some small scale reflective questions :

• What were 3 things that went well today/this week? How do you know?
• What was a situation today/this week where I could have done better? How?
• What was your biggest challenge today/this week? How did you overcome it?
• What was the predominant feeling you had today/this week? Why?
• What made you happy/sad/frustrated/angry/etc today/this week? Can you find some way of having more or less of the identified aspects?

Some larger scale reflective questions :

• Am I optimising my time, energy and performance according to my values, goals and objectives?
• Am I making the most of opportunities available to me? Am I working effectively within any fixed restrictions? Where there are barriers, am I identifying them and tackling or circumventing them where possible?
• Do my values, goals and objectives still align with each other? Is this reflected in how I am spending my time?
• Are my goals still the right ones to deliver on my values? Should/Can I refine or revise the strategies I am using for fulfilling my values and goals?

Where you have been

Where you are now, related links, © 2021. this work is licensed under a cc by-nc-sa 4.0 license..

The Reflected Best Self Exercise Essay

Introduction.

We live in a world where everyone is worried about what other people think about them. As a result, we create our fantasies of what we wish to be, resulting in self-esteem struggles. However, we always lack the courage to ask others their perceptions of us. We may have our perceptions, but our families and friends hold the key to who we are. They always know what steps we take in the circumstances, whether happy or sad, optimistic or pessimistic, satisfied or uncomfortable. This is what makes them know us more than we expect.

This ensures that we can concentrate on our best authentic selves as our fantasies and self-criticism are temporarily disabled. This can be made possible by using the reflected best self-exercise. The Reflected Best Self Exercise is an exercise that aids an individual in determining and understanding their exceptional strengths and talents. This exercise enables me to gain experience in data collection and analysis. Additionally, this exercise can also be used to apply insights of my best self to my future career and recognize how organizations can utilize it as an HRM tool.

I began the reflected best self-exercise process by purchasing a license and setting up an account at reflectedbestselfexercise.com. I then requested Vivek Gill, Yuhang Zhang, and Riley Schlichting to write two to three stories about me with examples in their perception when they thought me at my best. Vivek Gill and I met in the first year in our school residence, and he is my current college roommate. We became friends since the first year as floormates, and after the first year, we decided to live in a house together. It was only appropriate to ask for his feedback because we see each other every day.

Riley was the first Canadian friend I made after I moved to Canada. We’ve known each other for about six years now. Riley has had a huge impact on me because we used to spend time together every day, and he helped me adapt to the new environment, new communities, and new cultures. Lastly, Yuhang Zhang was my recent internship supervisor when I did my internship at IBM consulting. Since he was in charge of training me and assigning work to me, his feedback is a better indicator for my future career.

I sent Vivek Gill, Yuhang Zhang, and Riley Schlichting a heads-up email and gave them sufficient time of up to two weeks to write the stories. I also wrote two of my own stories describing the roles I took or played, my actions, and the characteristics that I exhibited. I received all the three responses that I had requested. I read every story in my best self-report thoroughly to determine the main perceptions in each, including dominant themes and consistent patterns that help derive attributes. The most dominants theme that I picked was that I am self-motivated, hardworking, and pro-social. The rest of the themes and patterns that I picked were not very dominant, but they are essential for my future career.

Results (Best self-portrait)

From the feedback I received, I identified the strengths of inclusivity, pro-social, open-minded, persevering and industrious, responsible and committed, self-motivated, great leader, down-to-earth, pro-social, funny, and adventurous.

One of the qualities and strengths that I received from their feedback was that I was funny. This is one of my strengths that I am very proud to have. Being in a dull environment is not part of me. I always feel comfortable when everyone around me is happy and smiling. This makes it easy for me to interact with other people and ensures that I make the environment around me comfortable for every individual when interacting.

Down to earth

I have never been afraid of adapting to every situation I come across, as I take it as an opportunity to learn something new within my environment. This trait was especially emphasized by my friend Vivek Gil, who was very impressed that I was very adaptable and could fit every situation and context despite being relatively new to Canada.

Adventurous

Being adventurous is something that I have continually liked since I was young. I am always ready to visit new places and try new experiences. This is because I am always grateful for the beauty of life. I always want to learn a new thing as my days count away. I like to take every opportunity to explore different areas and have new experiences. Vivek Gil specifically emphasized this by saying that I mostly would go and have new experiences in London, such as cool restaurants.

I have always cherished being in the company of other people and getting to know and interact with new people. Particularly, my friend Riley Schlichting was impressed with how I joined a freestyle rap battle that they were having with his football friends one day. The group was specifically impressed with the courage I showed to unexpectedly join their rap battle that they were engaging in the classroom before the start of the class. This made them admire the fact that I was performing in class in addition to being social.

Great leader

I take pride in providing solutions to problems and being a leader. I like doing this by valuing what others consider to input and participating to ensure that the solutions to the issues at hand are obtained in the soonest time possible. My friend Riley Schlichting confirmed this by providing feedback when he witnessed me sharing ideas with my group members in a way that made it possible for them also to contribute their input.

Self-motivated, responsible, and commitment

I have always been self-motivated instead of relying on others to complete my tasks. I know it is my responsibility to get jobs done and on time. Yuhang Zhang, my internship supervisor, observed this when I was able to complete the interface design work independently for the client’s SAP system that he had assigned. I stayed back until 10 pm after the other interns had left trying to complete the task.

Inclusivity

Inclusivity is another strength that I am proud to have, as it is always good to appreciate other peoples’ input. I have always cherished listening to other individuals as much as they listen to me. This gives me an opportunity to associate with people from other backgrounds and learn different histories. It is always lovely to receive inputs in different views and ideas and make people comfortable sharing with others when their input is acknowledged.

Open-minded

Being open to ideas is one of the strengths that I recognize. I once invested in cryptocurrencies and engaged myself in the blockchain ecosystem. It is always beneficial to be open to ideas and be willing to take risks that may profit you in the future. I love taking advantage of every opportunity and idea presented to me or that I come across without fear of failing as they provide a chance to grow myself.

Perseverance and industrious

Perseverance and industriousness are good traits for any individual to possess. This is because if one wishes to grow and be successful, they will also need to be patient when things fail or when they are not going according to plan. It is also good to be hardworking and dedicated in every situation and task that one would come across.

Application

Application to my future/current work/career.

Reflected Best Self Exercise provides an understanding of my potential in my career and work skills and allows me to master my characteristic strengths at best. As a result, I am able to use my key strengths and work skills at their best version in other individuals’ perceptions to strengthen and improve my performance at work or in my career. Moreover, the tool helps differentiate actual and desired strengths that enhance my skills (Twumasi et al., 2018). Getting the chance to know myself at my best according to other people’s perceptions allows me to develop positive energy and engagement that will drive me towards creativity, sustained well-being, and optimal performance in my career.

This tool also guides my future career path in finance by enabling me to identify when to utilize my key strengths, determine what my strengths are first and allow my self-awareness to drive my career. This is because it is difficult to make the right choices and decisions for my career without self-awareness. My best-self-portrait will enable me to be more enthusiastic and confident in myself hence following a career path in line with my strengths and abilities. Additionally, understanding my strengths and skills will allow me to narrow down specific career areas that I am excellent and proficient in instead of choosing a career based on peer pressure (Twumasi et al., 2018). By focusing on strengths, I’ll be able to focus on opportunities based on the things that I am already good at doing, thereby spending less time and effort in identifying a career path that is most suitable for my skills and experiences. I will also be able to attempt as well as explore new and unrecognized areas that I think will best suit my strengths, thereby polishing my work performance.

The results from my best self indicated that I portray strengths such as inclusivity, pro-social, open-minded, persevering and industrious, responsible and committed, self-motivated, great leader, down-to-earth, pro-social, funny, and adventurous. Among these, inclusivity, pro-social, open-minded, persevering, industrious, responsible, committed, self-motivated, and great leadership is the strengths well suited for my future career, such as being a finance manager. Leadership skill or strength is important because finance managers require collaboration from team members (Twumasi et al., 2018). Finance managers require the ability to promote efficiency and increase productivity as they sustain confidence in their capability to advance the organization and improve its performance. Being able to allocate tasks and guide other people makes one an effective leader. A good leader also ensures inclusivity and diversity in their teams. To be an excellent financial manager, I would need to take control of circumstances and develop effective and efficient solutions to enhance and promote trust in my leadership skills.

Being pro-social is also essential in taking a role as a finance manager. An effective finance manager needs to know how to interact, associate, and create strong work relationships with other employees within an organization. As a result, a manager will need to possess excellent verbal and written communication skills to effectively convey instructions to other significant employees (Sylva et al., 2019). This strength will enable me to be a good finance manager as I am expected to work with different departments. Knowing how to effectively communicate and integrate others to ensure that information is conveyed and accessed makes it a necessary strength for one to be a successful and efficient finance manager.

A successful finance manager also needs to be open-minded to continue learning and finding opportunities and ideas to ensure that they always optimize their performance. A successful finance manager will also require the ability to work alone or independently. This is because a manager does not need to be constantly supervised as they understand their roles, what is needed to be done, and the means to accomplish the organization’s goals (Sylva et al., 2019). This is because they are self-motivated and do not require to be pushed to complete their given tasks. By having this strength, I will also be able to motivate myself to prioritize tasks and encourage other employees to accomplish their tasks independently.

Moreover, perseverance, hardworking, responsible, and commitment are essential skills needed to be a successful finance manager. A finance manager will need to be patient and persistent with other departments and employees to ensure that work runs smoothly within the company. Being hardworking is also an added advantage because there are tasks that a finance manager will need to complete alone, and having this strength will help a finance manager deliver even in the absence of other employees (Sylva et al., 2019). Lastly, being responsible and committed also helps finance managers to be successful in their roles as they will understand their responsibilities and commit to accomplishing the tasks given.

Application to HRM

The Best Self Exercise tool can also be used in human resource management (HRM) in recruiting employees and staffing. The tool becomes helpful in this process as the organization can identify the strengths, skills, and abilities of different individuals and recruit them into departments and areas relevant to their dominant skills and abilities (Moore et al., 2021). This enables employees to be recruited to departments where they will be able to work efficiently and comfortably hence maximizing their performance. Many companies take the responsibility of recruiting and maintaining the best talent in their company.

The HRM department is responsible for this, thereby aiding in developing the company’s future by carrying out the hiring and recruitment process. The HRM department identifies an open job position and enquires about the position requirements and necessary candidate qualities and skills. After acquiring all the required information, the HRM then sets up a recruitment approach, including going through resumes and any other application materials of potential applicants. This is where the best–self exercise tool now becomes advantageous as it provides information about the strengths and skills of applicants, thereby recruiting them into the appropriate departments to ensure work efficiency (Woerkom et al., 2020). This also helps the HRM carry out background checks and professional reference checks to validate that applicants are qualified to work for the organization.

The best-self exercise can also be used in onboarding training and development. This is for the purpose of retaining talent and remaining competitive. The HRM also provides training and development initiatives to enable employees to develop and grow in their company goals. The HRM can also prepare employees for their career development within the company (Woerkom et al., 2020). This is where the best-self exercise tool allows the department to discover employee strengths and dominant skills that will help guide them towards the right direction in their career advancement.

Human capital can exhibit various factors such as personality, soft and hard skills, work experience, emotional intelligence, and intelligence. The success or failure of an organization is determined by the individuals who form the organization’s manpower or workforce. To maximize the human capital value, the organization has to provide ongoing coaching that improves workforce education. An organization’s manpower that is highly trained or educated will be proficient at accomplishing more. The organization can also coach its manpower or workforce to determine their key strengths, improve their leadership qualities, and thereby improve their work performance (Moore et al., 2021). The Best Self Exercise becomes helpful in this case as the organization can use it on its employees to identify their key strengths and improve their leadership roles. As a result, the employees will be able to work to their full potential hence optimizing their performance and the overall company performance.

An organization can also increase human capital by dividing its manpower into specialized categories. Employees will be able to focus on their area of strength as they specialize more. This will help employees optimize their capability in a specialized skill rather than learning diverse skills and jobs. The company can use the Best Self Exercise tool to group their employees with respect to their areas of strengths. As a result, the company will have a talented and highly specialized workforce in diverse fields leading to overall performance improvement due to the qualification of its workforce. The company can also utilize the tool to recruit employees with diverse backgrounds (Moore et al., 2021). Having employees with diverse backgrounds is beneficial for an organization because its workforce can provide different points of view and competencies towards increasing human capital, which leads to performance improvement of the company.

In conclusion, the Reflected Best Self Exercise is essential as it enables individuals to determine their unique strengths by differentiating desired strengths from actual strengths. This tool is important in guiding individuals’ career paths by ensuring that one uses their key strengths to identify their career path. It enables one to be more confident and enthusiastic, allowing one to follow a career path that is in line with their strengths.

The tool was also helpful in identifying what aspects were well suited for my career path, which included inclusivity, pro-social, open-minded, persevering, industrious, responsible, committed, self-motivated, and great leadership. In addition to being applied to my career path, the Reflected Best Self Exercise can also be applied to HRM in recruiting employees and staffing, as well as onboarding training and development. The tool can also be used to maximize human capital by being used as an approach when providing ongoing coaching, dividing the workforce into specialized categories, and recruiting employees with diverse backgrounds. All these ways help maximize the value of human capital and contribute to the company’s overall performance.

Moore, H., Bakker, A., & Mierlo, H. (2021). Using strengths and thriving at work: The role of colleague strengths recognition and organizational context. European Journal of Work and Organizational Psychology , 1-13. Web.

Sylva, H., Mol, S., Hartog, D., & Dorenbosch, L. (2019). Person-job fit and proactive career behavior: A dynamic approach. European Journal of Work and Organizational Psychology , 28 (5), 631-645. Web.

Twumasi, P., Emeto, T., Lindsay, D., Tsey, K., & Aduli, B. (2018). A Systematic Review of Factors That Influence Youths Career Choices—the Role of Culture. Frontiers in Education , 3 (58), 1-15. Web.

Woerkom, M., Meyers, M., & Bakker, A. (2020). Considering strengths use in organizations as a multilevel construct. Human Resource Management Review , 1-15. Web.

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Bibliography

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87 Self-Reflection Questions for Introspection [+Exercises]

Do you sometimes take time to clarify your values in a moment of doubt or uncertainty?

If you answered “yes,” you are no stranger to self-reflection and introspection (terms that will be used more or less interchangeably in this article), an important psychological exercise that can help you grow, develop your mind, and extract value from your mistakes.

Read on if you’d like to learn the meaning of self-reflection and introspection, reasons why it’s important, and tools and techniques for practicing it yourself.

Before you continue, we thought you might like to download our three Self-Compassion Exercises for free . These detailed, science-based exercises will not only help you increase the compassion and kindness you show yourself but will also give you the tools to help your clients, students, or employees show more compassion to themselves.

This Article Contains:

What is introspection a definition, what is the importance of introspection, 70 self-reflective questions to ask yourself, 10 self-reflection exercises, activities, and techniques for adults and students, 4 self-reflection worksheets and tools, the 3 best books on self-reflection and introspection, a take-home message.

Introspection can be practiced both as an informal reflection process and a formal experimental approach, and the two have different definitions. Still, both processes can be undertaken by anyone with curiosity and determination (Cherry, 2016).

The informal reflection process can be defined as examining one’s own internal thoughts and feelings and reflecting on what they mean. The process can be focused on either one’s current mental experience or mental experiences from the very recent past.

The formal experimental technique is a more objective and standardized version of this, in which people train themselves to carefully analyze the contents of their own thoughts in a way that’s as unbiased as possible.

The original idea of introspection was developed by Wilhelm Wundt in the late 1800s (McLeod, 2008). Wundt focused on three areas of mental functioning: thoughts, images, and feelings. Wundt’s work eventually led to the current work on perceptual processes and the establishment of the field of cognitive psychology .

Researchers have shown that we think more than 50,000 thoughts per day, of which more than half are negative and more than 90% are just repeats from the day before (Wood, 2013).

If you don’t make the time and effort to refocus your mind on the positive through introspection, you won’t give yourself the opportunity to grow and develop.

Enhancing our ability to understand ourselves and our motivations and to learn more about our own values helps us take the power away from the distractions of our modern, fast-paced lives and instead refocus on fulfillment (Wood, 2013).

The importance of doing it right

Reflecting on ourselves and our environments is a healthy and adaptive practice, but it should be undertaken with some care—there is, in fact, a wrong way to do it.

When your focus on introspection has morphed from a dedication to an obsession, you have taken it too far. In fact, those who take self-reflection too far can end up feeling more stressed, depressed, and anxious than ever (Eurich, 2017).

In addition, it is all too easy for us to fool ourselves into thinking we have found some deep insight that may or may not be accurate. We are surprisingly good at coming up with rational explanations for the irrational behaviors we engage in (Dahl, 2017).

To help stay on the right path with your self-reflection, consider asking more “what” questions than “why” questions. “Why” questions can highlight our limitations and stir up negative emotions, while “what” questions help keep us curious and positive about the future (Eurich, 2017).

With this important point in mind, let’s move on to the questions, exercises, and worksheets that you can use to work on your own self-reflection.

Read through the following three lists to get some ideas for introspective questions. Answering them can take you from feeling like you don’t understand yourself to knowing yourself like the back of your hand.

These 10 questions are great ways to jumpstart self-reflection (Woronko, n.d.):

• Am I using my time wisely?
• Am I taking anything for granted?
• Am I employing a healthy perspective?
• Am I living true to myself?
• Am I waking up in the morning ready to take on the day?
• Am I thinking negative thoughts before I fall asleep?
• Am I putting enough effort into my relationships?
• Am I taking care of myself physically?
• Am I letting matters that are out of my control stress me out?
• Am I achieving the goals that I’ve set for myself?

The following 30 questions are questions you can ask yourself every day to get to know yourself better (William, n.d.):

• Who am I, really?
• What worries me most about the future?
• If this were the last day of my life, would I have the same plans for today?
• What am I really scared of?
• Am I holding on to something I need to let go of?
• If not now, then when?
• What matters most in my life?
• What am I doing about the things that matter most in my life?
• Why do I matter?
• Have I done anything lately that’s worth remembering?
• Have I made someone smile today?
• What have I given up on?
• When did I last push the boundaries of my comfort zone?
• If I had to instill one piece of advice in a newborn baby, what advice would I give?
• What small act of kindness was I once shown that I will never forget?
• How will I live, knowing I will die?
• What do I need to change about myself?
• Is it more important to love or be loved?
• How many of my friends would I trust with my life?
• Who has had the greatest impact on my life?
• Would I break the law to save a loved one?
• Would I steal to feed a starving child?
• What do I want most in life?
• What is life asking of me?
• Which is worse: failing or never trying?
• If I try to fail and succeed, what have I done?
• What’s the one thing I’d like others to remember about me at the end of my life?
• Does it really matter what others think about me?
• To what degree have I actually controlled the course of my life?
• When all is said and done, what will I have said more than I’ve done?

Finally, the following 30 prompts and questions are great ways to put your journal to use (Tartakovsky, 2014):

• My favorite way to spend the day is . . .
• If I could talk to my teenage self, the one thing I would say is . . .
• The two moments I’ll never forget in my life are . . . (Describe them in great detail, and what makes them so unforgettable.)
• Make a list of 30 things that make you smile.
• “Write about a moment experienced through your body. Making love, making breakfast, going to a party, having a fight, an experience you’ve had or you imagine for your character. Leave out thought and emotion, and let all information be conveyed through the body and senses.”
• The words I’d like to live by are . . .
• I couldn’t imagine living without . . .
• When I’m in pain—physical or emotional—the kindest thing I can do for myself is . . .
• Make a list of the people in your life who genuinely support you, and whom you can genuinely trust. Then, make time to hang out with them.
• What does unconditional love look like for you?
• What things would you do if you loved yourself unconditionally? How can you act on these things, even if you’re not yet able to love yourself unconditionally?
• I really wish others knew this about me . . .
• Name what is enough for you.
• If my body could talk, it would say . . .
• Name a compassionate way you’ve supported a friend recently. Then, write down how you can do the same for yourself.
• What do you love about life?
• What always brings tears to your eyes? (As Paulo Coelho has said, “Tears are words that need to be written.”)
• Write about a time when your work felt real, necessary and satisfying to you, whether the work was paid or unpaid, professional or domestic, physical or mental.
• Write about your first love—whether it’s a person, place or thing.
• Using 10 words, describe yourself.
• What’s surprised you the most about your life or life in general?
• What can you learn from your biggest mistakes?
• I feel most energized when . . .
• “Write a list of questions to which you urgently need answers.”
• Make a list of everything that inspires you—whether books, websites, quotes, people, paintings, stores, or stars in the sky.
• What’s one topic you need to learn more about to help you live a more fulfilling life? (Then, follow through and learn more about that topic.)
• I feel happiest in my skin when . . .
• Make a list of everything you’d like to say no to.
• Make a list of everything you’d like to say yes to.
• Write the words you need to hear.

For example, the five self-examination exercises listed below (Bates, 2012) are a good way to get started with self-reflection. They’re simple and easy to do, but they can familiarize you with the process for more in-depth reflection in the future.

Self-Examination Exercise 1

Consider whether or not you tend to analyze people or diagnose their problems for them without their encouragement or request.

Often when we hold information that has helped us to make sense of the world, we want to share it. This information, when unprompted and delivered to another person, sometimes doesn’t feel so good. They may feel like you are telling them that something about them is wrong, something that they might not necessarily agree with.

Remind yourself that this information needs to be asked for and not prescribed by you, no matter how valid it feels to pass it on (Bates, 2012).

Self-Examination Exercise 2

This is a good exercise if you tend to expend a lot of energy trying to understand what upsets you about another person’s actions. You may also spend a lot of energy thinking of ways to address that person about what upsets you.

Not only does this burn a lot of your energy, but it also can have an unintended effect on the person who has upset you. When you place a clear emphasis or focus on what is wrong when speaking with someone, it implies that you are dissatisfied and unhappy.

Usually, the issue you have is not something that is making you terribly unhappy, just an annoyance or irritation, so this doom and gloom is not the message you want to deliver. It’s just a single issue that needs attention, but it can seem much bigger and more pervasive to the person you are planning to discuss it with.

Try to remind yourself that this problem, no matter how valid an issue it is or how important it is to you, is not the whole of your feelings. When you deliver this information, remember that a person who loves you does not want to be the cause of your unhappiness—do not make them feel an unnecessary amount of pain as a result of the unhappiness they’ve caused you.

Download 3 Free Self-Compassion Exercises (PDF)

These detailed, science-based exercises will equip you to help others create a kinder and more nurturing relationship with themselves.

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Self-Examination Exercise 3

Do you frequently interrupt people or constantly think of your own stories to share while they are talking? If you’re like a lot of social people, the answer is probably yes.

In order to relate to others, we have to share a little bit of ourselves with them—your stories can help you establish common ground with others or make you closer with them. However, if you’re only focused on sharing your stories, it can distract you from the greater purpose of a conversation.

In our eagerness to relate, please, entertain, and share, we often remove ourselves from the present, reducing our ability to be sensitive and engaged listeners. Even if we spend our whole lives trying to be good listeners , sometimes we slip out of practice in empathizing or identifying with the person we’re talking to, or we lose an opportunity to comfort or entertain the other person.

Next time you have a conversation with a loved one and you find yourself thinking ahead of them, take a moment to pause and truly listen. Don’t think about how you can personally identify with what they are talking about, and don’t search your memory bank for a relevant story of your own—just listen.

It’s a rewarding experience to truly soak in what another person is saying, both for you and the other person (Bates, 2012).

Self-Examination Exercise 4

Sometimes when we work very hard to do good things, we get to a level of comfort with that fact, and we begin to talk about it to others. That can be a great thing in that it allows us to own our efforts and our actions and, with that, acknowledge our goodness to ourselves.

But for this exercise, consider how you might feel if you were to do things that are good, but only for your own knowledge. The next time you do something really wonderful, try keeping that wonderful thing to yourself and not sharing it with anyone.

Often when a person is good and loving, they don’t have to tell anyone; it’s a truth that shines from every angle of their person. As an experiment, keep some knowledge to yourself, as a gift to you (Bates, 2012).

Self-Examination Exercise 5

For this exercise, you need only to do one thing: Consider what you don’t know.

When we get to a place of comfort in our skin and in the world, we tend to lose the ability to see things from a different perspective. Things make sense to us in our own point of view, so what’s left to know?

Everything, it turns out.

By this, we mean to try and remind yourself of these facts: You cannot know or understand everything, and you are not the judge of what is right for another person.

You can neither read minds nor know what the future holds. You can only exist in one moment at a time, and you are changing every day.

Trust that sometimes others know themselves and their lives better than you ever could. Listen with the awareness that you might learn something new.

Be open to the fact that you might one day feel totally different about something that you believe to be fixed—and that includes your sticking points, the “unchangeables” you thought were forever set in stone. Let what you don’t know and can’t know be a comfort rather than something to fear, because it means that anything is possible (Bates, 2012).

Once you have found your footing with these self-examination exercises, the following introspective exercises are a great next step.

4 Self-reflection technique – OER Africa

Affirmations

Creating affirmations is a helpful way to clear your mind and put things in perspective. Affirmations can be defined as positive phrases or statements used to challenge  negative or unhelpful thoughts .

For this exercise, write a list of at least 50 affirmations. They should address what you want to embrace, improve, and achieve in your life.

Follow these instructions when composing and practicing your affirmations:

• Write the affirmations in the present tense and be sure to use the word “I” throughout the affirmations;
• Focus on the things that are occurring now that will lead to your future success. You may have negative thoughts pop up, but do your best to let go of the negative thoughts and replace them with positive thinking;
• Repeat your affirmations aloud to help reprogram your mind with more positive thoughts.

Following these steps can help you open yourself up to the positive in your life and take steps that will lead you to the future you want (Holothink, n.d.).

Subconscious Mind Exercise

In this exercise, you will dive into your subconscious. Don’t worry, it’s not as painful or scary as it sounds!

Your subconscious mind is where your self-image is stored. All of your attitudes, experiences, beliefs, and values are stored deep in your subconscious, driving your behavior and forming the core of who you are.

We don’t often take time to think about ourselves on this level. So in this exercise, take some time and put a concerted effort into thinking about your attitudes, experiences, beliefs, and values. It may take a few sessions of self-reflection to really uncover your core beliefs, but it’s worth the effort it takes to learn about yourself.

Reflecting on this core component of yourself will help you gain greater self-awareness . Much like meditation, it will help you achieve a new, higher level of consciousness, and it may just help you find valuable information and answers about yourself and your beliefs (Holothink, n.d.).

Visualization Exercise

This exercise offers you an opportunity to put your creativity to use.

Create a box, a vision board, or some other medium to store and display who you are and what your hopes and dreams are for the future. You can create or decorate your box or board however you’d like. Use whatever you feel represents yourself and what’s important to you.

Place pictures, words, drawings, poems, or small items of personal significance on your board or in your box. The more details you include, the better.

The end result is a visual representation of yourself and what you love. Come back to the box or board when you’re having a dilemma or trying to figure out the best course of action, and draw from this visual representation of yourself to help you make decisions (Holothink, n.d.).

For this exercise, feel free to put your imagination to good use—the sky’s the limit when it comes to visualization.

Questions About Yourself

This exercise is simple, but that doesn’t mean it’s easy. All you need to do is ask yourself some questions.

Ask yourself questions about yourself. Write down the questions, then write down your answers to the questions. Ask yourself about your past, present, and future, and compose answers to the questions that are positive, insightful, and motivating to you.

Don’t worry about coming up with the “right” answers—there aren’t any right answers, and your answers will likely change over time. And be as creative as you’d like with the questions and answers since no one else needs to answer or read them but you.

Be sure to structure your questions to include details about your hopes and dreams. The more detailed your questions and answers, the more opportunity you have to dig into some valuable self-reflection (Holothink, n.d.).

Write and Reflect

Journaling is great for many reasons, and it can be used in several applications for introspection.

For this exercise, get a journal , diary, or notebook with plenty of pages to write in.

Every day, write down three things in your journal:

• At least one positive thing that happened to or around you today;
• A question for yourself (you can use one of the questions from the previous exercise, a question from the lists we covered earlier, or something entirely new), but don’t answer it yet;
• A reflection on the question you wrote the previous day for yourself and an answer to it.

Following these steps, you will write only the first two components on the first day but will write three components every day thereafter (Holothink, n.d.).

Self-Awareness Worksheet

This worksheet is a treasure trove of exercises and ideas to help you think about yourself, including your talents, qualities, values, and perceptions.

The point of this worksheet is to help you know and understand:

• Your beliefs and principles;
• What you value and what is important to you;
• What motivates you;
• Your own emotions ;
• Your thinking patterns;
• Your tendencies to react to certain situations;
• What you want out of life.

There are several sections to this worksheet, each of which has its own set of questions and prompts:

– Talents

• What are your greatest talents or skills?
• Which of your talents or skills gives you the greatest sense of pride or satisfaction?

– Traits/Qualities

• What are your five greatest strengths?
• What do you feel are your two biggest weaknesses?
• What qualities or traits do you most admire in others?

– Values

• What are ten things that are really important to you?
• What are the three most important things to you?
• What are the values that you hold nearest to your heart?

– Perception

• How is the “public you” different from the “private you”?
• What do you want people to think and say about you?
• Is it more important to be liked by others or to be yourself? Why?

– Accomplishments

• What three things are you most proud of in your life to date?
• What do you hope to achieve in life?
• If you could accomplish only one thing before you died, what would it be?

– Reflection

• What is something that represents you (e.g., song, animal, flower, poem, symbol, jewelry, etc.)? Why?
• What three things would you like to change most about yourself?
• List three things that you are.

– Finish the Sentence

In the final section, you will be shown several prompts to complete:

• I do my best when . . .
• I struggle when . . .
• I am comfortable when . . .
• I feel stress when . . .
• I am courageous when . . .
• One of the most important things I learned was . . .
• I missed a great opportunity when . . .
• One of my favorite memories is . . .
• My toughest decisions involve . . .
• Being myself is hard because . . .
• I can be myself when . . .
• I wish I were more . . .
• I wish I could . . .
• I wish I would regularly . . .
• I wish I had . . .
• I wish I knew . . .
• I wish I felt . . .
• I wish I saw . . .
• I wish I thought . . .
• Life should be about . . .
• I am going to make my life about . . .

Once you finish this worksheet, you should have plenty of insight into who you really are and what is most important to you. Use your answers to inform your decisions about what goals you choose to strive toward, what you would like to do in the future, and what moves to make next.

You can view, download, or print this worksheet for yourself.

The average human has more than 50,000 thoughts per day; more than half of them are negative, and more than 90% are just a repetition from the day before (Wood, 2013).

This means refocusing your mind on positive thoughts through introspection is essential for personal ascendance and growth. Most people take the end of the year as an opportunity to reflect on the past and set goals for the following year. However, reflections and introspection are critical at any point in time and enable your clients to grow.

Wilhelm Wundt developed the concept of introspection in the late 1800s (McLeod, 2008). According to him, introspection is focused on thoughts, images, and feelings. Introspective questions are often used in the field of cognitive psychology.

Understanding your clients allows you to learn more about their values, internal thoughts, and feelings. Furthermore, it takes the focus away from fast-paced lives and allows your client to be in the present moment and refocus on fulfillment (Wood, 2013).

Besides asking your client reflective questions, another tip is to practice active listening. Being able to stay entirely in the present moment without interruption or projecting your own story onto someone is key to helping your clients flourish. When the urge to share your story arises, pause and take the time to listen.

Tool 1: Persona

Before moving on to the empathy map below, first create a “persona,” or a clear character representation of your actual self, your ideal self, and your “ought” self (Kos, n.d.).

In order to create this persona, you will need to thoroughly analyze who you are, who you want to become, and what the social expectations connected to your feelings and behaviors are like in different situations.

Answering questions like the following can help you define these three important selves:

• Why do I want to become [enter a characteristic important to you] ? Who in my life was or is like that?
• Who would I be proud if I were [enter a characteristic important to you] ? Why?
• How are my feelings in certain situations connected with my actual, ideal, and ought self?
• Am I pushing myself to be something I’m actually not?
• Am I being something I’m not just because others expect it of me?

Use your answers to these questions to help you get an idea of who you are, who you want to be, and who you feel you ought to be. Once this preparation has been completed, move on to creating an empathy map.

Tool 2: Empathy Map

An empathy map can help you engage in a valuable and informative process of self-reflection, using all of your senses to help you identify your needs and the disconnections between what you say and what you do (Kos, n.d.). Don’t worry—we all have a disconnect between what we say and what we do.

This exercise can help you figure out where you have these disconnects and how you can best address them to become the person you want to be.

To create your empathy map, simply draw four quadrants on a piece of paper. Each quadrant represents a different aspect of yourself:

Next, consider a situation that evokes a specific strong emotion in you, like having a fight with your spouse or significant other. In each quadrant, write down the relevant aspects of each perspective.

For example, for the fight scenario, you could write down something like the following:

• Seeing: What are some of the things you saw during the situation?
• Doing: What actions did you do and which behaviors did you notice in yourself? What is the behavioral pattern you can identify?
• Thinking: What were you thinking in that situation? What does this tell you about your beliefs?
• Feeling: What emotions were you feeling? Why? Which past situation do they most remind you of?

On the backside of your piece of paper, on another piece of paper, or next to your four quadrants, create a fifth section. Here, you will write down your insights and ideas based on your empathy map.

The following questions can help you with the self-reflection process while you’re working on your map:

• How is the situation connected to your fears and hopes? What are your fears? What are your hopes? Which of your needs are met or not met in that situation?
• What was the environment in which you encountered the situation? What do you remember from the environment? How did you find yourself in that environment and why? What was your sight focused on?
• What hurts you most in the situation or makes you feel good about the situation?
• What was the feedback you gathered from your environment or other people?
• What are all the positives about the situation? What can you learn about yourself, others, and the world by experiencing that kind of a situation?

Do your best to avoid falling prey to cognitive distortions or reinforcing negative feelings while answering these questions. Go deep, and identify why you feel like you do. Observe, but don’t judge (Kos, n.d.).

Tool 3: Life Satisfaction Chart

A life satisfaction chart is a great way to assess how well you are meeting your goals and furthering your hopes for the future. You can complete this chart periodically to track your progress toward your goals and see what needs to be revised, improved, reduced, or eliminated to help you strive toward them.

Draw a scale from 1 (not at all satisfied) to 10 (extremely satisfied) horizontally, and list the following ten areas of life vertically:

• Relationships;
• Competencies;
• Spirituality ;
• Technology.

Assess your satisfaction in each of the 10 areas using the scale you created.

Next, take a second look at all the areas where you are only somewhat satisfied (where you used a rating between 4 and 7). It can be hard to effectively reflect when you don’t have a clear idea of whether you are satisfied with a specific area or not.

Go back through these “somewhat satisfied” areas and rate your satisfaction again, but use only ratings between 1 and 3 or 8 and 10. Limiting your options to either “very satisfied” or “not very satisfied” will help you to make a more decisive judgment about your satisfaction in each area.

Highlight every section rated with a 1, 2, or 3 with red, and highlight every section rated with an 8, 9, or 10 with green. Finally, for all ten areas of life, ask yourself, Why did you rate each area how you did? What would make you change your rating?

Repeat this exercise as often as you’d like to help you keep track of your satisfaction with the way your life is going (Kos, n.d.).

17 Exercises To Foster Self-Acceptance and Compassion

Help your clients develop a kinder, more accepting relationship with themselves using these 17 Self-Compassion Exercises [PDF] that promote self-care and self-compassion.

Created by Experts. 100% Science-based.

There are many books out there on self-reflection, self-awareness , and introspection, but we recommend the books below as resources to help you start your journey.

1. Question Your Life: Naikan Self-Reflection and the Transformation of Our Stories – Gregg Krech

Like the physical bags we carry when we go on a journey, our hearts and our minds only have so much room—but instead of carrying luggage, they carry stories. Some stories inform our lives and help us understand ourselves, while others don’t serve a purpose and can weigh us down.

In this book, Krech will guide the reader through several powerful examples of people who had an important change of heart or mind as a result of quiet self-reflection, including a woman who hated her mother, a man estranged from his father, a pregnant woman hit by a train, a couple who was struggling with their marriage, and a rabbi who neglected his shoes.

Read this book to open yourself up to seeing the world differently, and finding a better path forward.

You can find it on Amazon .

2. Being Present: A Book of Daily Reflections – David Kundtz

Being present can be defined as:

• Paying full attention to what is going on right now;
• Staying in the moment;
• Observing what is, without criticism or judgment;
• Having a balanced concern for things exactly as they are;
• Accepting whatever experience one is having;
• Having an awake participation in ongoing life.

You can use this book as a reminder to be more present through every season of the year and every season of life. The book draws inspiration from poets, scientists, spiritual teachers, children, butterflies, and big cities, and teaches you to accept each day as one full of possibilities and potential surprises.

3. 52 Weeks of Self Reflection – Erika R. Dawkins

You can use this book to guide you through self-reflection. No matter your goal, this guidebook will help you clear your head, see the world from a new perspective, and build a greater understanding of yourself.

In this piece, we defined introspection, described the importance of self-reflection (especially healthy self-reflection), and provided many example exercises, activities, and worksheets for you to enhance your understanding of yourself.

Keep in mind that self-reflection is an intensely personal process. If you find other activities that work better for you, feel free to focus on those—but we’d love for you to come back here and share with us what works.

Do you have any other techniques for self-reflection that you like to use? How important do you think introspection is for the average person, or for yourself? Let us know in the comments.

We hope you enjoyed reading this article. Don’t forget to download our three Self Compassion Exercises for free .

• Bates, S. M. (2012, November 11). Check yo’ self: An exercise in self-reflection. Hello Giggles. Retrieved from https://hellogiggles.com/fashion/check-yo-self-an-exercise-in-self-reflection/
• Cherry, K. (2016, June 14). What is introspection? Wundt’s experimental technique. Very Well. Retrieved from https://www.verywell.com/what-is-introspection-2795252
• Dahl, M. (2017). Sometimes ‘introspection’ is you just making stuff up. Science of Us. Retrieved from http://nymag.com/scienceofus/2017/03/sometimes-introspection-is-you-just-making-stuff-up.html
• Eurich, T. (2017). The right way to be introspective (yes, there’s a wrong way). TED. Retrieved from https://ideas.ted.com/the-right-way-to-be-introspective-yes-theres-a-wrong-way/
• Holothink. (n.d.). The art of self-reflection – 5 exercises to find peace in your life. Holothink.org. Retrieved from https://holothink.org/the-art-of-self-reflection-%E2%80%93-5-exercises-to-find-peace-in-your-life/
• Kos, B. (n.d.). Tools to help you with self-reflection. Agile Lean Life. Retrieved from https://agileleanlife.com/tools-to-help-you-with-self-reflection/
• McLeod, S. (2008). Wilhelm Wundt. Simply Psychology. Retrieved from https://www.simplypsychology.org/wundt.html
• Tartakovsky, M. (2014). 30 journaling prompts for self-reflection and self-discovery. Psych Central. Retrieved from https://psychcentral.com/blog/archives/2014/09/27/30-journaling-prompts-for-self-reflection-and-self-discovery/
• William, D. K. (n.d.). 30 thought-provoking questions you should ask yourself every day. Lifehack. Retrieved from http://www.lifehack.org/articles/communication/30-thought-provoking-questions-you-should-ask-yourself-every-day.html
• Wood, K. (2013). The lost art of introspection: Why you must master yourself. Expert Enough. Retrieved from http://expertenough.com/2990/the-lost-art-of-introspection-why-you-must-master-yourself
• Woronko, M. (n.d.). The power of self-reflection: Ten questions you should ask yourself. Lifehack. Retrieved from http://www.lifehack.org/articles/communication/the-power-self-reflection-ten-questions-you-should-ask-yourself.html

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Fantastic article and each of the Reflective Question is like a light house taking us deep inside of our life experiences. Thank You with deep appreciation in preparing this.

Great article! Self-reflection is necessary for improvement!

A very informative article. I learned alot.

I would say ”Best” information I’ve ever read about Self-reflection

I am really impressed with your writing style. Keep it up. The way you explain a complex topic in an easy to understand way is really impressive. Thanks for your inspiring thoughts which guided me well during my journey and gave me the hope I was looking for in personal and professional life. Hats off for this content…

First of all, Thank you for writing this article. It was very useful for Self Motivation.. All the points are very important to our personal and professional career. This will be a useful book for everyone.

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7 Free Reflection Activities and Revision Exercises for Freelance Trainers & Teachers

When providing training, reflection activities are a great idea in order to give participants a chance to revise the ideas and concepts that have been covered in the class. Such activities help to re-enforce learning and in a fun way.

So coming up below are 7 reflection activities and games that also can be used in your workshops and classes as a freelance trainer or teacher.

Page Contents

The ‘Matching Games’ Icebreaker

Activity time-frame.

Allowing 20 to 30 minutes is the perfect amount of time for this activity.

Number of Participants

Divide participants into groups of 4 to 6 people.

Activity Purpose and Goal

For revisions and reflection, this is a good activity to either get the participants to revise concepts covered during the training or to reflect and find solutions on a topic.

Each group receives a set of cards, which have information on them such as sentences, questions, pictures, scenarios. Basically, almost anything that is significant for the topic.

They are then asked to rank the cards in a particular order, sort them into categories or to use them as labels on a mind map, chart or picture.

Alternatively, they can match each card (which contains a question, for example) with a corresponding card from a different set (which contains the answers).

Reflection Activity Instructions

1. Divide participants into small groups of 3 to 6 people each, depending on the class size.

2. Give each group of participants a set of cards, 20 for instance, with words, pictures, or statements. If relevant, also give them the items that they need to match these cards with (another set of cards, a map, etc.)

3. Explain to them whether they need to sort the cards into groups of concepts, rank them, or match them with other items.

Give participants 10 minutes (or a bit more, depending on the complexity of the concepts).

Ask each group to discuss with the rest of the class how they have matched or ranked the concepts.

Benefits of this Classroom Reflection Exercise

• This activity helps students to ‘construct’ their own knowledge.
• It is very good to help participants take ownership of their own learning by giving them time to reflect and make associations.
• This is an activity that participants can do on their own but, if they do it in groups, they will develop communication and team-building skills .

The ‘Elements of Success’ Reflection Activity Exercise

15 to 20 minutes is the perfect time frame for this reflection exercise, but you can easily adapt it to be shorter or longer, depending on available time.

This activity is best done in groups of 3 or 4 people.

Purpose (Reflection and discussion)

The topic of this game is ‘success’, so participants will share their ideas on what makes something or someone successful.

It’s very useful in particular for soft skills and life planning training sessions .

Activity Instructions

1. Split participants into groups of 3 or 4.

2. Ask each of them to think of a peak experience of whatever the topic is (e.g., the best work meeting you ever had; the best-organized conference you attended; the most engaging speaker you ever heard; the most interesting presentation you remember; the best piece of work you did, etc.).

3. Ask each participant to think about what made the experience so successful.

4. Ask participants to share their story with the rest of their small group.

5. Get the group to discuss what they think the elements of success are.

6. Get each group to share the outcome of their conversation with the rest of the class. You can write down the elements of success on a flip chart yourself or ask each group to write on their own sheet of A1 paper and present it.

Benefits of this Reflection and Revision Exercise

• This exercise promotes a positive mindset as it focuses on success.
• By promoting discussion, this exercise stimulates deep learning.

The ‘Snowballs Revision & Reflection’ Activity

15 to 20 minutes is the perfect amount of time for the Snowball activity exercise.

This activity is ideal for 6 people or more.

Purpose of this Revision and Reflection Exercise

This is a fun and active way to review a topic.

1. Supply each participant with a pen and paper.

2. Ask a relevant question and ask participants to write their answers on a piece of paper.

3. Form a circle, away from any obstacles such as tables and chairs.

4. Ask participants to scrunch up their sheet of paper to make a ‘snowball’.

5. Say ‘Let’s start a snowball fight’ and allow participants 30 seconds to throw, catch and throw as many snowballs as they can.

6. At the end of the 30 seconds, stop the fight by blowing a whistle.

7. Ask each participant to pick up a snowball and open it.

8. Ask participants to take turns in reading aloud the response on their piece of paper.

9. Repeat the process with another question, playing as many rounds as the number of questions you want to ask.

Benefits of this Activity

• Through this activity, participants can give their input anonymously.
• As a trainer, this activity can help you evaluate what the participants have learned or want to learn.

The ‘Your Ideal Life in Three Acts’ Revision & Planning Exercise

Allow 15 to 20 minutes for this reflection and planning exercise

This exercise can be carried out individually or in small groups of 3 to 4 people.

Purpose of this Reflection and Planning Exercise

This is a good exercise for a training session on focus and life planning, happiness, or mindfulness . It could also be a useful exercise for talking about the importance of prioritizing, during a session on time management .

Instructions to Run this Activity

1. Ask participants to write the story of their ideal life in three acts, as though it was a play:

• Past dreams achieved.
• Present situation (good and bad parts)
• Their ideal future

2. You can ask participants to share this exercise with a small group and discuss it, or it can be used as an individual reflection. Some discussion with the rest of the class after the activity is always useful though, even if participants carry out the exercise individually.

The Benefits

• By asking participants to focus on their ideal life and finishing with their ideal future, it gives them a positive perspective about what they can still achieve.

The ‘Response Cards Activity’

From 15 to 30 minutes, depending on the number of questions you want to ask.

Any number, in groups of 4 to 6 people.

Activity Purpose

This is a revision, reflection, and discovery activity. It’s an interesting alternative to asking questions to participants with the trainer writing the answers on a flip chart.

Unlike the flip-chart activity, this activity gives everyone the chance to give an answer.

1. Ask an open-ended question and ask each participant to write their answer on a card. Give them a suitable time limit.

2. Separate the participants into small groups of 4 to 6 people per group.

3. Collect the responses from each team and give them to another team.

4. Ask each group to select two responses: the ‘best’ one and the response that is the most different from the others. Give them a suitable time limit.

5. Ask each team to read the responses they selected.

6. Comment and discuss on each response.

The Benefits of this activity

• This activity gives participants time for reflection.
• It is a good way to involve even the shyest participants , who would not answer in front of the whole class otherwise.

Personal Shield of Honour

15 to 20 minutes.

Put participants into groups of 4 to 8 people.

Purpose of this activity

This activity is perfect for Reflection and discussion.

The aim is to focus on what is done well at their workplace, as well as on what it could be improved.

You will need:

• A1 pieces of paper
• Writing implements such as pen, markers, and crayons
• Possibly even a magazine and scissors

1. Explain that each group will create a ‘shield’ out of a big piece of paper.

2. Each group will need to divide their shield into 4 quadrants, each containing the following elements:

• Quadrant 1: What skills and abilities do you bring to the workplace
• Quadrant 2: What skills and abilities do you need to improve upon in the workplace
• Quadrant 3: What frustrates you about our workplace
• Quadrant 4: What is a source of pride at your workplace

3. Ask the groups to use only images, photos, drawings, and graphics. No words are allowed.

4. Give them 10 minutes to create their shield.

5. Give every group the chance to share their results by asking them to present their shield to the rest of the class. Allow 1 to 2 minutes for each presentation.

• This activity engages visual and kinaesthetic learning styles.

Personal Brand Tagline

5 to 10 minutes

Participants

Any number of participants. This activity is done individually and the results can then be shared with the rest of the class.

Purpose of the Exercise

This is a great marketing, creativity, or self-reflection exercise. This activity can be used for training sessions on copywriting, marketing (including digital marketing ), soft skills, writing CVs. It can be quite a versatile tool.

1. Provide participants with pen and paper if they do not already have them.

2. Ask participants to write a tagline as a tweet, using only 140 characters to promote themselves.

3. Share with the rest of the class and discuss.

• This is a good exercise to help participants focus on the essentials and on what is important.
• The results can be funny, so this may be a useful activity to lighten the mood.

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Thank you so much for sharing these.

As mother of two preteens I struggle to “manage” them. I think I could use these exercises to help teach them some valuable life skills in entertaining way.

I have utilized similar activities through my 20 years in upper retail management. I wrote similar activities during my second career as an Instructional Designer. One day I just realized these techniques could be utilized to help me teach me kids. Maybe we don’t need to separate work and home as much as we think we do.

It is nice to be able to utilize these activities without having to create them. Thank you for sharing.

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The Morning

Moving target.

A recent study offers some suggestions on the best time of day to exercise. But optimizing a routine requires having a routine to begin with.

By Melissa Kirsch

Back in the years 2020 and 2021, years that are increasingly easy to categorize as “the past” rather than the ongoing present, I worked from home every day, and on most of those days I exercised from home, too. In the late morning between meetings, or around lunchtime, I rode a stationary bike or lifted weights or danced to Rihanna with a choreographer who broadcast a daily live class from an enviable house in Joshua Tree.

It was easy, in those days when nothing much else was easy, to find time to exercise. The routine that had evaded me most of my life was, during those years, achievable. In the years since, this routine has become unrealistic most of the time. Days are once again organized around the office and its commute. The options for how to spend nonwork time are no longer confined to a limited lockdown menu of what can be accomplished at a distance of six feet or more. Exercise has, once again, become something that I put on a to-do list and try to squeeze in before or after work, an essential practice, but one that now competes with the entire open world for my time and attention.

I’ve settled where many of us do, on a non-routine whereby I exercise whenever I can: a before-work jog when I can rouse myself, quick rounds of strength training between meetings on days I work remotely, longer workouts on weekends. I constantly feel that I’m not doing enough, not engaged in a rigorous enough program of optimization.

I read this week about a recent study in which people who exercised in the evening saw their risk of death decline by as much as 28 percent compared with those who exercised in the morning or afternoon. This, I thought, was compelling! I should become an after-work exerciser, one of those people who changes into their gym clothes before leaving the office, who runs on a treadmill while watching “The Bachelor,” and — who knows what else might be possible? — eats three ounces of lean protein for dinner at 8, spends a good 20 minutes melting the ravages of sitting from my hips with a foam roller and is in bed with a book — no screens! — by 10.

I quickly realized this was a ridiculous fantasy. I’m a dutiful exerciser, a doing-it-because-I-have-to person, always under slight duress, wanting to have it done so that I can feel accomplished but also always fighting my essential nature, which is, I’ve grown OK with admitting, a little lazy. My exercise regimen is not a movable feast that I can shift into an optimal time slot. I jumped to the part in The Times’s story on the study that I always look for in stories of this ilk, the one that assures me that while the study is convincing, the most important thing about exercise for most people is that they do it. There it was, courtesy of Angelo Sabag, an exercise physiologist who led the study: “Whenever you can exercise,” Dr. Sabag said. “That is the answer.”

Here is where I’d like to stop, having determined that any exercise is better than none, and pat myself on the back for doing enough. And I will, for today, because it’s Saturday and I have the luxury of midday exercising and I’m not going to waste it. But I’m trying these days to approach things about myself that seem fixed with more curiosity. So while I jog around the park in the springtime sun, I’m committed to mulling some questions. What is it about the way I approach exercise that fills me with a bit of dread, that makes it a chore rather than a joy or a privilege or at least something I approach with interest? If I wanted to exercise in the evenings, for potential health benefits or just because it might be nice to switch things up, how can I do that in a way that doesn’t feel like punishment?

Last week I wrote about considering the way we’re spending our days, remembering that our time is limited. “How we spend our days is, of course, how we spend our lives,” as Annie Dillard wrote. “What we do with this hour, and that one, is what we are doing.” If what we are doing this or that particular hour is exercising, how can we make it a little more agreeable? How can we make it a blessed hour rather than a cursed one?

How to exercise when it’s the last thing on earth you want to do.

The secret to sustainable workouts? Accountability .

In praise of slow running .

THE WEEK IN CULTURE

The beef between two rap superstars, Kendrick Lamar and Drake, continues to escalate. After Lamar released “Euphoria,” a blistering six-minute track attacking Drake, the two men released three more diss songs on Friday .

Dua Lipa released “Radical Optimism,” her latest album. “It’s an album of nonstop ear candy,” the Times pop critic Jon Pareles writes .

The Eurovision Song Contest begins next week. Casual observers may tune in once a year for the final, but for superfans it’s a yearlong celebration of pop music .

Film and TV

“The Idea of You,” in which Anne Hathaway plays a 40-year-old mom in a relationship with a member of a boy band, is one of eight movies worth knowing about this week .

Watch the director David Leitch narrate a scene from “The Fall Guy,” a movie about a stuntman starring Ryan Gosling and Emily Blunt.

Blue Ivy Carter, Beyoncé’s 12-year-old daughter, will make her feature film debut in a prequel to Disney’s 2019 “The Lion King” remake.

Jerry Seinfeld, in his directorial debut, puts forward a satirical take on the origin of Pop-Tarts. Read about the real story and test your Pop-Tart knowledge with a quiz .

It’s May 4, known as “Star Wars Day.” Read about how fans digitally restored the original movies , and how the actor who played Jar Jar Binks overcame fan backlash .

Other Big Stories

The author Paul Auster died this week at 77. See a list of books that best represent his work .

At Venice Biennale, some artists, like the Brazilian Glicéria Tupinambá, are making the case for the restitution of looted artifacts .

THE LATEST NEWS

Trump on Trial

Hope Hicks, a former aide to Donald Trump, testified for several hours in his Manhattan criminal trial. She seemed nervous and at one point broke down in tears.

Hicks said that Trump was a micromanager and that the “Access Hollywood” tape, in which Trump bragged about assaulting women, sent his 2016 campaign into a frenzy, a possible motive for silencing Stormy Daniels.

But Hicks also said that Trump was worried about his wife’s reaction to a story about one of his affairs, which may help his defense. Prosecutors have argued that the hush money was meant to help Trump win the election.

Israel-Hamas War

Israel is under pressure to end the war. Behind the scenes, its officials are considering a postwar plan in which Israel would oversee Gaza alongside Arab countries and the U.S.

Turkey halted trade with Israel until Israel stops bombarding Gaza and allows in more humanitarian aid.

A Times investigation, based on videos from journalists and witnesses, shows how counterprotesters instigated violent clashes with a pro-Palestinian encampment at U.C.L.A., and how the police waited hours to respond.

Some faculty members at U.C.L.A., Columbia and other universities have joined pro-Palestinian student protesters, given them food and even been arrested .

China, Iran and Russia have mounted online campaigns amplifying the protesters’ messages, criticizing the police and otherwise stoking U.S. political divisions .

Federal prosecutors accused Representative Henry Cuellar, a Texas Democrat, and his wife of participating in a yearslong bribery scheme . Cuellar denied the allegations.

The Canadian police arrested three Indian nationals in the June killing of a Sikh leader in Canada. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has accused India of orchestrating the murder.

The U.S. economy added 175,000 jobs in April, a slowdown compared with recent months . The unemployment rate remained low.

President Biden gave Nancy Pelosi, the Olympic swimmer Katie Ledecky and several others the Presidential Medal of Freedom .

CULTURE CALENDAR

By Andrew LaVallee

😹 “Woke Foke” (Saturday): Even if you didn’t watch the Katt Williams interview that broke the internet earlier this year, you probably read a hot take, watched a highlights reel or were vaguely aware that he had a beef with someone. My colleague Elena Bergeron got into all of that in a new profile of Williams that was published this week, and this weekend his comedy special “Woke Foke” airs on Netflix. It’s only the second time the streamer has gone live with a comedian (the first was Chris Rock in 2023 ), and as Williams told Elena, discussing himself in the third person, “The benefit of Katt Williams live is that you don’t, in any way, know what he’s going to say.”

RECIPE OF THE WEEK

By Melissa Clark

Asparagus, Goat Cheese and Tarragon Tart

We’ve reached peak asparagus season in much of the country, meaning now is the time to show it off. My asparagus, goat cheese and tarragon tart is perfect for a light dinner, a delicate appetizer if you’re doing a multicourse meal, or a festive springtime nibble to serve with drinks. It’s at its flakiest, creamiest best while warm, but still good a few hours later after cooling down.

REAL ESTATE

The hunt: An Alabama native looked around Brooklyn for a one-bedroom for less than $500,000. Which home did she choose? Play our game .

What you get for $2.1 million: An 1830 Cape Cod-style house in Provincetown, Mass.; a 1939 two-bedroom cottage in Austin, Texas; or an 1840 house in Charleston, S.C.

Living small: The tiny Bolt-Together House in Delancey, N.Y., had no heat or toilet, but it was theirs for $85,000 .

No surprise needed: Some couples, rejecting traditional engagements, are opting for joint proposals .

Beauty: As a child, Sofia Coppola used to melt down lipsticks to look like a character in a Roman Polanski film. That’s inspired her new line of tinted lip balms .

Travel: Chacarita is a quirky low-profile neighborhood in Buenos Aires where you can find Art Deco houses on cobblestone streets and decadent churros.

Senior daters: Rates of certain sexually transmitted infections are rising among older people. Read about how to be safe.

ADVICE FROM WIRECUTTER

It’s time to clean out your camera roll.

If you’re anything like me, your phone’s photo library is a mess. I have more than 50,000 images stored in Google Photos, and while powerful search tools and facial recognition make managing this massive collection easier, I still spend a lot of time scrolling to find what I’m looking for. To get organized, Wirecutter’s experts have some advice , including building a “delete day” habit. Take a few minutes daily to search the day’s date in your photo software of choice and then delete, hide or sort photos from that day in years past. With a little work, you can transform your photo warehouse into a curated gallery. — Max Eddy

GAME OF THE WEEK

Minnesota Timberwolves vs. Denver Nuggets, N.B.A. playoffs: The Timberwolves, fresh off their first playoff series win in two decades, must now face last year’s champions. The Nuggets have the two-time M.V.P. Nikola Jokic, a 7-footer whose water polo-inspired passing makes him unlike anyone else in the game. But do they have an answer for Anthony Edwards, the Timberwolves’ 22-year-old star, whose explosive athleticism (check out this dunk from the first round ) has drawn comparisons to a young Michael Jordan? 7 p.m. Eastern tonight on TNT

NOW TIME TO PLAY

Here is today’s Spelling Bee . Yesterday’s pangram was backfill .

Take the news quiz to see how well you followed this week’s headlines.

And here are today’s Mini Crossword , Wordle , Sudoku and Connections .

Thanks for spending part of your weekend with The Times. — Melissa

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Melissa Kirsch is the deputy editor of Culture and Lifestyle at The Times and writes The Morning newsletter on Saturdays. More about Melissa Kirsch