Hardcore! To reflect. Isn't it? You know what it takes to reflect? Hardcore honesty. Honesty with yourself. It's complicated.
Reflecting is a look in the mirror of your inner self. When I look in the mirror I often see what I want to see. The ego tends to switch into a kind of defense mode, right? I'm fine, must be the others. I know it all too well.
In this mode, however, reflections are rarely possible. Because no man is an island and looking at ourselves with painful honesty brings to light everything we accuse others of. Because it is often precisely the qualities that bother us in others that are inherent in us. Those qualities that we fear for ourselves.
I don't want to be or become like that.
What resonates with it is the possibility that it could happen that way. That we may carry those qualities within ourselves. My ego liked to suppress that and is still often trying too. The moment I realized that I myself are often what I don't want to be, sucked big times. It is a painful process of self-knowledge that can end in wonderful things but at the same time is infinite. I realized for myself that too often in my blame games, good advice giving and tries to please society I was exactly what I pointed out in others.
Sucks, right?
We live in a society in which self-reflection is not necessarily practiced. Politicians who refuse to publicly admit mistakes, a narcissistic economic structure whose only goal is profit, a society of growth, of constant optimization, of pointers and good advice givers. A society of excess and absolute nothingness. We are outraged at everything and everyone and are rarely outraged at ourselves. We like to criticize, but we can rarely swallow criticism. Well, I'm no different than you.
Hardcore, to reflect, isn't it? You know why it sucks to reflect? It's complicated.
It is complicated and confusing on a high level. I am constantly confused when I deal with myself. It's the most uncomfortable thing I can do. This self-reflection. Yet it is the best thing.
But be aware!
Reflecting sucks up a bit of energy and what you reflect for yourself is not necessarily the end of story or easy to put in words sometimes, neither is it easy for people to follow those crazy epiphanies you may have while reflecting, nor is it that you wanna share it or others give a damn.
For maximum confusion I will end this post right here. For sure, I'll burst in again with a post.
No post left behind without meaningful pictures to reflect on!
C'mon, this pic is symbolic for self-reflection ;)
Just as this one. Title: LIFE
On a personal note: I shot this pic a few months ago while driving my car, yet it looks vintage, like from the '90s. Achievable by breaking your phones cam and still using it, your welcome and yes, it is exactly what you got back then after waiting for 3 weeks until your pictures got developed at a place far away from home. Some of you may remember those days of endless excitement, the joy of the pending reflection of the things that come to light with every developed photo. What was not photographed where it was then said We photographed that? Reflections of us. I reflected that driving and taking pics is not a good thing ;)
It got out of control, hurry to the last one for today.
As I said, it is complicated. Brains.
Brave and truth :P. What is self-reflection? I still don't know yet. I look at myself in the mirror and I find the same depressed face over and over again :D. What changed? I would say everything changed from my side but I still don't understand why changes happened so quickly. Shit happens and I remember I used to focus on pleasing others instead of putting myself first. Anyway, now I find everything worthless... First I want to stay alive :D
I can feel you dear...
Facing the fear to look inwards and face who you are versus who you think you are or others do. It is a conscious process of asking yourself some uncomfortable questions and to find the bravery to answer them honestly within yourself. A life long process, sometimes possible, often not lol.
There are the things we can't control, the war wasn't your choice, and with it comes consequences. Stress, on every level, is flooding your body with hormones like adrenalin and norepinephrine or cortisol. We are in survival mode and so is our body. Literally. For a period of time this is good, but when you face constant stress of some kind the hormone balance is permanently disturbed. A chronic overload of the system occurs. Sleep disorders, impairments of the ability to think, depression, high blood pressure...all symptoms. Benn there, done that 😂. Our body takes a long time to break down and regulate these hormones. That's why you find everything worthless now.
Well, I think I am still not that courageous to accept myself. But yes, I worked on myself and still working :D :P...
War did a lot of effects on my mental health and everything but to be honest, my pain seems mild now because of time. But yes, the feelings and emotions I have hidden in me are scary as I was not ready for this drastic change. A fun fact is still sometimes I consider some illogical decisions that can change my future again as well.
Every decision does, logical or not, conscious or not. When you realize it's illogical then you may be on the right track to listen to your subconsciousness. Then it is time to step back, but I know all too well how hard this is when being in an emotional state of mind. Emotions are rarely a good adviser for rational decisions.
But I also know how much pressure there is on a lot of people these days. To make decisions that are not ones they choose on. You choose between bad and worse kinda, especially in your situation. Options are limited, especially these days.
But with time things will fall into place, it's a time for many to get by day by day.
Nice post that gives many ideas to stop and reflect.
I often stop to think about myself, to reflect on what has been, where I'm going, what I did wrong and what I can improve.
Surely self-reflection is tiring but I believe that there are no other ways towards a path of personal growth.
On the other hand, what is simple and not tiring often leads nowhere, right?
Thanks for sharing!🤗
Thanks for stoping by! This whole self-reflection thing is complex. There are many ways to fool ourselves, our ego doesn't necessarily likes the truth. And to implement changes in oneself is even harder, you gotta walk the walk.
Hello! So good to read you again! Wonderful post, I deeply resonate with it. Self-reflection sucks until it stops sucking, hahaha. I love plunging into my discomforts headfirst now. It used to be so damn hard, hahaha! Happy New Year to you and blessings!
Hey there, nice that you swing by. Yap, sucks for sure, I know you know :). Hope you are doing well. Happy 23 4 u 2 😄
There's so much truth in what you've said here.
I love self-reflecting; Not an easy task, but facing our own truth is the only way we can grow and withstand the harsh realities of the world:)
Thanks :)
What happens when I face my truth is that I suddenly see that I've been a harsh reality myself. That is the hardest part to deal and live with but the only one to open the door for what we call a better us. It is also the most confusing topic to write about since reflecting the dark sides of us is turning your brain into a wool ball 😂.
💯% on everything... especially this 👇
Your curation is highly appreciated, thanks for that 😌. Just saw Kims report 😉.
You're very welcome!
See you around 🙂
Sure, so now we're all wondering if it fits ;)
Fit or no fit, that is the question here 😄 100% a fit in cuteness lol 😉
A lot of things to... reflect upon. Especially, self reflection is the attempt to get your shit together.
I'd say - keep on reflecting! Yes, it can get worse but chances are they'll get better eventually. 🤞💜
Masterpiece 😄
That journey of reflecting I've been on my entire life so to say. So you deal with my insights, for the good or worse 😂