Radical reflection

Your monthly reflection guide: quiet rebellion in an over-scheduled world

A moment of quiet rebellion in our over-scheduled world

I came up with the idea for monthly reflections guides as a perk for paid subscribers when I was creating the Messy Human, mainly because reflection has played such a large part in my own ability to learn from my experiences, learn about myself, and take forward action as a result.

I asked for feedback on the reflection guides last month (those things I was sending out which were in a fillable PDF format that had to be downloaded).

The low level of up-take on that request led me to check my download rates, which turned out to be low. As a result, I think one of biggest hurdles to my reflection guides was that they required the download. So I’ve decided no more download-required, fillable PDFs.

The second important hurdle was that they took readers some time and quiet space to fill in, and when you have the gift of time and quiet space, there are only some occasions on which you actually want to follow someone else’s guide.

I know from my own experience that the most important thing to do with your reflection time is to TRULY, DEEPLY, HONESTLY reflect — on whatever makes sense for you at that moment, and in the way that is going to move you the most.

Note I said move you just there. I didn’t say move you forward.

Moving you might mean coming up with an action plan, but it might also mean touching a deeper vein of your inner truth in a way that makes meaning, or shifts you.

Thinking over my own big shift moments, I have now clarified a new plan for monthly reflections here at the Messy Human.

1. They will always leverage my hard-won core principles of Messy Humaning: 1) self acceptance, 2) gentle shifts, 3) play and connection, and 4) embracing of the cycle of being human, with all its highs and lows. For more on these four principles, read this post.

2. They will not necessarily involve any journaling prompts. They might… and they might also ask you to get up and move, or breathe, or close your eyes and think, or…?

3. They will involve urging you to do the hard thing of taking a few quiet moments for yourself in our over-scheduled world, and shifting away from the litany of personal, social and societal expectations you are no doubt encountering even as you read this.

4. They will push you to find your own deep inner knowing and open up to the soft, expansive part of yourself that can actually allow wonderful things in, and let hard things be easier, and open up to unexpected outcomes.

With that, I hope to raise the value of these reflection moments, even as they get less structured. With the removal of structure, we open up for more play and spontaneity. That is my hope for your gentle growth path.