Self+Reflection


 * Weekday Schedule**:


 * **5:00 AM** || **Wake up, eat breakfast, take a shower** ||
 * **5:30 AM** || **Study and review for Pre-Cal Test** ||
 * **7:30 AM** || **Leave for school** ||
 * **7:50 AM** || **Arrive to class, sit down, get ready for lesson** ||
 * **8:00-11:18 AM** || **Listen and work diligently on assigned topics** ||
 * **11:18-12:18 PM** || **Do homework and study while eating lunch** ||
 * **12:21-1:45 PM** || **Listen and work diligently on assigned topics** ||
 * **1:45-3:30 PM** || **Go to practice** ||
 * **3:45-5:15 PM** || **Internship at the County Hospital for children** ||
 * **5:30-7:00 PM** || **Tutor or SAT lesson** ||
 * **7:00-7:30 PM** || **Eat dinner with family** ||
 * **8:00-11:00PM** || **Finish Homework** ||
 * **11:00 PM** || **Go to sleep** ||

Schedule look familiar? This schedule runs like clock work. Day in, day out. Every day from Monday to Friday, not even counting game day. There is no time to waste, always have to be diligent. School and sports dictate every action of your life until its a perfect tee. Your happiness and emotional well being are all determined by these two things. There are no such thing as weekends, just more time to study and complete homework. Your personal self worth and satisfaction is based on the score of your test yesterday. This entire narrow scope and focus is all based on one thing, college. Every precise action is all for this one institution. How can I appeal to universities? How many AP classes am I taking? What can I put on my application? What is my SAT and ACT score? The entire foundation of your life was shaped and molded upon this apocryphal illusion that one day you will get accepted to that “perfect” college and be successful. Might even be happy. Are you happy now? Well, sorta, kinda, some days. BUT BUT BUT. I will be happy when I get into my dream college and be Successful. Do you ever have time to reflect? How much do you understand about yourself? Would you be the same person if this entire “college” thing disappeared? I don’t have time for that, I know myself just fine, now if you don’t mind, I have to go to a church meeting for a orphan mission trip in Africa this summer.

The need to take a step back and make time for yourself, for self reflection, is crucial. It has become conspicuously apparent that we don’t have any time for ourselves. Our lives are constantly scheduled and molded around focusing on other external forces. I have to learn about the war of 1812 for a test tomorrow, I have to look after the children at the hospital, I have work on my conditioning for my sport this season, I have to memorize all the bones in my wrists. It’s not “society” that places these pressures with in us, but simply perceptions that we place in our own minds. We fill our entire lives with all these responsibilities of “I haves”, with out every considering ourselves into the equation. The focus of our lives is all dictated by outside influences in hope of getting into the “perfect” college. Yet, how much time do we have for ourselves? We need to spend more time looking inter-perspectively. Undivided self reflection and interpersonal communication is necessary for a healthy and balanced life because the better we understand our selves, the better we can understand others and the world around us. We need to plan more time for ourselves and doing activities that we personally enjoy, instead of participating in community service to put on a work sheet. Go for a walk in the park. Go on a hike through the forest. Go stroll down the pier and through downtown. Go to the beach. Hell, just GO outside in the sun with some friends. Then once you are in a comfortable environment, just sooth your mind and let it drift. Let your thoughts relax; don’t be rigid and unnatural, let your thoughts flow like water. Reflect on your priorities, reflect on your past decisions and choices, reflect on the people close to you in your life. Think about who you are and what you stand for. Think about what makes you truly happy. Where you feel the most one or sound with your body and mind. Reevaluate your morals, values, and goals. Still let your mind wander, composed and organically. This time for self-reflection or reevaluation of your life allows you to better comprehend yourselves. It reemphasizes or changes the priorities and choices you have decided. It broadens your perspective of the world and allows one to focus on situations at hand. It facilitates a safe environment for interpersonal communication. It allows for a comfortable setting to galvanize more abstract and creative thought. These all collectively accumulation and entail transforms the view of how we see others, but more importantly, it changes how we view ourselves. Yet It provokes the sometimes daunting question wether we are REALly happy? This then brings up another just as overwhelming question, what do you want to do with the rest of your life? If you honestly know the answer to these unnerving questions, thats great, more power to you. However, if you don’t, consider the therapeutic power of self reflection and the personal benefits it offers. Maybe just grab your passport, a bathing suit, notebook, and a camera, and travel the world for a year. Disappear and reanalyze your life for awhile. No past, no future. Just experience and embrace the moment now; for that’s all we truly have. Travel outward, and find the center your own existence.