Welcome to the first edition of P.O.P. + Self Reflections. This year, my goal is to live life more intentional, ultimately creating a better version of myself, becoming both physically and mentally stronger. One way I’ll be keeping myself accountable and staying on the right path is by reflecting on the progress made. I’ll close out each month on the blog with an edition of Monthly Reflections, sharing with my readers (you), details of what I’ve learned, recent accomplishments I am proud of and what I find may need improvement.
The plan is that by documenting these occurrences I’ll be more present in new experiences, new relationships, growth of different life aspects, and the eves and flows that come with each. Being present in moments are often taken for granted, and so I wanted to make a change in the way I acknowledged the things I experienced and what effects they made on me. Slowing down can be hard with such a fast pace world and with so many things in our everyday lives we feel must be done right away. Reflecting more often than occasionally or annually, I wanted to form a more consistent, frequency in habit to appreciate all of what influences me; both positive and negative.
Creating new habits are tough but, I find that this is necessary for maintaining our personal well being; the habit of self-awareness. It can be easy to overlook our personal growth, and take for granted the routine efforts that happen on a daily basis are not worthy of acknowledgement. Being present in our progress every step of the way is beneficial to our mindset, future growth and way we approach our goals.
This month, I’ll be reflecting on my growth in personal relationships. I have always kept a pretty tight circle. I tend to be reluctant to inviting new people into my life, trusting them and being vulnerable. This makes it very challenging to develop and establish new relationships but each day I am working to change it. I will say, that lately I’ve noticed a slight progression in the way I’ve attempted to be more appreciative of my current relationships with friends and peers, as well as efforts to reach out to develop new connections and valuable relationships.
Letting my guard down on the account of possibly coming out with a new friend to count on has become important. To do this, I know I have to challenge myself to be more trusting. Being more trusting is imperative to taking a relationship to the next level. Without some level of trust, I’ll continue to find myself restricted and not able to develop things how I imagined. Reluctant to trust has a lot to do with fear. I realized that its not as easy for me to be trusting due to the fear of being let down or confirming that other peoples intentions and motives are true to my intuition. I don’t always assume the worst in people, but I am typically a lot more reluctant to make a connection because the fear of being disappointment holds precedence.
In order to trust others, I realized I should first trust myself. Trusting that my judgement of other people’s characteristics are accurate, gives me comfort knowing that I am able to show vulnerability but not to the point that I would allow myself to be taken advantage of. People are capable of disappointment. Not everyone has your best interest in mind, but the ones that find your friendship valuable exist, its just requires a little work to discover.
Developing better relationships may also require analyzing the expectations you have of others. Lower your expectations to refrain from risking any disappointment when someone does not meet them. Relinquishing unrealistic expectations of others can make a huge difference in your ability to create new relationships by allowing room for people to make mistakes, which will eliminate the development of more problems.
Having positive and supportive relationships help us to feel healthier, happier, and more satisfied with ourselves and the direction in which our lives are heading.
Here are a few tips to keep in mind that will help in your pursuit of developing more positive and healthy relationships in all areas of your life:
- Acknowledge Differences
- Be a good Listener
- Making Time for Others
- Encourage and Be Encouraged
- Be Compassionate
- Make Room for Flexibility
Take some time to reflect on your personal growth. We don’t always realize the progress we make until later or the progress not being made until its too late. Reflection also encourages seeing things from a different perspective, become more open minded leading to self-improvement and facilitate a new level of learning and understanding. The act of consistent reflection will also improve confidence, allowing you to make better decisions and have smarter actions.