Why is it important to reflect? Learn about reflecting on Alphabet Soup today.
Why is it important to reflect? Learn about reflecting on Alphabet Soup today.
Hey guys, welcome to episode 30, the final episode of season one of alphabet soup hosted by Neva Hidajat. I thought that a good way to close off season one of this podcast would be to talk about reflection, and how it can advance your life. So, let’s get into it.
I’m sure we’ve all heard a lot about how we need to conquer our fears and do one thing that scares you every day. While these are good things to aim for, a lot of the times our response to these challenges is How? The truth is we probably already know how to tackle our fears we just haven’t realized it yet. Think back on some scenarios in life where you have made in improvement. Perhaps it’s becoming close friends with someone or learning how to cook scrambled eggs. A common thread in these developments was your ability to reflect. Being close friends with someone means that you have probably learned to resolve conflicts and change to avoid similar conflicts in the future. This requires reflections on one’s own actions and how they affected the other person. Both very important skills in building relationships. If you’ve learned how to cook scrambled eggs, you’ve probably cracked an egg and had eggshells end up in the pan. But as you gain more experience cracking eggs into a pan you learn how to get a clean crack. So, every moment in life where we’ve made little developments and conquered new fears, reflection has played a role in helping us get to where we are today.
Nowadays people always seem to be moving forward, you read about young activists fighting for voting rights on the news and see NASA investigating unusual carbon footprints on Mars and think “man, what am I doing with my life?” So, maybe the big question is, when everyone seems to be moving forward, why should I take the time to look back on what I’ve been through?” Just like historians learn from the past, reflecting allows us to learn about what is important to us, find our purposes, and then make goals. In other words, a lot of the time we cannot move forwards until we have reflected and learned from our past selves. From there we can start to progress more efficiently and with a greater sense of who we are.
There is also proof that reflecting can boost our confidence because it provides a very personal way for us to gauge our developments. This is what Professor Hughes who teaches general ed composition to undergraduates utilizes in her program. Professor Hughes acknowledges that the mindset most students have heading into a general ed class is that they are taking that class just because they have to. In order to change the learning environment, she had to get students to discover how to be honest with themselves in their writing. What Professor Hughes received from these initial compositions was confirmation that most of the students there did not enjoy writing, rather it was something they felt forced to do in high school in order to graduate. Throughout the course, Professor Hughes would initiate frequent reflections on personal writings. This helped students to learn their strengths and weaknesses, build confidence in navigating through the arduous process of writing essays, and see the purpose of the class. Hughes noted that with reflections, the questions about why students had to take general ed composition stopped.
I hope listening to this episode has helped you see that looking back is an important experience in life that we need to have so that the view looking forward is even clearer. As always before the end of the episode it’s time for today’s bit. This time I’ll be sharing a quote by John Dewey for you to think about. Here’s what he says, “we do not learn from experience, we learn from reflecting on experience.” I couldn’t agree more, living life is one thing, but taking the time to learn from the life we live is another.
If I were to reflect on Season 1 of alphabet soup, I’d see the thirty episodes I’ve worked to put out and the learning journey I’ve been on to get here. I loved learning about the health benefits of Chai tea and Tai Chi, how white noise can help you focus, balneotherapy, power napping, spooky syndromes. Getting to talk with Dr. Mark Reeves, Dr. Michelle Reeves, and Mr. Michael Beavers were amazing experiences. and Creating these episodes has let me learn the history of the medicine through discovering atomic bomb disease, sudoku seizures, Soy Sauce overdose, and surprisingly common genetic glitches. So, I’m very thankful for my podcasting experiences thus far and am looking forward to continuing my journey with greater confidence and direction. While waiting for season two there are plenty of interesting episodes for you to check out if you haven’t already. I want to thank you again for listening to Alphabet Soup and make sure to tune in to season 2!