CPD23 Week 5: Reflections

Not really knowing what to invent for this post, I started reflecting (!) on the meaning of the word reflection. You know, I love Latin, and every chance to talk about it doesn’t go amiss. The word is composed by re-, indicating repetition, and –flectere, which means “to bend”. Basically, reflection is the process of bending something over and over again in order for it to become flexible enough to take a different shape. It is an essential skill to apply to our actions and thoughts: taking them, twisting them in order to see where they might bring us, and then follow through.

Reflections on the Bohjini Lake, Slovenia

I heard about reflective writing for the first time when I embarked in the CILIP Chartership process. It was a slightly dreaded subject, mainly because everyone seemed to struggle a lot with it, and statements like “if your pieces are not reflective enough, your portfolio might be rejected” made it sound like a truly hard task.
When I went on to a course organised by my local CDG, I found out that reflective practice is a powerful tool to use in your life generally, and I liked the idea of putting some efforts into it. Reflective writing comes next, and here I welcomed the idea of having a way of expressing the (sometimes confused) bundle of thoughts nested in my restless brain.

Basically, I do reflect, and quite a lot, maybe too much at times. I always felt the need to find a way of expressing what I was mulling over and over, and transform it in some sort of action. It is what, as a child, I called “being an artist”. With the subsequent observation that I am not an artist, and therefore I was always frustrated in my attempts of expressing myself. [Here I can hear a wide group of friends and family members pointing out to the fact that I talk a lot, thus express myself enough… ;-)].

Everything sounds good so far, but…I’m still reflecting a lot, and not writing enough. I opened this blog in order to have a place to reflect but I must admit that I still feel a bit awkward about expressing my thoughts in such a public place. And time is an issue, although I know that if I manage to build a routine for this task, I solve the problem in one go. This is my good resolution for now.

To end this post on a positive note: I love the “What-So what-Now what” scheme. When I first heard of it, it was really enlightening, and I realised that I was already doing a lot of “so what”, but not enough “then what”. I think that some of the things I have accomplished in the last few months have been a result of my realising that I needed to step into “then what” land more confidently. It’s really worth giving it a try.