9 days; 9 reflections

"Its usefulness can be in proportion to the extent to which it is your own. It is an extention of yourself, not something outside of you. In it you can and should say what you feel. It is important to be yourself; that what you write is important to you, not just what other people say is important." (Boud, 1985: 54-55)

For the past 9 days I have set myself the challenge to write in my reflective journal in 9 different ways; 

1. Description
2. Initial reflection (stream of thought)
3. List
4. Evaluation
5. What if?
6. Another view
7. Graphs/charts/diagrams
8. Voice memo (and write up at the end of the day)
9. Mood reflection (through use of colour) 

I am very used to writing a reflective journal as it is something I started incorporating into my practice when I was at school. However it has been an interesting challenge to write and reflect in various different ways. I am usually very descriptive when I write, so the first day came as no surprise as very easy. I found day 2 ('initial reflection') a very useful change - it allowed me to just pour out my thoughts onto the page, with no regard to grammar or punctuation. This stream of thought was great in just releasing and allowing all my thoughts/feelings from the day (be that negative or positive) rush out which left me with a feeling of relief and an ease from tensions. I will definitely use this technique again in my reflective practice. 

Another technique I enjoyed was 'What if?' from day 5. I didn't have any idea what I would write or how this would turn out as I began writing that day, but the outcome actually left me feeling very positive. I wrote about how I day-dream a lot..what if I could be training somewhere else? What if I had done something differently at an earlier point in my career? What if I had spoken to a certain person? What if I hadn't had that injury? (etc.) And I began writing up a dream scenario for myself. But then I reflected on my actual experience and it left me realising that I needed to go through what I have, in order to have had my achievements. All in all, 'What if' left me feeling very positive and motivated to keep pushing in my practice. Next time I think I will use the technique a little less literally and see where it takes me... 

My least favourite techniques were 'list', 'evaluation', 'another view' and (although great to look at) 'mood reflection'. Non of these left me feeling particularly inspired. If anything, I actually felt more restricted. In my opinion, there shouldn't be any limits during reflection. 

To my surprise, 'voice memo' on day 8 was actually my favourite. Starting out, it felt very strange to be talking my thoughts out loud to myself, but I quickly left these feelings behind and became indulged in my reflection. To speak my thoughts and then listen back gave me another level of reflection. I could reflect further on initial thoughts and I actually found points of self correction to take with me into my practice, that I will not forget. In his article Reflection: turning experience into learning, Boud discusses the positives of reflecting out loud to others and allowing yourself to fully indulge in the experience; "However much the process may start by feeling stilted and artificial the effect is to provide a valuable contradiction to the feeling, 'My thinking isn't worth listening to.'" (p.88)

Reference

Boud, David., Keogh, Rosemary., Walker, David., (1985) Reflection: turning experience into learning. Kogan Page, London