5 Finger Rule for your daily Reflecting (infographic)
5 Finger Rule for you daily Reflecting
By Nadja Conaghan
Reflecting on the day as a daily routine has many benefits.
Lesson learnt. It helps you to learn from your mistakes.
Gratitude. It makes you happier. It helps you to see and appreciate the good things in life.
Self-awareness. It helps you understand yourself better. What are your strengths, weaknesses and fears? It can also help you to become aware what is currently missing in your life, your (healthy or limiting) beliefs and values.
Sharing insights and helping others. You can share the insights you gained with others and therefore help others that go through something similar.
Gives perspective. It can give you perspective, especially when you are getting caught up in daily hassles and miss to see the big picture and what is really important in life. Having a reflecting routine can help to get an objective perspective and can calm you down and reduces your stress levels.
Source of great ideas. Pausing to reflect can be a trigger to explore a great idea a bit more and follow through.
There are different methods and tools to reflect on the day, such as Tim Ferriss’ 5 min journal which is part of Tim’s daily morning routine. I am a big fan of Tim’s method and an advocate of writing things down (and probably never read it again) to get it all out and make my thoughts part of the “real world”. However, I do not always carry a journal around and at times I find it more beneficial to reflect at the end of the day to get my thoughts out of my head before I come home after a stressful day. Getting it all out before going to bed and harnessing the benefits of reflection help me to have a better sleep.
My sister, Dr Nadine, has introduced me to the 5 finger rule of reflection which is based on the 5 Finger Feedback method. Unfortunately, I don’t know who came up with the brilliant idea to apply the principles to a daily reflection routine. Whoever did, I want to say thank you and do not take any credit for the idea.
What I love about the 5 finger rule of reflection is that you can do this reflection exercise anytime of the day without any equipment as you carry your hand around 24/7. I personally use the method as a quick daily reflection combined with a short mindfulness exercise (either self-directed or if my mind is too busy I use the smilingminds app) at the end of the day.
Below the steps of reflection – starting with the thumb. You can also download a copy here.
I would love to hear what you think about the reflection method and how you reflect on the day.