The Power of Reflection: Slowing Down to See More Clearly
“I'm going to tell you everything about me.
I love sport.
I have two mums.
I have 2 dogs - for the moment :)
I have 2 chickens.
I have a hand problem which is when I can't move my fingers properly and it can hurt :(
So these are the things you need to know about me. Anuf (sp) about me more about my day. So I had:
Assembly
Maths
Drama
Break
Art
Science
Lunch
Matches
Boring.
Boring.
Boring.
So, I'll come back to you tomorrow.”
I found this note on my daughter’s desk one evening, wedged under a pile of exercise books and a half-finished dragon drawing. The writing was uneven, letters slanting and occasionally tumbling into each other. My daughter is right-hand dominant, but because of a newly discovered nerve condition she can no longer use that hand to write. She’d written this with her left.
The imperfections made it more powerful, yes - but what struck me most was that the act of reflection itself was helping her find her footing.
When Reflection Becomes a Lifeline
At first, it was just a note. But soon I saw it helping her on quiet days when she wouldn’t talk, after bad tests, unkind moments - hers or others’ - and when she wanted to hold onto a win before it faded.
It helped her twin sister too, who was learning to carry both pride and sadness, protection and envy. She could turn her own tangled feelings into words that she could stare at. Often looking less daunting on the page than they felt inside.
That small act - quiet, unassuming, irregular and often at day’s end - gave them both something to hold onto. For a young person, reflection isn’t a lofty concept. It’s a way to make something from the day, whatever it holds.
Benefits of Journaling and Reflection
Research from Harvard shows that just 15 minutes a week spent reflecting can significantly improve learning and retention. But the impact goes far beyond academics. For young people, journaling and reflection can:
Build emotional resilience - processing experiences on paper helps them manage stress and recover from challenges.
Improve empathy - considering situations from different perspectives encourages compassion and understanding.
Boost creativity - connecting seemingly unrelated ideas can lead to new insights and problem-solving skills.
Enhance self-awareness - identifying patterns in mood, behaviour, and relationships allows for more intentional choices.
Strengthen communication skills - practising self-expression in writing makes it easier to articulate thoughts and feelings aloud.
Making Sense of Change
Life rarely moves in straight lines. Change is constant, and without reflection it can feel like disorientation rather than growth. Taking time to make sense of what has shifted - what’s been lost, what’s been found - helps embed the acceptance that change is part of life. Change isn’t failure. It’s how we live with it, adapt to it, and keep going that defines us.
For my daughter, change has meant learning to write with her left hand. For her sister, it has meant learning to stand alongside her in a new way. For me, it has meant seeing that meaning is not found in the absence of disruption, but in the way we absorb it and keep moving forward.
Building Reflection into School Life
If reflection matters, we need to make space for it - especially for young people. Just 15 minutes a week in the timetable can make a difference.
Digital journaling feels natural for many students, lowers barriers for those with additional needs, and can:
Offer gentle prompts that help students know where to start.
Provide emotion word banks to expand their emotional vocabulary.
Let students track their own reflections over time, spotting patterns in their feelings, learning, and wellbeing.
Crucially, this space belongs to the student. It’s private. There’s no grade, no performance, no assessment. Just a quiet, consistent moment in a noisy week to process experiences and make meaning from them.
The Skills We’ll Need Most
The world my daughters will step into will be shaped by technologies we can barely imagine today. As artificial intelligence takes on more of the routine tasks, the qualities that will set people apart are human ones: empathy, creativity, storytelling, the ability to connect dots across experience.
Reflection is where those qualities are forged and journaling can be at the heart of that. You can’t rush empathy - it grows when we slow down enough to really consider another’s experience. Creativity often comes from linking moments that didn’t seem connected at the time. And storytelling begins with having taken the time to understand your own story.
What We Miss When We Skip It
The temptation, in busy lives, is to keep moving. To think we’ll reflect later, when there’s time. But the truth is, when we skip reflection, we lose more than just a record of what happened. We lose the chance to turn experience into understanding, and understanding into wiser action.
Watching my daughters, I’ve realised reflection isn’t about looking back. It’s about anchoring in the present long enough to notice its shape - so that when the next change comes, you’re not knocked entirely off your feet.
The Note That Started It
That unevenly written note is now sitting on my desk. Not because it’s perfect, but because it isn’t. It’s a reminder that reflection is not about polish. It’s about presence.
For my daughter, it’s a way to navigate the unpredictability of her condition. For her sister, it’s a way to make sense of what’s happening in their shared world. For me, it’s proof that slowing down is not a retreat from life, but a way of stepping more fully into it.
And for all of us, it’s a prompt to keep writing - even when the letters are crooked, the thoughts are messy, and the day feels “boring, boring, boring.” Because that’s where meaning lives: not in the perfect moments, but in the ones we choose to notice.