Reflective thinking, how to train it?

Reflective thinking harmonizes, undoes knots and removes bandages. If you develop it and use it as a daily filter, you will be able to reduce the noise of the anxious mind and you will also make better decisions. Now, there is something striking that experts tell us: people are losing our ability to reflect. It is increasingly difficult for us to make use of this analytical and critical thinking.

It seems like a strange spell. Why do we find it difficult to apply this type of mental approach on a daily basis? Is the brain perhaps “revolving” in cognitive matters? Are we already a hyperactive society incapable of stopping to delve deeper into the stimuli, the experiences and the amount of data we receive?

Absolutely, People are not devolving, we are distracted. It is precisely the infoxication (excess of information received) and the clear difficulty in focusing attention (as Daniel Goleman points out in his book Focus) which reduces the ability to reflect.

Aristotle said that true wisdom is not in saying what we think, but in previously thinking what we are going to say. This is what we lack, that is perhaps one of the great shortcomings that we see the most today: the willingness to meditatethe craftsmanship to weave each fact through critical thinking, the ability to shed light on many of those ambiguous data that we frequently encounter…

Reflective thinking: the critical and conscious mind

John Dewey was the first psychologist who was interested in studying reflective thinking. He defined it in a very simple and transcendent way: “it is the type of thinking in which we actively turn a topic over in our heads to discover its foundations and obtain something useful from that process.”

Dr. Dewey, who was also a philosopher and pedagogue, stated that This type of reasoning had to have an essential element: curiosity. Without it there is no impulse and thought becomes apathetic and meaningless.

Therefore, reflection is enriched by interest, curiosity or what we could call natural motivation. It is like becoming explorers, researchers of everything that comes to us, of what we see and even of what we feel.

Let’s dig a little deeper.

Reflecting is the opposite of letting your mind wander.

The ultimate goal of reflective thinking is to generate worthwhile ideas.. It may sound emphatic, but there is one detail that John Dewey emphasized in his work on this topic is that, on average, people think excessively without finishing concretizing or materializing. Reflecting is not synonymous with rambling.

That is to say, it is not about reflecting like someone who meditates, leaving the government of the mind free. These states have other virtues, but hardly that of concreteness.

Reflective thinking analyzes what we have done and how. It relates it to our experience: it analyzes, compares, infers and innovates. The goal is to think productively to improve our reality. We also carry out all of these tasks in that prefrontal area of ​​the brain, that most advanced and sophisticated region.

The 5 steps to reflect like a scientist

Donald Schön (1983) and John Dewey (1933) stated a theory with which to help people develop reflective thinking. As pedagogues, they sought above all to introduce the teaching of this competence in the classrooms from an early age.

Let’s see what those five steps consist of.

get used to question many of the things that come to us. The first step to being more reflective is interested and critical doubt, as opposed to cynical and destructive doubt. The second step is feel like explorers who need to know and delve deeper into what is in front of them. We must awaken the desire to know, to understand, to see what lies beyond what we see.The third step is to ask ourselves questions: ““Is this true?”, “What more information can I get?”, “How can it benefit me?”, “What can I change?”The next step in the reflective process is to connect with our experience: have I experienced this before? What learning did I get? In addition, It is also necessary that we add creativity and innovation: What would happen if I used this idea in this way?The last step is to test our hypotheseseither practically or by imagining what could happen.

Reflection is the door to a critical look (and we all need it)

In a present defined by almost constant changes and undeniable challenges on the horizon, It is more important than ever to awaken our reflective thinking. This competition opens the door to a critical approach that not only dares to question what you see and surround you. Furthermore, it allows us to question ourselves to leave behind outdated beliefs, perspectives that no longer serve us.

Reflection and criticism update us, encourage us to be demanding and meticulous. As we establish this type of thinking, we stop being mere containers of information. We are no longer those people alienated by information, shaped by a society that wants us equal, passive and manageable.

Achieving it, rising up as people capable of making big decisions bravely and independently depends on ourselves. We can start today.

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