Reflection: Know yourself better with Lasse Lychnell

Photo by Emelie Åkerberg

We tried to put into words how it feels sometimes trying to keep up with a busy everyday life while trying to find some sort of deeper meaning to it. Our words failed us, so we borrowed Virginia Woolf’s: “My own brain is to me the most unaccountable of machinery - always buzzing, humming, soaring roaring diving, and then buried in mud. And why?”. How can we get a better view on what drives us without losing ourselves in the process? We decided to ask Lasse Lychnell, a professor and researcher at SSE, whose research and life are connected to self-reflection.

When did you realise that self-reflection is important and why?

I think that I have always been a reflective person, since I was a kid. Also, within academia, and within the field of management, reflection has quite a strong tradition. So, reflection has not been new to me, but it was not until I started to work on my own personal issues about 15 years ago that I really understood the value of reflection and especially self-reflection. Through self-reflection, I could see how my behaviours were so much influenced by certain assumptions, fears, repetitive patterns that I more or less unconsciously acquired earlier in life. I was just continuing to apply the same behaviours in new contexts, even though a slightly different and more mature version of myself was wanting to emerge. So, I think reflection is important because it provides a kind of a mirror in life.

It is interesting that you mentioned that you realised the value of self-reflection when you were facing some personal issues. Is there some kind of trigger that made you realise that you should increase your reflecting activities?

Yes, in retrospect, I think it was when both my parents got seriously ill. That was the first time that I got into this loop, because important existential questions started to arise and I couldn’t answer them from within my existing mindset. Another cycle was when I finished my PhD and I needed to decide if I wanted to continue on that path, even though something didn't feel right to me. Obviously, I did, but rather than pursuing the default path, I radically changed research focus and ways of working.

Many individuals feel the need to reflect when something triggering happens in their life. Do we really need to meet those triggers in life in order to get into deeper reflection?

 This is actually related to my research, so I have thought about these things a lot. I think it is necessary that we are willing to challenge some of our taken-for-granted beliefs to go deep and this usually requires a trigger. But it may look differently for different people. In my research, I have seen that for some people there are some external triggers, such as the loss of a loved one, illness, or a major failure at work; other people feel a sudden loss of meaning when they have reached their great goals but do not feel happy anyway. Furthermore, for some people, it is more like a long- standing, vague feeling of ‘it should be something more than this’ which finally becomes too much. So, there are very many different ways into what I would call personal growth.

What are your learnings from self-reflection and do they differ at different stages in life?

Reflection has helped me know myself better and accept both my strengths and shortcomings. For example, I have been very performance-oriented earlier in life, but at the expense of other things like wellbeing or relationships, so reflection has helped me get perspective and to choose my behaviours more consciously than before. Being less narrow- minded, so to speak. What I learned about myself has made it easier for me to also understand and empathise with other people and their struggles. This has been a great asset for me, as it was quite unexpected at the time.

At different stages in life, you are preoccupied with different things, such as school, work, family, and perhaps the world at large. This will influence your reflections. But there are also general patterns that persist. For example, you may reflect on what you value throughout your whole life, but that which you value will change with time as you develop as a human being and your primary focus shifts.

Self-reflection implies looking closely at one’s actions and behaviours. Do you think it is always beneficial for our well-being or maybe it can trigger some negative responses?

This question has so many layers to it. For me, I like when reflection and action are closely tied together. Not reflection for its own sake, so to speak. I think that reflection may broaden our perspectives and create more sustainable solutions. It may give me insights into how my own behaviours affect other people and thereby create better teamwork, it may help me find meaning in my work and thus improve my wellbeing.

However, self-reflection allows us to see things about ourselves that we might not intuitively like about ourselves. Perhaps things that we are ashamed of. Personally, I like to face these issues and work on them because I think these occasions hold a great potential for development. But of course, it can be painful. Here, I think self-compassion and self-kindness are very important in order not to get stuck in rumination. Not being judgemental to yourself, but rather having a growth mindset. Curiosity and learning are the key.

Do you think reflection should be done in a solitary or interactive way?

Here I think different things happen whether you reflect by yourself or together with other people. I learned from my students in the Global Challenges II course that some prefer to do it solitarily and others prefer to do it together because they get inspired by hearing the thoughts of others. Personally, I like a combination of the two: I like to watch my own thoughts by myself first and then share them with other people to gain perspective. It is like the whole is greater than the sum of the parts. I like to share with other people and create something new and make new realisations that I can't do on my own. Depending on how you do it, you have different outcomes.

How does reflection influence the way we view our failures? Do we become more understanding or harsher on ourselves?

This is not about reflection in itself ー it is about the attitude with which we reflect. If we have a learning attitude then reflection will enhance our understanding, but if we reflect from a righteous attitude ー this is right, and this is wrong ー it could enhance self-criticism and judgement of others. So, I would say that it is about how we employ reflection: like technology, the consequences are determined by its use.

What would be a few tips you would give to someone who wants to start leading a more reflective lifestyle?

I came up with three different tips. If you want to improve at school, you may want to ask yourself the simple question ‘what is the most important thing I have learned after the class?’. Then you can explore the question from different perspectives, such as the subject matter, the way you learn, what you value in life, what it says about your own mindset, and so on and so forth. And then you can see what is helpful to you. It is a simple practice. Second, my own favourite practice is journaling. For instance, for a week write down your thoughts every morning, just put into words what is going on in your head and try to capture as many different kinds of thoughts as possible, don't censor your mind and be inclusive towards yourself: it is all part of you. After a week, you may start seeing some interesting patterns. The third practice is mindfulness: just sit and observe the content of your mind as it arrives, shifts, and passes away, without judging or reacting: just observe. Mindfulness is not reflection in itself, it is more like a basic training that can enhance the capability for reflection, that is, to see what you’re actually thinking rather than acting mindlessly on autopilot.