SELF-REFLECTION AND DE-REFLECTION: TWO MODES OF AWARENESS GUIDING INDIVIDUAL EXPERIENCE AND ACTION

ABSTRACT

In this paper a methodical framework is provided how to integrate two important modes of awareness with respect to self-reflection and de-reflection. Both modes are important in regulating experience and emotional arousal with far reaching consequences for subjective well-being and health. On the one hand people need the ability to think about their attitudes, values, goals, wishes, feelings, etc. in a kind of critical self-reflection; on the other hand, to become fully concentrated in different tasks or to become totally absorbed in action, people need the ability to forget themselves, i.e., to de-reflect. It is argued that the ability to change between these two states voluntarily according to the demands of a given situation represents an important characteristic of the healthy person.

KEYWORDS: reflective awareness, non-reflective awareness, self-reflection, de-reflection, consciousness disciplines, stream of consciousness, health, well-being, crisis, self-complexity