In today's episode, we wanted to talk about the different ways that you can use reflection as a tool to help you, if you're a nervous driver or even if you're just a driver who wants to improve your driving performance. Yes. And I believe that reflection is something that we do constantly and it never stops, even if you don't realize, you are reflecting. It could be having a conversation with someone about what happened on your drive there, or, you know, what happened on your driving previously? And I think reflection is a great tool for learners to use for drivers to use for anyone that's. Needs to reflect on something and learn from it and move forward. Reflection as a tool we know is really useful for anybody who struggles with managing thoughts. So for anybody that has lots of negative thoughts or repeated thoughts. For anybody who needs to manage their mind, then reflection is a great tool to help you do this. Yeah. And I think, reflection, we tend to think of the bad things. You know what, wen t horribly wrong The first thing that comes to mind, but try and be a bit more positive with ask yourself the question, what went well? What did you do? That was good. In your driving And I think this is a real key point from Is that people don't reflect on the good stuff. They could have done a 10 minute drive. Fantastic and then messed the parking up at the end and all they'll remember is that parking. And I just feel that there is so much good that's happened that we forget about that. That comes down to being human. So as humans, we have something called a negativity bias. So it means that automatically we look at the negative side of things. So in order to focus on the positive things, we have to actually make an effort to do that. And that's I feel is, is the hardest part for people to do, and especially if you're in that negative thought process, anyway, you're always going to pick up on the negative. Rather than thinking of the positives that have happened. Yeah. Okay. So. Let's go to basics then many people in their driving lessons may have come across something called a reflective log. Yeah. Is quite often that you'll hear driving instructors talk about reflective logs. And actually I hear driving instructors say that they give out reflective logs, but their students don't use them. I think it depends on the student. Some people love You know, some people, however they, monitor, their learning from that lesson could be a mind map, could be a reflective log like you say, or it could be journaling. Which ever way suits that learner. It's fantastic. You'd mentioned the instructor, hands it to the pupil to do, and I think that's great. Because it is about the pupil. It's not about what I think or what someone else thinks. It's about what you think about your driving. For somebody who hasn't seen a reflective log or has never had this from the driving instructor. Let you say you can do it as journaling. You can do it as notes on your phone or written down. What sorts of things would you include in a reflective log? There's there's a really simple one and you can download it from the DVSA website. And I think it's on the ready to pass. Campaign, you can download one from there. But there's an even simpler one where you can just ask yourself three questions and the three questions are What went well? What didn't go so well. And what would you do different that would improve that drive? If you had to do it again? Okay. So that was three really basic questions. Isn't it. And I think sometimes you can, over-complicate it. But the basis of it is start off with what went well, that puts you in that positive mindset. And then think of what things go as well. So not potentially what went wrong, but just what didn't go as planned and then, how would you do it differently? What would you improve? So that it gets to a standard where you wanted to be. Okay great now, on our website for people who've subscribed to the website. We have, we don't call ours a reflective log. We call ours a learning log. Yeah. And, so the sort of questions that we ask on ours include well we ask people to do reflection in advance of their lessons. So to help them prepare for their lesson. As well as reflecting after the lesson. There's a few more, couple of extra things if you're struggling with your driving confidence, that actually you might find these extra questions useful. Yeah, So some of the sorts of things you might consider are reflecting on your mood and your emotions before, during and after a lesson. Yeah. Definitely. How you're feeling in the beginning? How are you feeling after that first drive? How are you feeling now at the end? Yeah, and remembering back to that detective work episode. The way that you're feeling your mood and your feelings will have an impact on your driving behavior. So reflecting on that could be really helpful. So we've also added in a reflection on your lesson as well. So again a bit more detail about your lesson that you've just had. Where you, again, it touches on what your thoughts and your feelings are. And when you reflecting on the lesson that you've just had. Thinking about how you would like to prepare for your next lesson Yes. So that you can actually prepare for your next lesson or your next drive. So you come to the lesson prepared, and this is what I've found out with my students. They're more likely to have success. Or have light bulb moments. If they come to the lesson prepared. And they've prepared the lesson. So we've chatted about what we're going to be doing in the next lesson. So they can write out a story. They can write out a mind map or they can answer the questions. Bring it to the lesson and then we just go through it very quickly. And then off we go. And okay. Let's say most people that do this. When they start to drive. Actually I've done the mental rehearsal already. Because they've reflected on what they want to do. Yeah. And also reflected on what they need to find out. Yeah. What still worrying them? Yeah. And like, I guess helps open up that conversation with you. Exactly. But it also highlights what skills they've already used in the past. That's going to help them for this task. There's a phrase that I've heard you say lots and lots, which is thinking about what have you learned in the past, or what have you done in the past? That's going to help you with this new task. So for people who were moving on in their driving, learning some of the more complicated things I've heard you use that question a lot. Yeah. The reason I do that is. If you think of traffic lights, we use traffic lights. As an example, if people are moving away. On those first lessons from the side of the road. Outside the house. Stopping and then moving away again. Those are the basic skills of moving and stopping the car. That's the simplistics of it. Well, let's move to a traffic light situation. You come up to a traffic light and you stop. How you move the car away is exactly the same, as you move the car away on those first lessons, outside your house, in the quiet road or whatever the process, the mechanics of you moving a car away are exactly the same. The only difference is you're now on the road with a traffic light in front of you and maybe cars behind you. So, what is the difference? What changes that situation is? People's minds. You know, it's, what's in people's heads. And I feel that once we get the skills and we know the skills that we can use in different situations, people become more confident. Because they realize if I just do this. In this area, I'm going to move the car. Yeah. So there's a couple of areas that where reflection comes in there, then isn't it. There's the reflecting on. Okay. What is it about this? That's making me feel nervous. Yeah. What is it? About this that's different. That's creating those feelings. So there's that element of reflection of sort of like reflecting on why it feels different, why it makes you feel nervous. And then there's the other element of reflection. Which is okay. What have I done in the past? What have I got that helps me, what skills have I got? So it's almost like. Question and Answer. You can use reflection for both sides. Well I like to think of it as, solution focused. So, this is what we're going to be doing next lesson is traffic lights But what's the solutions if we're worried about maybe stalling. Is a classic example. Stalling at a set of traffic lights. What's the solution to that. Well it's then the skills isn't it. It's the skills come into play to help them move away. But realizing that before they get to the traffic light on that lesson, gives them confidence. They start to feel more confident knowing what to do and it all comes from the reflection they've done before the lesson. So it's thinking preparation. And sometimes when people reflect they reflect of what might go wrong. I can come up with, if that happens, this is what I'll do, If this happens, this is what I'll do. Yeah. So creating your plan A and your plan B. And creating, in your mind, you're creating scenarios. But what you're also doing is you're creating a solution for those scenarios. And there's a really big difference between thinking about scenarios and then going round and round and round like a hamster wheel on these scenarios without actually problem solving. So if you're ruminating, worrying dwelling, that's not useful and that is not reflecting and it's not problem solving. So they're quite different things. They are. And you know, I'm going to say, I leave it mostly to our students. They have a massive say in what, how they reflect. And one of the great tools of reflection for that is a mind map. Yeah, because they put down the topic in the middle of the page. And then they put around that, all the things that they are worried about. It's like stalling. People behind them It's had a busy junction. There might be a slight hill or whatever the problem they have, and then they create the solution. Well, the solution is stalling. I don't want to stall, so I'm going to move away like this. And then they put the skills that they need. To help that. Like you've just mentioned that hamster wheel. What it does is you get in your words onto a bit of paper. Yeah. And it gets it out of your mind. And if you put it out of your mind and onto a bit of paper and create a solution. You're more likely to succeed. Because you've already thought of the problem created a solution. Now you just need to put it into practice. Yeah. hopefully not practice stalling at traffic lights, but you'd know how to move away because you've practiced it already. Although practicing your stalling is a good thing too. Well it is is. But it happens. It happens. But this is what, reflection I feel is. People reflect yes. On the last lesson. But it's also nice to reflect on the future lesson and come up with your own solutions. Yep. Lovely. So another way that my students use, and I think this is becoming more and more popular Is journaling. And again, You know, people in life do journals, but people in their driving lessons do journals and it's for them. And they will go home and they'd put in their journal. Whatever they've done, how they've made them feel or whatever it is. I don't know. Cause I don't really get to see their journals. But what I do get to do is see, the next lesson after they've done that journal and they come to the lesson having, uh, can I just talk about this or, you know, there's something about this. I wasn't quite happy with. Or, I've done this and I've found this out. So can we talk about that? So I tend to know what they've put in their journal, through the questions they come back to on the next lesson And you saying that it's just reminded me. We are looking to actually have a whole episode on journaling aren't we, there is a journal out there that's been created, especially for driving lessons called The Learner Driver logbook. And so hopefully we're going to have Emma who created that on, on a future episode. Not that we've asked her yet. So if she's listening, that might be a surprise. Surprise Emma!. Okay. So using reflection after lessons, but also using them before lessons to prepare. Yeah. Exactly. Perfect. Everything we've said even if you're not a learner driver, The same stands for just your driving journeys. You don't have to be a learner driver to use exactly those same questions and that same type of reflective process. It can be just as useful whether you're a learner driver or whether you've already passed your driving test. Yeah, definitely. It's reflections ongoing. Reflection keeps going. But also start to think of. Could I have dealt with that situation differently to have a better result. So, whatever the situation may be, just ask yourself the question. Could I have dealt with that situation differently to have a better result. And that doesn't just mean driving that can actually be, to do with your own reactions and responses. It's a massive question. Probably a whole episode on that and its Yeah, definitely. Okay. So. But reflection is actually a broader subject. Again, than even that isn't it. So we've talked about the basics of reflective logs, but when we work with our one-to-one clients, reflection is a really important element of that detective work that we do with them. Isn't it. Yeah, is, I mean, Well, this is the basis of reflection. You have to be a detective. I have to be a detective about what happened on that lesson. What happened at that roundabout? You have to find out. All the information don't you. And the only way to do that is to reflect. Yeah. But he's bigger than just the driving and it's that, whole, history actually. For those clients who come to us one-to-one who are nervous or have confidence issues very often it's about reflecting on the big picture is about reflecting on all of their past experiences. Everything that's happened to them related to driving. And what were the the little stepping stones or the range of different things that have happened to build up into, negative feelings around driving. Yeah. And it's going back almost to that root cause. Isn't it. What happened? And it probably wasn't a week ago or two weeks ago, it's probably going back a few years. Yeah. And for some people it's as passengers. In their youth, for some people they know exactly what incident happened. For others, it's a buildup. So there isn't a root cause, but there were just a series of unfortunate events Exactly. Yeah. And that can happen. And until you do that, detective work. We don't really know what the problem is. And, and again, it's for the individual as well to first start having a. Uh, delve. Yeah. And the detective work doesn't work on its own. It needs that reflective piece, that, that bit of. Engaging with the questions, thinking about the answers and allowing things to. Come up and to have those light bulb moments. Yeah, exactly. And it might be something that you probably forgotten about, And then also when you go further back, It's like, oh no, that I remember that. Yeah, that person did that on. That situation I still remember that now. And that may be maybe what happened to me. Yeah, and I think there is something cathartic. So we were talking about journaling. There's something cathartic about writing things down as well. There's something answering questions and writing it down is a really great way of reflecting. Yeah. I mean, I'm always interested in what people will, how should I say how people reflect themselves? You cannot just it's up to them. How they do it. But it's really interesting. Um, Uh, the things we get back. Okay. So let's finish with a couple of reflective questions if you're listening and you're a nervous driver. Let's think of a couple of questions for you to reflect on Now we're at the end of the episode. So let's start with what element of driving still puzzles you? What part of driving do you still not completely understand? And then next time you drive, what would you like to do differently? And finally. What help or resources do you need and where can you find them? To help you with your driving. So we hope you found that helpful, and we hope that that might get you reflecting a little bit on your thoughts and feelings, as well as your experiences around driving. If you have found it helpful than it'd be great. If you could share the episode with anyone else who you think might find it helpful to, or even leave us a review on your favorite podcast player. If you'd like to get in touch, then our contact details are in the show notes as always. And until next time, have a great day. Whatever you're doing.