What Your Year-End Review Process Is Missing: A More Effective Approach to Reflection

As we reach the final month of the year, many of us turn naturally toward reviewing targets, accomplishments, and unfinished goals. Organisations do the same. It is a familiar ritual that often values output more than insight. Yet neuroscience and somatic psychology show that the way we reflect matters as much as what we reflect on.

When people reflect with awareness of the body, they tend to set goals that are sustainable and aligned with their true capacity.

Research demonstrates that reflection which ignores the body risks missing vital information stored in the nervous system (Le Pertel, 2020; Price et al., 2021).

For people who have moved through intense pressure, chronic stress, or trauma, a productivity-based review can trigger shame, comparison, or a sense of falling short. A trauma-informed approach invites something different: presence, compassion, and a return to the body.

Reflecting from the body, not the checklist

A meaningful reflection begins with noticing.

Noticing when we felt grounded or alive.

Noticing the moments that brought belonging, steadiness, or connection.

Noticing the boundaries that held us, and the ones that felt difficult.

Noticing how the body responded to the year, through contraction, resilience, numbness, or openness.

These subtler experiences reveal how we moved through the year, not just what we achieved. They help us shift from judgment to curiosity, which is essential for integration and genuine behavioural change (Price et al., 2021).

Your nervous system holds the real story

Throughout the year, the nervous system adapts to pressure and change. It carries a full record of our emotional landscape. When stress or adversity rises, the part of the brain responsible for language and logic often recedes, while body-based processing takes the lead (Kearney, 2022; van der Kolk, 2014).

This is why end-of-year reflection that stays purely analytical or verbal can feel disconnected. Embodied reflection honours the ways we actually lived the year.

How to reflect in a more embodied way

A body-based reflection does not require complex rituals. It simply asks for a few moments of presence.

Choose a space where your body softens naturally. Begin not with your thoughts, but with sensation. Notice your breath, your posture, and the tension or ease that emerges when you pause long enough to pay attention.

"The body often communicates what the mind has postponed."

Let questions emerge that invite curiosity.

When did I feel aligned this year?

Where did I feel stretched?

When was I acting from pressure instead of presence?

Where did my body ask for more care?

What helped me stay connected to myself?

Some answers will arrive in words. Others through movement, a softening, a sigh, or an unexpected emotion. Let each insight land without judgment. 

Why this matters at work

When people reflect with awareness of the body, they tend to set goals that are sustainable and aligned with their true capacity. They are more likely to recognise early signs of stress, recover more effectively from stress, establish healthier boundaries, and access support before overwhelm becomes exhaustion. They make decisions that support long-term wellbeing. This approach also reduces burnout, because it addresses the physiological roots of overload rather than its symptoms.

For organisations, encouraging this kind of reflection is not a soft initiative. It is a practical, effective way to strengthen wellbeing, performance, emotional intelligence and leadership capacity across teams in ways traditional metrics cannot capture.

SETUKA’s invitation

As this year comes to a close, I invite you to reflect differently. Not by pushing harder, but by listening deeper. Can you avoid judging yourself for what you did not do, and instead, acknowledge what your body carried and how far you have come?

Your nervous system holds wisdom that no annual report can capture. It deserves your care and attention.

If you or your organisation would like to explore embodied reflection or trauma-informed wellbeing, you are welcome to connect with me at setuka.ch.

Sometimes the most powerful insight comes not from thinking more, but from finally allowing yourself to feel.

References for further reading

• Kearney, B. E. (2022). The brain–body disconnect: A somatic sensory basis for trauma-related conditions. Clinical Case Reports, 10(12), e6544. https://doi.org/10.1002/ccr3.6544

• Le Pertel, N. (2020). Neuroscience of embodied reflection: Mind–body integration in reflective practice. Reflective Practice, 21(6), 823–834. https://doi.org/10.1080/14623943.2020.1827492

• Price, C. J., et al. (2021). Facilitating adaptive emotion processing and somatic awareness: A scoping review of body-oriented therapeutic approaches. Frontiers in Psychology, 12, 578827. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2021.578827

• van der Kolk, B. A. (2014). The Body Keeps the Score: Brain, Mind and Body in the Healing of Trauma. Viking.

If this post resonated with you, feel free to share it with someone who might benefit too. And if you’d like to keep exploring themes like emotional wellbeing, transitions, and conscious self-leadership, I invite you to subscribe to the blog and join the SETUKA newsletter. You’ll receive occasional updates on upcoming workshops, fresh insights, and practical tools to support you, both personally and professionally, on your journey of growth and self-care.

Thank you for being part of the SETUKA community. Let’s stay in touch, and until then, take gentle care.

Heidi Kempeneer,

Therapist and Founder of SETUKA , a platform for body-based therapies and well-being services for individuals and organisations.

Find out more about me and what I do.