Writing Letters To Yourself> Journaling

I learned the hard way to read the letters I write to myself. One day I stumbled on one sealed and written on my 1 year anniversary. That was 27 years later, also the day of our last marital therapy session. My brutally honest letter was freakishly prescient in its details. If I'd read it sooner I would have spared us both a lot of pain. 

Writing to yourself serves another purpose than journaling. Being your own pen pal is different, because you are talking TO yourself, not AT a blank page. This shifts your perspective and tricks your brain into creating more value: clarity, wisdom and self-compassion. 

Having an audience forces intention. This creates clarity. What is the point you want to make? You have to process your stuff in order to communicate it. You have to make meaning of it, and it lifts you out of the weeds of your stuff. You can see the whole landscape. 

Because we treat others more compassionately than we do ourselves, writing a letter also diverts our "hot mess" energy into "connection" energy. Connection, even if it's just with ourselves, always makes us feel better. 

And when we feel better, we access our inner wisdom. My 24 year-old self saw the truth of the dynamics that dogged our marriage. Your wise self can show what you don't want to see more easily when you are both the observer and the observee, the writer and the recipient. 

Writing a letter to yourself will reveal your inner truth.

Photo credit: Aaron Burden on Unsplash