I first heard about this healing technique from my therapist. She told me whenever I'm really depressed or in need of just speaking my pain, write a letter to myself, telling myself that it's okay, to validate myself, and to give permission to myself to be okay. It was a very powerful exercise. I did it only once and it was very effective.
Lately, I've been hearing from different sources about writing letters to the beyond...the future or even the past to seek guidance. My sister was telling me about something she heard on a podcast about writing a letter from your "present self" seeking wisdom from your "future self". In this process, one must gather up all the wisdom that could be in the future self to give advice to the present self. From another source, a podcast I have really taken a liking to, Magic Lessons, Elizabeth Gilbert recommended someone to write two letters.
For one, the interviewee was asked to reach way back and write a letter from her great-great-grand mother {ancestor} to herself telling her why it is so important to have a public voice and how as a woman, in that time period, she didn't. For the other letter, Liz recommended to reach way forward and write a letter from her grand-grand-child {descendant} to herself. A little back story of the interviewee: her name was Hope and she was a writer. She had been writing for years but she was shy to perform at poetry slams and read her poems out loud. Her fear of being rejected kept on overcoming her desire to share her art. Thus, Liz spoke to her about understanding that rejection is part of an artist's life. Not everyone is going to enjoy her writing and it's okay. But this is the price to pay in order to have a public voice. So then she recommended the letter-writing.
Hope did the exercise and found it to be very helpful to be pushed into stepping out of her comfort zone. I, too, have been pondering this strategy. Whether it is to write to my future self maybe the 50-year old Meela or the writing to my ancestors. I believe even if my ancestors are long gone, their energy still lingers on this earth. Thus, by writing, perhaps big magic occurs and their energy can be summoned close to my heart. Writing is truly magical in its own sense. There's something special about it--and it has awesome powers.
Lately, I've been hearing from different sources about writing letters to the beyond...the future or even the past to seek guidance. My sister was telling me about something she heard on a podcast about writing a letter from your "present self" seeking wisdom from your "future self". In this process, one must gather up all the wisdom that could be in the future self to give advice to the present self. From another source, a podcast I have really taken a liking to, Magic Lessons, Elizabeth Gilbert recommended someone to write two letters.
For one, the interviewee was asked to reach way back and write a letter from her great-great-grand mother {ancestor} to herself telling her why it is so important to have a public voice and how as a woman, in that time period, she didn't. For the other letter, Liz recommended to reach way forward and write a letter from her grand-grand-child {descendant} to herself. A little back story of the interviewee: her name was Hope and she was a writer. She had been writing for years but she was shy to perform at poetry slams and read her poems out loud. Her fear of being rejected kept on overcoming her desire to share her art. Thus, Liz spoke to her about understanding that rejection is part of an artist's life. Not everyone is going to enjoy her writing and it's okay. But this is the price to pay in order to have a public voice. So then she recommended the letter-writing.
Hope did the exercise and found it to be very helpful to be pushed into stepping out of her comfort zone. I, too, have been pondering this strategy. Whether it is to write to my future self maybe the 50-year old Meela or the writing to my ancestors. I believe even if my ancestors are long gone, their energy still lingers on this earth. Thus, by writing, perhaps big magic occurs and their energy can be summoned close to my heart. Writing is truly magical in its own sense. There's something special about it--and it has awesome powers.
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