Writing a letter to your future self is a common journaling practice to help you see how happy you are in the present moment, but the writing a letter to your past self is equally helpful. While you can’t save this for you to read later, the exercise is still beneficial, especially if you’re feeling stressed, discouraged or frustrated.
The first time I wrote a letter to my past self it was in an especially difficult time in my life. I was going through a divorce, I didn’t have a job and I was considering going back to college. Writing a letter to my past self helped me see that my life was indeed full of special memories and that while I was currently in a difficult moment of my life, I had a lot to share with my past self about what was ahead.
What I learned, and what I hope you’ll learn when you do this activity is that no matter where you are on your journey, your past self has so much to look forward to and your present self can learn to appreciate what you’re going through and experiencing. Even the bad days have a purpose and opportunity to learn and grow. If you follow Submissive Guide you’ll know that I believe in positive affirmations as a way to boost your self-improvement progress. Using a letter to your past self may help pinpoint a negative thought process that could benefit from a positive affirmation.
Writing this letter to your younger self can help you to:
- Heal your pain
- Gain closure
- Gain clarity
- Forgive yourself and others
- Gain inner peace
- Inspire change
How Do I Write a Letter To My Past Self?
When you get ready to write a letter to your past self, make sure you are honest. There’s no point to this activity otherwise! Be compassionate and empathetic. You don’t want to badger or accuse your past self of making mistakes that may now be impacting your life. Tell yourself what you wish you had been told by someone else back then. Giving yourself advice can help you see what you might need to relearn to gain closure or heal your pain.
Choose an age of you to write to and stick to it. You can always write further letters to yourself from various ages. Stay focused on one or two issues. Don’t jump around, write about too broad of a subject or be vague. You know more now than you did then, try to share it with your past self.
What should the content of the letter be? This is unique to you, but once you get started you’ll find the words to make it all flow. Write whatever you need to. Address an issue you had at that point in your life, give yourself some love, forgive others or explain what is about to happen to them and how they should react. Be kind and loving. Reassure yourself. Stay positive.
Reflecting On Your Past in Submission
If you don’t go all the way back to a childhood self, maybe you want to go to the beginning of your submissive journey. Do you have something to say to your self from then that will help clear your mind of guilt or do you need to forgive yourself of a mistake you made? Or, you can talk to yourself about what changes are coming that have made your submission so good for your life now and how thankful you are for how you handled yourself in the beginning.
An Example Letter
Below is an excerpt of a letter I wrote the month I was marrying KnyghtMare to my 26-year-old self that was just getting started with submission and had met KnyghtMare online but we hadn’t taken it to face to face yet.
“Shaving everything isn’t that bad, you’ll get used to it. What you need to focus on right now is enjoying every moment of your discovery. You’ve got a lot of happy moments ahead, but they are buffered with challenges. Meet those challenges!
Oh, and you have a good future with KnyghtMare. Don’t mess it up. He may seem like a distant hope right now, but trust me, he’ll rock your world one day. And soon. You’ve always been critical of the people who want to have relationships with you. It’s not healthy and you can’t force your thoughts on someone else. Accept that people will like you for who you are, without any expectations in return. It’s called love for a reason. You don’t need a trade, you aren’t going to have to give up anything to love. Just allow love to work for you.
Take your time, don’t build up defenses and trust me, stop limiting yourself. You are worth it. Everything you ever wanted is right in front of you. Believe it and then make it happen.”
No matter what age you choose to go back to, there is a lot to gain from writing a letter to yourself.
More Resources on Journaling for Self-Improvement
- The best way to learn from yourself – The Writing Cooperative
- 30 Journaling Prompts for Self-Reflection and Self-Discovery – PsychCentral
- 30 Journaling Prompts for Self-Reflection and Self-Discovery – PsychCentral
- How To Write In Your Journal To Improve Yourself and Achieve Your Goals – Writing in Nature
- How To Write In Your Journal To Improve Yourself and Achieve Your Goals – Writing in Nature
- How to Journal Yourself Happy – Shine How to Journal Yourself Happy – Shine