Write Yourself A Love Note
A few years ago, I started attending to my daily journaling practice with fervor. Rather than just pulling it out when I was “not feeling so great” or “needing to make a big decision”, I committed to a daily practice.
As time passed, paragraphs of text evolved into a series of cartoons created by me, for me, to help navigate the ebb and flow of life’s daily challenges. I encountered more resilience, alignment, courage to attempt new (and scary things), and the ability to experience myself in relationship (to myself and others), in new ways.
"Nothing is at last sacred but the integrity of your own mind. Absolve you to yourself, and you shall have the suffrage of the world."- Ralph Waldo Emmerson
As characters formed on the page, I started to meet parts of my self I’d known were there, but never had the opportunity to converse with.
These parts found their voices, as I found mine, and we began to get to know each other, with humor, kindness, and a whole lot of 1.0 gel pen ink.
The “self love letter” is not a new idea- it might feel a bit “hokey” at first (we aren’t used to doing this in our culture)- creativity surrounding this letter is what gives it light.
A self love letter (any love letter, really) is an opportunity for you to share the things you love, appreciate, respect, reminisce fondly upon, desire, laugh about, have cried through, and motivate (you).
Here's an invitation to try this activity for yourself.
Instructions:
Start this letter as formally or informally as you desire, allow yourself space to reflect on the categories below, and don’t be afraid to have fun with it! Make jokes if it feels right!
Things you might share with yourself:
Some of your favorite qualities about your personality
Recent accomplishments
Ways you have overcome adversity
Ways that you contribute to the world/the lives of others
Things that bring you joy/motivate you
A joke that always makes you laugh
A fond memory you have spending time with yourself/in solitude.
Choices you have made over your life that have resulted in you learning/growing
Identification (and support for) your goals in the upcoming week/month/year
Are you ready to grab a pen and support yourself on this delicious journey of life, in a new way?
If this (and other creativity based IFS techniques) feel like something you'd like to explore in more depth, lets set up a time to chat!
So this is how you swim inward. So this is how you flow outwards. So this is how you play. (Mary Oliver)
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