5 Easy Steps To Write A Letter To Your Inner Self

Your inner self is your subconscious, and when you write a letter to your inner self or to your subconscious mind, you tap into its vast potential very effectively.

Write a letter. You must be wondering, in this digital day and age, it’s such uncool and outdated stuff.

Who has so much time to read, let alone write one? And then the crazy concoction is that you have to write a letter to your inner self, how does that even work, you may ponder?

What should I write? It feels so awkward? And oh, what about my handwriting? My writing style, tonality and grammar?

Looping back and forth, are you? If you are having these thoughts in your mind, then I bet you are on the right path; eventually, you will get there. I can safely say that for you; the goal post is not that far away.

It does not matter which medium you opt for because once you sit down and start penning your mind, it opens a window to yourself and helps you connect with your memories, your dreams, your wishes and regrets and helps you reflect upon them.

And when you manage to tap into that river of thoughts, freely flowing in there. You will experience a calm amidst the chaos of your mind, that will liberate and empower you.

And at the same time help you with the crystal clarity of thought, a sense of purpose and direction, sometimes a push for action or simply help you get that long and overdue closure.

Mind you from my experience, I can vouch for this, and many writers will also do, writing has an innate power to move and touch souls, change the course of our lives and even alter history, remember the adage, the pen is mightier than a sword, do you? It is all but true.

So now that you have the Why sorted let’s delve together into the How part. Don’t you worry, I am here to guide you all the way. So, shall we start?

How to write a letter to your inner self in five simple steps:

1. It is your Time Machine.

Time machine, hold on, that geeky stuff from Star Trek and movie Tenet, you mean to say?

Well, I can assure you, definitely not as complex as Tenet for sure, neither the one where you have to bend any laws of physics and risk Temporal wars and world annihilation and that sort of jugglery.

But simply put, you have the power today, to write a letter to your future self, telling him/her What to do?

How to do? And much more. Just as you can write a letter to your future self, you can also go back in time (figuratively of course) and write to your past self too.

In the next steps, we will cover How does it work? What to write about and How you can make the most out of it in more detail?

But right now, realizing that you can talk to your inner self by Travelling to your past or going fast forward to your future is a profound realization that I want to keep in your mind.

2. You are your own Judge, Jury & Executioner

We have always been very critical of ourselves and tend to be very unforgiving when we keep us in line of our own fire.

When writing to yourself, simply let go of all of these inhibitions that pop in your mind. Your handwriting doesn’t matter, nor the choice of words, vocabulary or grammar as long as it makes sense to you.

Remember you are writing this letter for you, nobody else is going to read it, so there is no one else whom you have to impress.

Hence be utmost honest with yourself while writing this letter, be compassionate and empathetic to yourself.

It is okay to pour your anger or your frustration; sometimes, it’s a good release. But don’t let it overpower you, and what you have to say?

Be kind to yourself; you are writing this letter with a positive purpose in your mind. Hence your focus and choice of words will only lift you and empower you further.

3. Focus, Focus and Focus

Focus, why is this important? You may not realize it now, but writing is an intoxicating journey that really knows no end. Once you get into the flow as writers often call it, you can write reams and reams of paper.

For our purpose, this can be distracting, because we have so many things that must have happened in different years of our lives, so many things we want to talk about, so many things we may want to say to our younger self or the future self. We can end up being all over, and that would defeat the purpose.

Hence, I would recommend you pick a particular point in your life
(forward or backwards), an event, the younger you at a specific age, so that it helps you to focus further and narrow down what you want to say and in the due process be more effective.

4. What would you like to say, to your inner self?

There are so many things; we would have wanted to do differently if given a second chance.

There are things that our present learned self might want to tell our past self. Why do you think this is matters?

We have all desired to have someone; some figurehead to guide us in our lives, to show us the right directions, hold us back from going on paths we may regret later.

Some of us are lucky to have someone like that in our parents, relatives, teachers, older friends or colleagues. But most of us have lived our lives on our own without such support.

Sure, you won’t be able to change the past now, but by writing a letter to your past self, you can tell him/her how would you have chosen to do things differently, how you would forgive yourself for the choices you made back then?

And the regrets you may have for not doing something when the time was right.

Be appreciative of who you are now, and most importantly gain a closure over your past wounds or things that have been bothering you that you had difficulty to move on from.

Similarly knowing not what your future holds, you can write a letter to motivate yourself, push harder against any adversities that may arise, give ideas, thoughts and suggestions, on how would you have navigated that situation?

And also share your present learnings so far, helping yourself prepare and become stronger.

And then imagine, you open a letter written to your future self, two to three years from now or even further down.

And reading it and talking to yourself. Imagine that someone is guiding you, motivating you, empowering you, appreciating you and nudging you gently to become a better version of you.

Telling you that this too shall pass, that this is not the first downs that you’ve faced in your life, and neither this is the last Ups you will ever have.

The experience is no less than cathartic, but the right one you need to have from the biggest and most boisterous cheerleader you will ever have on your side. And that is You!

5. Don’t stop at one

You may ask, of all the people why my inner self?

Because he/she is your alter ego, right from your birth, he/she has been your voice of reason, one who will not judge you for your actions, he/she is your friend, your confidante, the one from whom nothing is hidden, and the one, who you know will never ever leave your side come what may.

Your inner self is your subconscious, and when you write to your subconscious mind, you tap into its vast potential very effectively.

And so, it is essential to nurture this relationship with yourself, the most important relationship you will ever have.

And so, my friend, don’t just stop at one letter. Write as many as you can. If nothing, it will at least make you feel better.

If you feel this article will encourage your friends and family to get started, do share it with them, we would like to hear more about your experience and any other tips you may have that will help the readers in the comments section.

It is not the destination, but the journey that matters, they say, but how will you realize either if you don’t get starting right away.