Letters to my Future Self (Positivity Exercise)

I find writing to my future self to be an interesting exercise. Most times you are writing about your present life to your future self and then when you actually are your future self, you will be reading about your past. So basically it includes past, present, and future all in one activity. Pretty neat, huh?

There are various ideas for what to write to your future self but the basics of this exercise are as follows:

1. Find some paper and an envelope.
2. Write a letter to your future self.
3. Seal the letter in the envelope and write the date on which you would like to open the letter.

You don't have to only write one letter either. You can write several letters about different things or you can write a letter at certain ages or certain stages in your life. Some people write about what is happening in their life right now along with their goals and dreams and choose to open those letters on certain milestone birthdays or at the time of other milestones in their life. Some people write letters to their future spouse or future children or future grandchildren. Some people write a letter to their best friend to be opened on a future date or for a milestone birthday. There are so many possibilities for this exercise!

Here are some ideas of what you can write about in your letter (a whole list, actually) or maybe you'd like to write a separate letter for each topic:

• What is happening right now in your life

• What is happening right now in the world and what you think of all of it

• Accomplishments so far

• Goals and dreams

• Favourite memory/memories

• Pep talk

• What you think your future will look like/hope your future will look like

• Challenges that you have overcome so far

• Your current favourite things (music, movies, books, places, activities, experiences, etc.)

• The most important people in your life and why they are important

• What you love about yourself right now 

•  Current hobbies

• What you would like to change about your present self (what kind of person do you hope to be in the future?)

• Things that you never want to forget (memories, experiences, people, pets, accomplishments, challenges, etc.)

• Who, what, where, when, why, how (who: the kind of person you are right now, what: what you do right now, where: where you live right now, when: the date right now, why: why you do what you do and think what you do right now, how: how do you live right now [beliefs, morals, values]) 

More Ideas:

• Include some photos 

•  Add some drawings  

• Write a poem to your future self  

• Add some extra little (flat) things in the envelope like a movie ticket from a movie that you saw recently, the program or brochure from an event that you went to recently, a note from a friend, etc. 

•  Get your friend to write a letter to your future self and add it to the envelope without looking at it

•  Make a collage of your favourite things and attach it to your letter or add it inside the envelope

• Decorate your letter and envelope in whatever way you like

• Turn a small box into a mini time capsule and add your letter(s) to it along with other little things from your current life

I know that it's important to stay in the present moment but this exercise gives you an excuse to think about the past and future and celebrate them! We need to appreciate the past and feel grateful for it. The things that happened in the past happened for a reason and we need to learn from them. The future has yet to come and so we need to plan for it. We can dream about it too. Sure, some things will just happen and we need to be flexible but some things need a bit of planning.

I have already written a letter using some of these ideas to be opened on my 30th birthday and I know that I will definitely be writing more and coming back to this post for further ideas! If you choose to try this exercise, I hope you have fun!

Cheers,

Kaylie

Vision Boards (Positivity Exercise)

During the Fall, I made some vision boards after getting out of the hospital. I did this because I felt a bit lost when it came to what I wanted to do with my life. I'm a visual person and I had made a vision board before so I decided to make one to help me visualize and figure out my plans for the future. My first vision board ever was made at a vision board workshop at a local library and it was made on a large bristol board but I felt that it was too big. The whole point of a vision board is to glue words and pictures of things that you want in your life into a sort of collage and then place it somewhere where you will see it all the time so that the words and images will make their way into your mind. Hopefully they create a constant unnoticeable reminder in your head of what you want to manifest and eventually it will happen because you make it happen. My large vision board seemed too overwhelming. There were way too many pictures and words for my mind to take in.

This Fall, after playing around a bit with some words and pictures from magazines on a normal size piece of paper (around 8"x11"), I realized that a smaller vision board was much better. There were fewer words and pictures so it was easier for my mind to focus on them and remember them and it was also easier to narrow down exactly what I wanted from each vision board while being more artistic with the arrangements of the cut-outs at the same time. Also, I could play around with the words more and arrange them in a way so that they all flowed with each other when read in order. I made a total of three vision boards and I put them in plain frames without borders that you would normally use to display certificates. I'll talk about each vision board in more detail in this post.

My "What do I want to do with my life?" vision board:

This was the first vision board that I made out of the total of three vision boards. I wanted to create a vision board that would get me thinking in a more positive way about figuring out what I want to do in my life rather than stressing out about it all the time. I chose empowering images like that of a girl with a smile on her face and her arms in the air in a sign of success as well as that of Wonder Woman. Another image, which happens to be the biggest picture on the board, is that of a woman with her hands on a traditional image of a heart that is on her chest. I chose this image because the things that I really want to do in my life are things that I'm passionate about and I felt that this image was a good symbol for our passions. The words have to do with there being possibilities out there and how I can do what I really want and love to do. Just for fun, I covered the entire vision board in glitter glue (which is a bit difficult to see in the photo) to remind myself to have fun while exploring my interests.

My "Stress Less" vision board:

I created this vision board to focus more on keeping my mind relaxed and less stressed. The images are of activities that I love that are also relaxing and help with relaxation like meditation, yoga, and hiking outdoors. The words are reassuring and encouraging.

My "Creativity" vision board:

This vision board is all about art and creativity. I am a very creative person but I feel like I'm not focusing on the arts and creativity that I love as much as I'd like so I pasted a bunch of images of arts that I love like crafts, drawing and painting, writing, music, and photography. I also added words that are connected to creativity and at the bottom I put a little inspirational sentence about being original when it comes to art.


Those are the vision boards that I made and I'm really happy with them! I feel like I really improved since the first time I made one and really focused on exactly what I wanted to get out of these vision boards.

Cheers,
Kaylie