Self-Care in Action – A Note from Present Me to Future Me
Sharing some mindful self-care by writing a note to my future self.
Who you are now is a product of your past thoughts, feelings, actions, and intentions.
Things that you did along the way made you who you are now.
This can be hard to fathom. Aren’t you who you are now, now? The answer is yes – but only when you’re actively being mindful and consciously aware.
The only time that’s really, truly, real is right now. This moment, this fleeting moment in time, is whole and complete. All else is colored by subconscious beliefs, values, and habits looking forward or backward.
In the present, however, when consciously aware – you are. From that point, you can make active choices to impact your future self.
This can get super convoluted. Wrapping your head around the idea that who you are now is a product of who you were seems contradictory and crazy. But that’s part of how elements of who you are that you don’t like – or would like to change – exist. Because they were created in the past and have ceased to serve you.
Thus, if the life you have now was created in the past, everything you think, feel, intend, and act on now will go into the creation of your life for your future self.
While it’s helpful to know where you came from, it’s equally helpful to know where you’re going. As part of self-care, one way to do this is by writing a note from your present self to your future self.
Why write this note?
Part of mindfulness is active, conscious awareness. While you can get that by asking questions to yourself, here and now, about what you’re thinking, feeling, intending, and doing – writing a note from your present self to your future self codifies and cements a moment in time.
You and I are frequently distracted by things. Those distractions take you out of the here and now and take away your mindfulness.
Distractions can be big, like politics, injustices, awful people; or small, like interpersonal relationships, random happenings, job and coworker matters, and so on. Most are harmless on the surface but can be hugely detrimental to self-care. These include TV, games, and social media.
Distractions of all sorts pull you out of conscious awareness and away from the here and now. Then, before you know it, you lose track of both where you are and where you would like to be going.
One way to alleviate this is via a self-check-in. There are many ways to do this. But one of the best ways to see where you are now – versus where you desire to be – is to write a note to yourself.
This can be a totally private matter you put in a journal. Or you can type it out and save the file or print and store it away. Some have even gone uber-public and shared video and audio variations of this on Tik Tok, Facebook, YouTube, on a podcast, or a blog.
This is self-care because it causes you to look at who, what, where, how, and why you are now. Then, you can choose a future time to write a letter to yourself to.
Practicing self-care and accountability
In a world of many distractions and overzealous messages of selfishness, self-care matters a lot.
If you are anything like me, you say things to yourself that are not very caring sometimes. You might also more often put others and their needs before your own – without putting fuel in your own tank first.
Self-care is so very important. Why? Because there is only one you, and you have just the one body to live in. While others are going to be part of your life – they can’t care for you and your overall health, wellness, or wellbeing. That’s because only you are in your head, heart, and soul. Nobody else is there with you.
Because you are alone in your head, heart, and soul, when it comes to self-care, it’s challenging to have nobody else to be accountable to. An accountability partner can help you to stay on track, keep focused on your goals, and provide encouragement along the way.
Though paths are solitary – as you are the only one who can choose and walk yours – you aren’t alone. The people you care about, and love, are along for the ride.
To that end, in practicing what I write (I don’t preach, thank you) I am creating a note from my present self to my future self, here. This is a matter of self-care, and I’m sharing it with you for accountability.
This note is from present me to future me 1 year from now.
A note from my present self to my future self – 2023
Dear Me,
How’s May 2024 going? So far, 2023 has been a shit year in many ways. Not for me, per se – my life is in a decent place and my health is relatively good. But so far there has been too much death, and it’s been emotionally challenging and draining in a lot of ways.
My marriage is great. The cats are doing well (Thalia is sitting on the desk to the left of the keyboard purring as I write this) and the apartment complex is still a great place to live. The weather is turning warmer, and you know how much I love summer.
Right now, I’m doing a lot of work to make some positive changes that will be in effect by the time you are reading this. I’m doing work on my physical health, to get into better shape, put less pressure on my joints, and make more healthy dietary choices. Additionally, I’m working on daily meditation at least 5 days a week to make that more habitual.
I’m working on being more honest with myself. Setting goals and stepping stones to reach them. Once again, I’m journaling daily to collect my thoughts, and am back in therapy to resolve some unresolved past bullshit in the now so that I’m in a far better place when I’m you.
Finally, in the now, I’m working on being less stressed, less uncertain, and more centered. The goal is to be more in the now and focused, less distracted, and better able to get to you how I desire to see you.
That should look like the following:
A note from my present self to my future self – 2024
In May 2024, I’m still working on overcoming obstacles and various challenges. But I’ve gotten lots better, and the good has been better and more frequent than the bad.
Chrissie and I moved in the fall as planned. I love our new place. We have home offices even better than what we had before. Chrissie has the sunlight she needed to plant her garden and grow a lot of veggies and herbs that we both love.
We’ve both gotten into better dietary habits. I’m in much better physical shape, with less stress on my joints – which are a lot less sore. I love what this does for my fencing.
Work wise, Nova keeps me busy – but the companies are flourishing. Additionally, my blog is paying me real money, and book sales are far more impressive. More books are coming, and I have no problem paying editors and cover artists to get them completed.
The cars and credit cards are all paid off.
One of the best things about my present life, here in May 2024, is that I feel more confident, have gotten better at my self-care, and I can hardly wait to see what comes next. I have some amazing travel and career plans for the next year. I should write a new letter from 2024 me to 2025 me.
Anyhow – thanks for checking in. Glad we’ve gotten here from there.
Love,
Murray
My self-care is different from yours
This might appear a bit selfish and self-serving. But if it does, why? All I’m doing is looking from where I am now to where I desire to be a year from now. That’s setting goals – none of which are unreasonable or take anything away from anyone else. Hence – not selfish.
Much of what I am seeing for myself a year from now is vague. But that leaves room for some imaginative possibilities. We’re not even starting to look for a new place to live for several months – so I have no idea what exactly that’ll look like. But knowing what I have now – and making a comparison to what might be in the future – gives me an idea of what we will be looking for.
When you do something self-care related like this, you are creating goals to look forward to. That can help you to seek and find means to your desired ends. And you keep them somewhat vague to leave room for them to be even better than you imagine them to be.
No, you can’t know what the future will bring. But when you leave it wholly to chance – and don’t have goals or desires for what it should look like – what are you doing now, and why?
I prefer my present thoughts, feelings, intentions, and actions will not just be good for me here and now. They should have some focus on the future and all that my life can be. Why not make requests and put out there what you desire to see?
This is just one of many forms of self-care. I hope that by sharing mine, you have notions for your self-care.
Have you ever written a letter from your present self to your future self?
This is the five hundred and ninety-fifth exploration of my Pathwalking philosophy. These weekly essays are my ideas for – and experiences with – using mindfulness and positivity to walk along a chosen path of life to consciously create reality.
I share this journey as part of my desire to make a difference in this world and empower as many people as I can with conscious reality creation.
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