The idea is to capture a certain moment in time, a feeling, a wish, an encounter or experience and to recognize, that the perspective on that moment will change.
My future self will know more than I do now, will have had more and different experiences than my current self, and will therefore have a different view on what I’m noting now.
Going back and forth, between these notes, also documents the steps in personal development and shifts and changes on an individual level.
► My Future Self Journal ▼
Why do I write to my future self? ◼︎ ●
Self-Actualizing, personal development, the search for more options, or simply experiencing growth and change for any reason, might feel weird, scary or uncertain. Yet impermanence or becoming is something we all share.
I started to write and publish some diary post a while ago, and looking back at them even a month later, I felt like I should rewrite them because my perspective had changed so much.
But that would be like trying to erase the most essential part: the journey.
We don’t just arrive at a certain point, we struggle, fight, fall down, run in the wrong direction, come back, stand up, fall again and yet continue.
We laugh, love, enjoy, paint, sing, dance, discuss and find ourselves surprised by the unexpected. With every experience, we spiral up and can dive into deeper levels of experience if we allow ourselves to do so.
This series is a documentation of a journey into the unknown.
It shows vulnerability, how shame, prejudice, judgement and fear can be present, and overcome.
It’s about admitting mistakes and acknowledging how easily we can be wrong, no matter how mindful, present, in tune and aware we are.
But most of all it’s about celebrating life in all its different forms and shapes, colours and sounds and tastes, in depth and lightness – life’s endless beauty and continuous unfolding.
We are all a part of life’s magnificence, the question is: How much of it do we allow ourselves to enjoy and experience?
The more we open up and liberate ourselves from what we thought we knew, the more we try to see things in new ways and the more love we share, the more magical life becomes.
May our future selves continue to experience life wholeheartedly.
May my honesty inspire yours and show you that there is nothing to fear, when you’re true to yourself.
With lots of love for you and this world,
Verena
Read conversations with my future self:
20 /// Dear Future Self – Do You Speak Up?
Dear future self, When I was eleven or twelve, I decided not to be completely honest with other...
19 /// Dear Future Self – How Can We Be Soft?
Dear future self, I just listened to this wonderful compilation, what a perfect way to start the...
18 /// Dear Future Self – What Do You Grieve?
Dear future self, I keep coming back to grief. Wondering why my heart still feels heavy sometimes,...
17 /// Dear Future Self – What Do You Do, When You Don’t Do What you Wanted to Do?
Photo by me from my archive.Dear future self, Yesterday I sat down to write this post, but no...
16 /// Dear Future Self – Why do you bother?
Photo by me from my archive.Dear future self, I've started to write a book. Which is why I won't...
15 /// Dear Future Self – What is Freedom?
Dear future self, Just a moment ago, freedom was putting the laptop back to the side, to cuddle...
14 /// Dear Future Self – What do you know?
Photo by Jason Harrell 2018Dear future self, What do you know? Do you remember when Madonna was...
#13 /// Dear Future Self – Do You Believe in God?
I have to admit that I have my difficulties.
I grew up believing in God. Not that long ago, I opened my very first diary to a random page and read about how grateful I was, that I always had God to talk to.
Then my education made me believe that there was no God. I came to the conclusion that God, or any kind of belief, was used to explain things we couldn’t explain ourselves yet.
#12 /// Dear Future Self – What are Your Goals?
What are your goals? My next big goal is to find a beautiful place somewhere and to fill it with new life.
A place that can become a home for me and my family, but also a place for people to come together.
I’m thinking of an abandoned farm, monastery or factory. With lots of space for things to develop. I’d love to bring in community to set it up and bring it to life as well.
#11 /// Dear Future Self – What do you Dream About?
Today I have had people around me for two weeks in a row, after a year of mostly being by myself.
In this year, I had friends coming to visit for a weekend occasionally, and I met people sporadically, but I was also going for weeks without being around other people at all.
In the beginning, especially in fall/early winter, it was difficult to be by myself. I thought I wanted to have a family, and a lively house.
It’s all I ever wanted, I thought. But it turned out it was only all I ever knew to want.
#10 /// Dear Future Self – What inspires you?
What inspires you? I find nature to be the most precious inspiration.
It’s quite funny how we as humans think we can try to come up with solutions for everything when most of the most perfect ways to exist, are already present in nature.
What do we need to fly? Ask the birds.
What do we need to swim or dive?
#9 /// Dear Future Self – Do You Feel Alive?
The last couple of days have actually felt like I’m living my life.
Let’s see if I’m going to be able to describe this adequately.
Most of my life has felt like I was waiting for my life to start. Like I needed to do a few more things, change something here or there in order for my life to be the life I want.
#8 /// Dear Future Self – What’s the meaning of life?
For me right now, the meaning of life, I suppose, is a mix of being and becoming, it’s being present and open to evolving freely.
The meaning of life is to go beyond what we know.
It’s experiencing what’s here now and to take that experience as something that opens us up for deeper levels of experiencing.
#7 /// Dear Future Self – Do You Feel Like You Belong?
One of the places I feel most uncomfortable is to be in a group with other women. Not just any women, but women who are able to embrace their femininity.
The vulnerability required for that is still hard work for me. Too deep run the patriarchal assumptions that sweetness is weakness and intuition is inferior to rationality.
#6 /// Dear Future Self – How’s the Garden Doing?
I make an effort not to work on weekends, as good as I can. As you might gather from this...
#5 /// Dear Yesterday’s Self – I Can See Much Clearer Now
Thank you for what you wrote yesterday and the effort you put in to get there. Because of it, I...
#4 /// Dear Future Self – I Have a Dream
I have a dream. In this dream, each person can see other people for who they are: another person. Someone special. A unique gift. No further judgement needed…
#3 /// Dear Future Self – There is No Lack
One of the things I find most difficult is to do something that is different from what everybody else is doing. Maybe not even doing, but thinking.
#2 /// Dear Future Self – Life is Miraculous
Yesterday we got to pick the first beans from our new garden. I hope you have a much bigger garden, but I am quite enjoying these first steps…
#1 /// Dear Future Self – Changes Make for a Good Start
Today is a difficult day for me because it’s the first day of sharing my new home with three other people for the next three weeks, and I’m still a little insecure when it comes to stepping up for myself and setting my boundaries.
► Start Your FUTURE SELF JOURNAL
Why start a future self journal?
It’s quite simple: If you want to live purposefully, it’s important to know what your purpose is.
The main question in finding your purpose is: who do you want to be? Who do you imagine your future self to be?
Where would they live?
How would they spend their days?
Draw a picture in your mind about your future self in all details.
Are you done?
Then start to think what you can do to be that future self now.
One way to make your future self seem like a real person, is by writing to them.
Every time you write to them, you can imagine for them to be a real person and with that, they become more real to you.
Seeing your future self clearly, makes it more clear for you to recognize which steps you need to take to become your future self.
Are you ready to get started with your future self journal?
Download the cheat sheet and let’s go!
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