A note to self

Ever wondered what it would be like to have a friend like you? Would you want to have that friend, or would you prefer to hang out with someone else? Can you say for sure that you would love your company, or would you rather be with someone who is slightly or totally different from you?

Your answers to all of the above will show up when you start writing letters to the self. Every time you express your thoughts on paper, you are looking at a mirror wherein you can see the real you, the way your inner world is, the quality of your thoughts, etc. It is a useful activity that, over time, becomes a positive habit. The rule for a note to the self is not to think, plan, or intellectualize too much. Just grab the pen and start writing without planning what to write. It should be like a free flow where the heart talks and the fingers write. It has to be an honest, non-judgmental expression of your inner world.

These notes are not for anyone else but for the self. It's a self-reflection exercise: take your old letters and read through them to understand how your mind produces thoughts, the power of your intellect in discerning & deciding, and, finally, the effect these thoughts have on shaping your personality. After reading these notes, you can sense what kind of person you are, and that's where the question of whether you would like to be friends with a person like you will be answered.

The idea behind these notes to self is not to judge yourself or go into a criticizing mode; rather, the goal is to observe yourself with a detached frame of mind so you can improve the areas you want to improve and bring out the best version of yourself. You will soon start noticing patterns in your reactions to situations & people and take conscious actions to change those patterns. So, while writing, we should not give much thought to planning our notes, but while reading previous notes, we should try to analyze the person we actually are Vs the person we think we are.

We all have heard the saying:

You are what you eat

The above is true for the body, but for the being, the following quote holds true:

YOU ARE WHAT YOU THINK

This daily act of writing a note to yourself will soon become a therapeutic activity and an eye-opener, helping you see how others perceive you, because often what we think is not what we communicate, and it can come across as something else in the final action we take. Hence, to align our thoughts-words-actions and to be who we really think or want to be, these notes will come quite handy.

So, here is hoping this small tip guides all of you toward the best version you are capable of becoming, and the bonus is that it will unwind your day and help you relax into a good night's sleep.