An open letter to my hardworking self

[Annie]

Today I wrote a letter to myself into my MD journal. Keeping this journal has helped me more than I can express in words. So I have decided to share this entry with you, hoping that it can inspire some of you to start a journal and face the demons you are struggling with as well...

'Hello, version of me reading this journal entry,

I just wanted to say thank you for writing in this book! Honestly just doing this every day is helping you so much! You know it, you can feel it every day. You have spent years running away, hiding, escaping the reality your physical body lives in. But your soul never lived there. Finally, through scribbling on these pages every day you have begun to face your demons, but also your dreams and all the beautiful things you are capable of! Keep at it! You are finally expressing yourself creatively and honestly again, like you always wanted. And with every word of self-analysis, with every thought, every plan you make and every promise you are healing a tiny bit more.

I have to be honest, at this point I have no idea where this journey will end. How many of these journals will I fill until I know what I really want to become? What will I do with the rest of my life once I am healed? Will I ever be completely healed? Maybe not. Maybe that day will never come. Maybe this way of expression and reflection is what life is all about.

Regardless, keep going, because even if it doesn't always look that way, it's good for you. There will be setbacks and episodes of depression, like the ones already documented on previous pages, for sure. But that's ok. That's life. Life is failing over and over again and learning not to give up along the way.

By writing in here you come a little bit closer to bringing the REAL creative and driven YOU from your imagination into reality every day. Use this journal as the bridge to help you achieve that. Cross it, if necessary many times, by reading your old entries and strengthening the foundations you built here. And keep adding to it, until you reach the other shore. Maybe once you do the shore will move back a little, that's ok, just don't stop. And once you have cemented both connections keep the bridge open. Not only as a reminder of what you have built, but as a permanent gateway to allow all those amazing passions and characteristics you know you have deep down to spill across the bridge and embed themselves into the real world version of you. Here in this world, for all the world to see.

Thank you and I love you,

Annie'

[Source]

Odd, but inspiring. Seems to me like some sort of echoing your thoughts back to yourself in written form. Never heard of anyone doing it, at least in this way.

Reminds me of the journal I used to keep. I left explicit advice to my future self in one of the entries should everything go sideways, then lost that file forever. Be sure not to lose yours prematurely if you value the information inside it.