What Would Six-year-old You Say?

I wrote a letter to my six-year-old Self today. I thought I'd share it with you.

If you were to write a letter to your six-year-old self (or they to you), what would it say? 

Thinking about that small human and knowing what they are and will go through can bring up so many emotions, but what if you could use the gift of hindsight to love yourself more fully now? If everything, everywhere is happening all at once, then why not send love notes across time and space, and feel the compassion you give to yourself then, in your life today?

I know it feels weird to tend to yourself well in this culture; there are so many mixed messages about how we should relate to ourselves, but what's truer and more beautiful than taking care of someone you love?

There's this misconception that more love equals fewer positive outcomes, like we have to be hard on ourselves to get anywhere. I've found the opposite to be true. In my experience, when I feel well-loved, I'm more secure in my relationships, I see my gifts more clearly and I have the energy and will to practice and refine them. Every compassionate word, kind thought and generous action I offer to myself nourishes the soil that feeds me. My self-love is the sunshine, under the warmth of which I bloom.

It seems so weird to me that at a certain age, we stop celebrating human beings the way we do when babies arrive. What's the cultural spell that makes us believe we're less worthy of love as we grow? 

Even if you've strayed off your path, even if you haven't found a path that feels like yours (You're already on it, feeling like you're off the path is part of the path), even if life hasn't turned out like you wanted, or you thought it would… can you give yourself what you never had, now? Can you be the love you're longing for? Even if you don't believe you had to go through what you did to become who you are, can you see your experiences through the eyes of love and find a way to make them mean something that serves you?

What special skills or talents have you developed because of the challenges? Did all that pressure help you achieve more than you would have otherwise? Did pain crack you open to deeper empathy? Did feeling helpless make you determined to help others?

Holy F*ck is, in many ways, a love letter to my inner child. Like most therapy, it was my answer to the question, “How do I not only live with what I've experienced, but use it to make me better?”  

I hope it inspires you to create your own. 

Happy Wednesday.