Sunday, January 5, 2014

New Year and Love Letters

Instead of having "resolutions" for a new year, and writing all things that we want to change, fix, improve on, expunge, erase, create, destroy, and generally sweat away, we should write love letters to ourselves, and celebrate our individuality, our successes, and our unique traits. (That is, unless you are completely egotistical already and every day is an Ode To Myself and My Awesome Greatness. Those people, though few in number, do exist, and they are exempted from this exercise.)

We should express what we like best about ourselves, and write small snippets about what we are grateful we have accomplished; perhaps expound on an incident that really made you pause and think about who you were in that moment and why you were grateful you were on the path you chose. Then, maybe at the end of the letter, putting one thing down that we would love to love even more about ourselves next year might be appropriate. Just one. Not to overwhelm or anything. It can fit anywhere in the last paragraph. No English teacher is going to be critiquing it on a five-paragraph-essay format. No law teacher will question your logic. No critics will publish reviews of the content and give rate you on a four- or five-star basis.

Just write it for yourself.

Do it, and then read it. Write it by hand. Stick it in that annoying place where you put all the papers you aren't ready to deal with yet, so that every time you're fishing through papers, you'll pull it out and read how awesome you are and have a reminder that yes, you do like yourself, and that yes, you have accomplished something in the recent past, and yes, you can express yourself and accept your expressions.

And then next year, do it again.

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