Authenticity Counseling Services

Imagine a world filled with love. What do you feel? I choose love!!! authenticitycs.com

While we are in a time of so much uncertainty, I am also seeing so much change, growth, reflection, strength, and love. One of the activities I am doing with many clients right now is having them write a letter to their future self. This is something I will mail to them in one year. I believe this can be a powerful tool as right now many are focused on figuring out what is truly important to them, reevaluating their values, realizing the importance of connection, and learning to be a human being rather then a human doing. My hope is that we can hold on to these things and continue to incorporate them into our lives, but chances are we may forget some of these things. So having a reminder can be meaningful tool. I encourage you to try this out yourself.

Imagine writing to your future self one year from now — what would you say? What kind of person would you be? What goals would you want to have achieved? Not only is it mind boggling, but it gets you thinking about your goals 1 year from now. As you write your letter, you will start to think about the actions you should take to realize them in your expected time frame.
Subsequently when you open your letter one year down the road, you get to assess the things that match (or don’t match) up vs. your expectations, and reflect why that’s the case. Often times, our goals are subject to a lot of changes due to unanticipated circumstances and changing priorities. Reading your letter lets you see how your life trajectory has changed since writing it. It also makes you pause and think about how you are doing, and whether you are where you want to be in life.

In addition, when you write your letter, your consciousness and thoughts are stored in your words. When you read it, it’s like you are being contacted by the old you. It provides you a different perspective and lets you see how much you have changed since then. 🙂

How to Write Your Letter in comments

Copied from another group but it hit me hard and I wanted to share:

“This is a PSA for my friends who are mental health therapists. We might not be ok. We aren't picking up new hobbies or cleaning our houses. We aren't organizing closets. We are losing sleep thinking about the massive toll this virus is taking on the mental health of the world. We're worried about our clients with whom we may be the only point of connecting during their week, and now we can't see them in person. We're holding the grief of High School Seniors who just lost all of their proms and graduations and regular schedules and routines. We're walking newly unemployed clients through rights and applications for assistance. We're working with other therapists who are navigating a completely bonkers system around rules and regulations. We're talking to clients about how to navigate technology in order to say hello, and in some cases, goodbye to aging parents and grandparents. We're navigating our own grief, our own disruptions, our own pain and if we're lucky and brave enough, letting it take up space just like we're making room for our clients. AND we're providing trauma counseling while staring all day into blue lights on computer screens that may be making us go blind. So if you know and love a therapist - say a little prayer. We're not in an ER or on the front lines of the virus, we're on the front lines fighting like hell for your lives and emotions and processes and sanity. And our own too. And we love you. And this is really really hard.” Here are some free resources to help, https://www.theawakenetwork.com/free-online-meditation-resources-for-the-time-of-social-distancing/ ♥️

Don’t let workplace anxiety keep you you from reaching your full potential. https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/anxiety-work/201803/you-cant-escape-anxiety-work-you-can-manage-it, authenticitycs.com