Day 317 Question 317:

If you could sit down and have a heart-to-heart discussion with your younger self, what words would you share with her or him?

Hindsight is 20/20.  The past is the past.  I talk about this all of the time….it is something we can never get back.  What is there was a way though?  What if there was a way to visit ourselves at a younger age and have a conversation with that person?  Imagine how different your life could be just because of one simple conversation with your past/younger self.  So, the question is, what would I say?

I would tell my younger self to let go of worry and take chances.  Life passes by so quickly and you eventually reach ages where it is not so easy to accomplish those things you may have once thought about.  I would tell my younger self to not ignore her feelings but instead to live through them and grow from them.  I am now 34 years old and I am just starting to slowly step outside of my comfort zones.  I would encourage my younger self to take chances and remind her that she has greater strength than she even realizes.  I would tell her to embrace art and writing and all that she finds a passion in and not let anyone lead to her to feel or do a certain way….to live life in a way that feels natural for her.  I would tell my younger self what my journey has been like so far and tell her that although certain times were hard and others felt unbearable that they were worth it because I have grown.  I would never want to change my younger self….I would want to encourage her to learn more and do more while she still has her youth.  A life without pain is not worth living because it would be impossible to truly understand happiness or love.  If I had just one simple day I would teach/show my younger self everything that is so important to me now….the value of family, the importance of compassion, the need for knowledge, the desire to see beauty in all things whether good or bad.  I would share with her the importance of loving herself and finding her inner peace….I guess this may potentially change the path because if she were to do this then a lot of events that occurred may have never been a thought (self-loathing, treacherous relationships, etc.).   I would tell my younger self how the years of youth are the most important because it is when we feel most alive and have the most opportunities.

It would be far too easy to complain about all of the chaos in the world and how violence has become far too much of a commonplace.  Although there are days when I feel sad and angry because of the state of the world, no matter what I see the beauty in it.  I see the potential in people and I will believe that everyone has goodness (even if they never show it)…those are my convictions.  To my younger self I would share with her the importance of life outside of herself…the importance of embracing people very different from herself.  I would tell her that people will call her weird and tell her that she is a dreamer and people may want to beat down her ideas day in and day out but to never ever stop dreaming and living according to what she feels…not according to what everyone else tells her to be…..to live in her own state of natural bliss.  I could tell my younger self these words and she could potentially blow them off or not absorb at the moment but I know at some point she would understand because living this way is a part of her….it is what is most beautiful about her.  Even if she becomes the wallflower and rarely vocalizes her feelings to others, she holds this beauty inside of her….a beauty that comes from being selfless and empathetic.  A beauty that stopped focusing on the outer person and started seeing that beauty has nothing to do with the way we look but instead on the way we act.