“Dear me”….write a kind letter to yourself when you are going through a tough time

Writing a kind letter to yourself is a powerful resource that helps you to see your current life from another perspective. It invites you to reflect about who you are being and how you are treating you, practising self-compassion instead of self-judgement. Writing a letter to ourselves as if we were writing to someone else drives us to choose the appropriate words we want to express as support and kindness. Speak to yourself as a close friend or parent would.

You can write about current concerns or present problems and give you the advice that this friend/parent would. That helps you to see the situation with more clarity and reduce emotional response, when your feelings cloud your rational thinking. Keep it handy and read that letter whenever you need. You can put it close to your laptop, on your wallet and read it before facing a challenging event, keep it in your phone or send it to you by email.

Write about something that gives you strength and reminds you of who you are, something helpful at this time of your life...when you feel down, having to take a hard decision, feel stuck, need encouragement or a little push to deal with something. It doesn't need to be a long letter, just write as much as and what you want: about your current life, self-forgiveness, self-gratitude, reminders about your dreams, skills, achieved goals, things to avoid doing to yourself, things to do and how capable you are, what you deserve.

Here are some starters that can help you begin:

Dear me,

You are…

You have…

You can…

You deserve….

This tough time in your life…

Practicing self-care, self-love and learning to treat ourselves with kindness helps us to clarify and develop the types of intra- and interpersonal relationships we want to have.