Write an inspiring letter (or poem) to your vision of your ideal self. What do you look like when you are living your best life? Share why this version of yourself is ideal and what you are doing today to fully step into this version of yourself!
I hope this letter finds you well. I am writing this to you in a tough time. It is October 29, 2023. It is a cold, sunny Sunday. The whole weekend I have been upset; I do not know why. I think it is because I am in a perpetual state of loneliness that I cannot seem to escape. In my ideal world I would not feel this pain, this loneliness, this urge to scream and yell at everyone that has ever wronged me, but without this urge and pain, I would not be alive.
My ideal self is someone who has improved. Someone who has gotten better every day. I hope that I am ideal in the future. I hope that everyday makes you smile, I hope you are happy and proud of your life, proud of me.
I do not know why life is this hard and I wish you could write back to me and tell me what is going to happen or tell me what to do with my life, or at least tell me if anything I am doing will pay off. I know you cannot, and it hurts to know that there is a possibility that I will end up sad and alone, living a miserable life. On the other hand, it inspires me that every day is a new chance. I have hundreds of days left to love, to live, to get better.
Someday, I hope to be in your shoes right now and write a letter to my even more ideal self. Maybe your ideal self is someone completely different, and I love to think about that. I also would love to be that person. I hope that you are living by yourself, something I have dreamed of for years. Hopefully, we will still have a cat, preferably the one I have now. I want to stay in Washington, we have always lived here, everything we have ever loved is here.
Usually, people send these letters to get advice, or to ask for something. I am sending this to you to let you know that I am struggling. The world seems to hate me, and it often is kicking me down. I often break down crying because I do not know where I am, what to do, or wonder why people cannot love me the way I love them. It is heartbreaking to live like this. Even so, I have never felt so alive. I have never been this content in my life. Something about crying, realizing my mistake and what I can do to fix it, and moving on, is so rewarding. Hard days or not, I am proud of me. I am proud of me for not ending my life two years ago. I am proud that I saved myself. I am proud to be alive for you. I am proud to be alive for me.
Dear Rachel,
I am so glad you remained strong and that you found the courage to write these beautiful words. You are now living life stronger and that is very impressive. Good luck in your future!
Rachel, There is so much to say to what you wrote. First off, everything you do, all your work, will pay off. Maybe it will pay off in a way that’s different than you planned or maybe it will pay off exactly as you plained. But that work and energy will not go wasted. And you are so very lovable. You just need to make sure you surround yourself…read more
For most of my life I have smothered myself beneath the ideals of others.
These expectations pushed me into boxes where I did not fit, but I tried to contort and carve away at myself to appease the “rules.”
I thought if I broke them, I would be broken. They were unyielding, so I yielded my will to their commands.
And then one day I stretched out of my box. I worried what others would think, what would become of me, what of the people who were depending on me to be “the good girl” they knew?
But as I stretched, I discovered that parts of my heart were sore.. and some were so weak from lack of use. So much of myself had remained unseen and untested in my box, and do I decided to slowly explore.
I began to see that the ideals I’d chased–
Perfect job, perfect shape
Perfect family, perfect place–
Weren’t what I really wanted.
The fact was, I didn’t know what I really wanted!
But even still, letting go of them was so hard.
Allowing myself to change my expectations was met with a lot of internal resistance.
It was easier in my box, safer.
Don’t make a mess, don’t rock the boat.
But would I ever be happy living someone else’s life? Someone else’s idea of “perfect?”
Dear Me,
I hope you know that YOU are ideal. Right now. As you are.
You don’t have to measure up to anyone’s imaginary lines on the wall. Life isn’t about how tall you are, how skinny, how fat. Life isn’t about collecting diplomas or six figure incomes. Life isn’t about what your family looks like, how many rooms are in your house.
Take up the space you need to. Even when you want to shrink yourself down.
See your beauty, inside and out. Even when the world spins negative commentary on how you look.
Value the lessons you’ve learned, and the ones that will come. Even when conventional school might not be your route.
Know that you do not need another person to complete you. Hold on to the hope that you will find someone whole, who will see you as whole, too.
When I picture you, I don’t see specific features or physical parameters that I need to meet. Life hacks or goal markers that I have to achieve by certain deadlines. Instead I feel a sense, a reassurance that you are someone who has let go of the weight of measuring up. Someone who makes choices based on kindness and light and love, not for the applause of the world.. but of the people around you. The ones who know that you are worthy of love now, not after passing tests or checking off requirements.
There is no standard of perfection. You are perfection. Simply YOU.
I just recently discovered that I could check my old poems and saw your reply here, and I wanted to say a very belated thank you, Shelley! I really appreciate you believing in me without even knowing me! The world could use more kindness like yours! ✨️
Lauran, I LOVE this. I think when we don’t know exactly what we want in life it’s easy to use other people’s measuring sticks and milestones to influence our own goals, life, and decisions. It takes so much courage to look inside and say “What do I really want? Who Do I really want to be? How do I want to live?” You have done just that. You are…read more
I don’t know how I only just saw this reply, but thank you Lauren! Truly, your words of support really bolster me and have reminded me that I’m doing better than I think I am! It can definitely be scary to try to carve my own way and not cave into others’ expectations. But that’s where the courage comes in! 💗 thank you again for your kindness, and…read more
To the version of me that exists somewhere in the future, to my ideal self, I see you.
Thank you for shining love in the dark places. Thank you for doing what you came here to do. Thank you for persevering through flames, burned yet still risen to be in a place that this message can reach you. Thank you for trusting yourself and the gifts you’ve been given.
Thank you for being focused on your mission.
When I close my eyes and tune into you, the frequency ripples and emanates through collapse and creation.
Echoes of me through time and space.
Echoes of us.
I see you in the future, beautiful, happy and living a life without fear. Dreaming awake now. You’re doing exactly what we always said we would. You are embodied, fully expressed in our vessel. I recognize you as an extension of eternity – love, in physical form.
Knowing that we are the very essence of the force that creates worlds.
I see all of us, Lauryn.
I see you there in the future but I also see us when we are a child. You are holding her and she is holding you. She is so little.
I see it as a multitude of spirits of myself at different moments and times in my life. The spiral capturing every record of our human experience.
I see it expanding to and from through the womb of our mother until our death when we return back to her. All versions of me, of us, expanding to both sides of the universe.
It’s light on both sides.
On both ends that are not ends.
Just points of conception.
Both the end and beginning is the source of creation.
Thank you for walking the planet with so much honor in your bones.
You know.. I was sitting outside today.
I was feeling a lot of emotions moving through me. I felt very tender today. My tears were flowing at the same speed the blood was traveling through the veins of my body. Both rivers were pulsing. Rapidly. Alive.
I was in deep prayer for the change this world will know soon.
The beautiful world our hearts know we are capable of creating if only we remembered who we are creating for.
I held my heart and closed my eyes softly asking the universe what to do and then there was a movement of wind in the same moment I surrendered to it. I could hear the response in the subtle hum,
“Listen to her power. Listen to her love.”
And so I rested my ear on the ground and listened.
I waited.
My pulse was beating with so much strength.
I listened
to a sacred drumming.
All I could hear was my heart.
And so I listened again.
I was hearing the sound of my own heartbeat in the Earth.
And then I finally realized what it all meant.
Thank you for changing the world one moment of silence at a time.
Thank you for changing the world one moment of pure sound at a time.
Thank you for following your heart.
Thank you for remembering why you came here, living it and remembering who it’s all for.
I send you blessings from the past.
I am only a listen away. I love you.
Lauryn, this is so creative and eloquent. I think you hit the nail on the head when you implied that your ideal self is revealed when you simply listen to your heart. May you always embrace, and listen to your heart, and fall happily in love with all the gifts that follow. Thank you for sharing and thank you for being part of The Unsealed. family.…read more
I remember being so anxious before turning 30. I began to evaluate and question everything about my life, from “Is there where I’m supposed to be in life?” to “Can I still wear short skirts?” My mind was racing. But 30 came and went and nothing really changed. keep living life. Keep enjoying life. And just keep being the best you. Thank you for s…read more
Dear me,
First things first. We are still in a wheelchair, so front of the line at Disneyland is still applicable.
We just had a psychic reading. One of five. I am here to tell you that they all said that we need to get out of our room.
We are 29, four months away from 30, and we are definitely not where we want to be in life. The good news is is that we’re leaning more into our spirituality, and the gifts that we had when we were children. You know, the ones where we could see dead people, and feel them and talk to them? Those gifts are very much alive and well, we just needed to take the time to see them. And now, the dead people are us. Me. You.
We still love Gilmore Girls, and Starbucks Chai tea lattes, but today, on the 1st of November, I think we realize what is missing from our otherwise quiet and quaint existence.
Life.
I’m happy to say that today is the day that I’ve decided to change our life. We’ve been living in a cyclical type of hell ever since UC Davis. Ever since they refused to accommodate our disability, leading to our hospitalization, and ultimately, leading to us leaving the university and allowing so much of our self-confidence to be tucked away. I’m happy to say that today we decided that we’re tired of living, if only to exist. We’ve signed up for a gym membership. It has a pool with a lift, so we don’t have to worry about how we’re going to get in and out of the pool. We found a new coffee shop and it’s actually better than Starbucks, and has better holiday flavors. I didn’t think that we would ever say that, but here we are.
I guess I just want to use this letter to apologize as well. I want to apologize for abandoning US, you, me. I always envisioned my ideal self being stronger than this. And I never thought that I would have to work this hard to become her but I guess that’s what trauma does. I can’t wait to get back into motivational speaking. Remember how much we loved that? We have our first official speech back after five years on hiatus, and I’m happy to report that we still have the same nervous butterflies that remind us why we started it in the first place.
I’m sorry for abandoning you when you needed strength the most. I always had it but I let people take it away from me, for the last seven years. I’ve allowed myself to hide away, to hide my body and wear baggy clothes. I stopped eating because I was hungry and started eating because I was bored, because I was sad, because I felt dead inside.
That ends today, my future self. I can’t wait to meet you one day. I’m confident that you’ll have the man, the baby, the business, the empire that we dreamed of when we were kids. But right now, I have to do the work. I’ve decided that I want more so I’m going to give it to myself, to us. This is just a reminder that our world it’s still beautiful, and we have every right to love it.
P.S. This is also the first writing contest that we’ve entered in three years. I’m back to writing that book series. The world will need it one day.
Miranda! This is such a powerful piece. This is my favorite part:
y. I’m confident that you’ll have the man, the baby, the business, the empire that we dreamed of when we were kids. But right now, I have to do the work. I’ve decided that I want more so I’m going to give it to myself, to us.”
You are so strong. Go out and take whatever it is t…read more
Dear Ella (her)
The one that is finally living her best life.
The one that always new she’ll find herself
Even when she had no clear vision
Of who she wanted to be.
I want to remind you
That all versions that Have Been
That Are
And Will Be
You
Are Beautiful.
Despite the ugly circumstances
You managed to hold on to your inner beauty
To have it flourishing
And inspiring
The world around you
To see the gardens full of roses
Eres rosa hermosa
Que ha florecido
Después de las tormentas
Que han caído en tu jardín.
I shall keep tending
To all the stages
From seed to fruit
Even when my seeds don’t sprout
Even when my fruits rot
I shall keep harvesting
I shall keep fertilizing
From fruit to seed
Is where I show you
The hard work
And tender care
I have put
To see you bloom.
Jennifer, this is so poetic and creative. Keep blossoming into the beautiful person that you are, and keep nourishing your soul no matter the circumstance. Thank you for sharing and thank you for being part of The Unsealed family. <3 Lauren
Dear ideal self,
You did it! It’s so good to see.You got you and your babies back home to safety.
You walked through some fires and sludged through some mud but finally you made it on top close to above.
Above
where YHWH God reigns forever
and has loved you and held you through the rough waters since you were born. I love to see you shining so brightly. Looking up and thanking him for all your blessings nightly.
It’s beautiful the way you move and help others . Bringing them toward Jesus and watching what happens. Some broken and sad dark lonely people . You help guide them to the light and meet them at the steeple. To worship and sing and eat, laugh and dance. It’s beautiful the way all the children just prance in peace and joy and safety and love. Your family finally looks up to you there on the above. Looking through spirit realm where you live your purest true self. No amount of drugs, brokenness, lies, and abuse could ever keep you from running this race. You did it. You’ve done it. The peace is all over your face. I love your clean house and love your contentment. I love how you serve like the savior once did then. Here on this earth. Loving not judging brought you to this place. Your children can only speak of your love and your grace. They saw you struggle and fight through the mud. It’s so beautiful to see you up here and above. Everything and everyone that ever tried to stop you. I’m so happy to see where the trinity God brought you.
Mackenzie, this is beautiful. I love this line, ” Loving not judging brought you to this place.” Love has magical powers and not only brings the best out of ourselves but also the best out of others. Thank you for sharing your heart, and thank you for being part of The Unsealed family. <3 Lauren
A battleground I’ve made of myself since we experienced the first vague notions of attraction at a young age. Our first love was our best (and for a long time only) friend, the second a relentless bully who made a game out of our infatuation, the third not much more than an idea shrouding a girl who rarely ever looked my way. And this pattern has chased us across two decades and through every relationship. My perception of my value and worth has become the biggest blockade in my attempts at actualizing my deepest goals.
So, tell me about love.
Right now, in this stage of healing, every day incites a new challenge making me question the value of change. I’m left wondering way too often if bringing the person I have always dreamt of being into fruition is worth it when I’ve been faced with more inadequacy, frustration, and disappointment than anything. Right now, the closest thing to love I know is the delusions I’ve gotten comfortable sitting in, fanciful stories of starstruck romance and the easy integration into a community of my own. Fairytales made lie by the promise that they might one day come true. Limerence has become my single salve to reality even when I recognize it is poison I’m massaging into my soul. Daydreams turning everything bland sending me into an asocial cycle that sends me farther away from what I really want.
So, tell me about love.
Tell me all its truths. All the pain and ache and effort required to make it real. Next time I need to do it right, bring fantasy to life in a way that is healthy and freeing. So much of what I thought was love so far has been heartache and disappointment. But I believe, in the deepest part of my soul knows that one day the trying will mean everything.
So, tell me about love.
Because all I can hope for you that it is in abundance. And the closest I think I’ve come to love is all I’ve tried to give to you.
This line really hit me, “So much of what I thought was love so far has been heartache and disappointment. ” I have definitely felt that at different points of my life. But don’t ever give up on love, and never settle. When you find the right person you will be glad you didn’t give up and you will feel so much peace. In the meantime, just keep…read more
Dear Unsealers,
Looking in the mirror here is what I would tell my ideal self. I can’t help but acknowledge the journey to becoming my ideal self, which has been a continuous and ever evolving process. It’s a winding road but always stay positive. First and foremost, I want to applaud you for your remarkable resilience. Life throws its share of challenges our way, and your ability to not only face them but to grow stronger in the process is truly inspiring. Embrace those setbacks as opportunities to learn and rise above them. Your ability to adapt to learning many skills, and wear many hats, is another aspect I deeply admire. It allows you to navigate various roles and responsibilities with grace and competence. This is a valuable trait that opens countless opportunities and enriches your life in numerous ways. Remember to keep nurturing your personal growth and well-being, as they are the cornerstones of your journey. Keep that curiosity alive, for it fuels your creativity, innovation, and continuous learning, which are all integral to your personal growth. Lastly, the impact you aim to leave on the world through your passion to solve a problem is commendable. Keep striving to make a positive difference. This journey to our ideal self is ongoing, and it’s marked by growth, setbacks, and breakthroughs. Stay true to your path, for it is a journey worth taking. Keep transforming into your ideal self.
With admiration and determination,
Lisa, I love this line: “This journey to our ideal self is ongoing, and it’s marked by growth, setbacks, and breakthroughs.”
You are right. The journey to our ideal self is constant and we always must strive to be our best selves so we can live our best lives. Thank you for sharing and thank you for being part of The Unsealed family. <3 Lauren