To My Younger self:

My good friend Debbie LaChusa has a birthday today, and as part of her birthday musings, she posed the question:

What would I like to go back and tell my younger self?

It felt so good to answer this question I decided to post my reply here, and then to ask you. What would YOU say to your younger self?

A note to my younger self.

 

As you are setting out into the world,

Remember to breathe. You are perfectly fine. Right here, right now. Whatever is going on is temporary. All of it – what seems good, what feels hard…all the feelings are temporary.

Find your own center, and stand in it. Let other people stand in theirs. Appreciate the differences, the connections, the similarities, the synchronicities – appreciate it all.

Always err on the side of kindness and connection.

When you wonder what the point of it all is – the point is to live it. To be here, be present, show up and feel it. Feel each and every moment as fully as possible. Do things that scare you. Put down the camera and be in the picture. Run down the sand dunes.

Choose to feel good. When you are inclined to do something that feels good, do it. Focus on what you love. Move in that direction.

Don’t take it all so seriously. Let yourself be curious. When you feel like you’ve got something to prove, choose to laugh instead. Love the part of you that wants to prove, and then let it go. Relax into being curious. It’s OK to know what you know, it’s OK to not know what you don’t know yet. It’s all OK. There is nothing to prove.

Know yourself, and trust. Any time you’re afraid, fall back into gratitude. Remember the times you have been supported in amazing and seemingly magical ways, and trust that this will continue. Trust that the support is there even when you are too scared to see it, feel it, or even imagine it. It is there. You will find, as you go along, that it is always there, even when it takes you years to see the “how” of it all. Trust yourself. Trust me.

You can trust life.

 

How about you? Please add a comment about what YOU would tell YOUR younger self!