Dear Future You - reimagining 2020 one letter at a time

Our visions for this year may seem like too much to ask in the face of a global pandemic, but will the future you thank you for downsizing your aspirations - or even shelving your dreams altogether?

“You want to be a fairy?” my dad quipped when he saw my 2020 vision board.

It’s a kind triptych and on the first panel there’s a woman, her back to the camera, arms flung joyfully in the air, and a set of beautiful blue butterfly wings on her back. She might look like a modern-day fairy, but what she represented to me back in January was freedom.

Ironic, eh?

Well, while Lockdown Life might feel far from free it’s offered some of us (non key workers) another type of freedom. Work has been pared back. Staying in no longer means missing out. Right now, we have space to reimagine.

Which got me thinking about butterfly symbolism and associations with transformation.

Back to Better Basics

This pandemic has set the stage for getting back to basics.

On the one hand we’re valuing simpler things, like connecting with neighbours and being more creative. Yet, it’s also throwing up darker stuff around family, finances and the future. In short, these so-called ‘unprecedented times’ are encouraging us (sometimes rather forcefully) to reassess.

Some of us might interpret this as shelving our dreams and aspirations and trading them in for some cold hard realism. But what if we think more Marie Kondo when faced with rearranging our lives? Instead of seeing what we have to give up could we ask:

“Does this bring me joy?”

And, can we learn to embrace certain limitations? After all, necessity is the mother of invention, as they say.

Imagining Your New Normal

But where do we begin? Transformation is uncomfortable and challenging. It requires energy and perseverance. What if you feel stuck? Overwhelmed? Or helpless?

Zone out and watch TV?

Well...

For a while Instagram had me wondering if everyone else was busily baking from scratch, and pinning rainbows to windows, while peacefully homeschooling their kids, and performing business pivots that would render Craig Revel Horwood speechless.

So I signed onto some FutureLearn courses - I needed to get my head round the world's financial system pronto. Except, well, I haven’t. In between work and Lockdown Life with my sister and three young nephews I’ve managed, instead, to vastly improve my glare and, yes, my telly watching capabilities.

I know!

Right!?

Then I saw this (Nationwide) ad in which people share some thoughts and feelings about their current lives with their future selves in six months' time - a kind of Lockdown (video) letter, if you will. And, it got me thinking:

“What will the future you thank present you for?”

Dear Future You...

Writing letters to the future you is the kind of writing prompt you might do at school or, like me, on a community volunteer course, say. It’s simple, yet effective. And, I’d argue that these strangest of times provide an ideal opportunity to put pen to paper (or finger to keyboard, if you prefer).

As composer and lyricist Stephen Sondheim once said:

“The more restrictions you have, the easier anything is to write.”

So, if you’ve been confused, sidelined, or even crushed by this pandemic and the fallout, how about feeling out what your New Normal could look like by writing to future you? What would you like future you to remember or to have learned? In short, where would you like future you to be?

Think of yourself as a reassuring friend, and consider:

• Starting by reflecting on where you are now - clarify and revisit recent experiences

• Sharing how you feel - What are you enjoying? What are you concerned about?

• Reflecting on your values - What matters to you now? Why?

• Setting goals for your ideal New Normal future

• Giving yourself advice - reassure yourself like a friend

• Asking yourself questions

Think in terms of:

• Reflection meets gratitude list meets pep talk

PS you’re a chrysalis

While it’s tempting to zone out with a bottle of wine and a box set, realising I could either see this time as a kind of prison or a vessel of potential - a chrysalis, perhaps? - was a wee bit more empowering than worrying about, well, the entire world.

TIP: I usually handwrite letters to my future self and keep them in my journal, but you might want to use an online tool, like Future Me, and set a time for your letter to be emailed back to you. While a year (or more) is usually popular, six months (the end of 2020 at time of writing) is probably ample distance in these fast-changing, coronavirus times, I reckon.

Have you ever written a letter to your future self? If so, what did you discover?

Art Journalling For Success - stop sabotaging, start scribbling

Forget about discovering other people’s secrets journals can reveal ourselves to ourselves - used effectively your art journal could help you bridge the gap from aspiration to manifestation.

Writer and essayist Joan Didion once wrote:

“I don’t know what I think until I write it down.”

Which is one reason why keeping a written journal can be so revelatory. Yet, as I’ve mentioned in my introductory post on art journalling an art journal can do that too, only through the use of images, symbols, patterns, and more.

So how can a little old art journal help take your goals from wishes to wins?

Let me tell you a wee story about a glittery-green-eyed guy…

When vision boards don’t work

Some years ago, after my marriage ended, I found myself in a quandary. I was deep in a relationship rabbithole with a glittery-green-eyed guy. By day I was employed at soul-sapping central. By night I was living with a group of thirty-somethings carrying on like students. The rocky relationship seemed like my only safe haven.

This wasn’t the way I wanted things. I felt powerless and alone - even in the relationship. So, on one of our ‘breaks’ I attempted to regain some semblance of order by piecing together the flotsam and jetsam that had once been my aspirations by creating a vision board.

As neuroscientist Tara Swart says of vision (or action) boards:

“It is a way of aligning your deep subconscious and conscious brain, so that you can stop wasting energy on priorities that are at odds with the things that you really want, deep down.”

Central to that vision was a healthy relationship, inspiring work, and a place I could call home. Yet, just as I was feeling galvanised glittery-green-eyed guy was back. Poof! Just like that, there I was lounging in the land of the lotus-eaters, where taking action on any of my aspirations - which, to be frank, was a little bit scary - seemed. So. Over. Whelm. Ing.

“Problem is, a vision board which is all style no action is just a collage. ”

And so, my carefully cut-out desires crumpled under the weight of my cold-shoulder.

Art journal your adventure

While you may not be sabotaging your goals by getting distracted by glittery-green-eyed guys, most of us will concede that navigating the uncharted gap between where-you-are-now and ideal-future-you has its inevitable ups and downs.

It’s too easy to get all enthused by glossy magazines urging you to claim your golden future, only to find yourself teetering on the edge of an unfathomable abyss. Then your inner critic chimes in.

What the hell were you were thinking, anyway? Yesterday you were bursting with confidence and self belief. Today you’re harangued by the harpies of self doubt. But why? How come you leapfrog one setback only to be floored by another?

That’s where your art journal comes in to play.

While it isn’t so much a bridge from dream to destination, your journal can become a kind of travel guide. The signs and symbols you discover as you play in your book can help you clarify your desires, and reveal the weird and wonderful things which are holding you back.

As Tara Swart explains in The Source: open your mind, change your life, keeping a (written) journal is an essential component of her goal-attaining technique and helped her uncover her relationship with relationships:

“I found my journalling a powerful way to see that mistrust was leading me into repeated patterns of holding back from or avoiding intimacy that inevitably led to self-fulfilling prophecies.”

A useful insight, eh?

Self reflective art journal prompts

So, how can you use your art journal to help you keep on choosing your own adventure?

• Create one portrait of where you are now and another of where you want to be in a year or so (you could start with a photo) - try Pinterest or Instagram for inspiration

• Explore your inner critic - what does it look like / say / do?

• Make a map of the places, people and things that uplift you and another of those that pull you down - check out Grayson Perry’s maps on Google images

• Feeling stuck? Ask what would 7 year old you do - get in the flow and use colour, symbol and pattern to reveal the answer

• Find a favourite quote and illustrate it - see Pinterest for some prompts

• Start with a Rorshach inkblot and see where it leads - like here, for example...

• Create an abstract image detailing what wellbeing looks and feels like to you - again Pinterest and Instagram can provide much inspiration

• Plus, check out Journaling.com for podcasts and articles on keeping a written and art journal for wellbeing

Wishing you a rich and revelatory art journal journey. Say ‘hi’ to me on Instagram (sometimes Facebook) where I’ll be sharing more creative inspiration and details of upcoming events in London or Essex areas.