A collaborative blog post
Thank you to everyone who contributed to make today’s post!
My letters are never pre-planned – I always write entirely in the moment, so a few of them have definitely become self-reflective, even if they were going to other people! – Measi
I sometimes write letters that I never plan to send. It can be to someone in my life (a friend or family member I’m feeling conflict with), someone in my past (a deceased loved one or a childhood figure who I lost touch with), or my future or past self. Writing a letter is a safe and low-stakes way to explore my feelings in a way that can be more focused than a typical journal entry or a conversation with a trusted friend, and it’s much cheaper than therapy.
@yaymalika
My husband died in 2019 and I have written letters to him to deal with feelings. – @Fly46
Yes, I do this every January! I usually take a whole weekend and try to arrange some sort of retreat away from my home, my phone and any other distractions. I take a notebook and a list of questions, most of them I ask myself again and again year after year. Some key reflections focus around what things I did the previous year that made me really happy, what things I said yes to when I really wanted to say no, what projects or ideas I never got to do and what stopped me… Reflecting is very interesting and the fact that I write down my key insights means that I can go back to them any time. Learning from the past to ensure I don’t repeat the same mistakes is really important to me.
No I have not used letter writing as self reflection. – Anita E.
Maybe, unintentionally. – Leila F.
Sometimes my journal entries look like letters to myself. The only one that was seen by others is a letter I wrote to my employer, exploring my feelings about my work there. To clarify, I wrote it with my employer in mind, but did not send it to them. I did post it in my personal blog, though. I started writing it as a way to express my feelings, but it ended up a bit more like self-discovery in the end.
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