Letters are a great way to focus our thoughts and express our feelings in the calmness and comfort of our own environments.
Do you have an issue with someone that is unresolved? Something that should be said that hasn’t been said? Take today’s challenge as an opportunity to do just that.
Take a quiet hour with paper and pen and pour yourself out on paper. Don’t censor yourself. Commit to saying everything you want to say, but get it all out. This is not a letter to mail, but rather an exercise to focus your thoughts into a coherent message.
Later if you really do want to express yourself to the person, you can use this letter as an outline. Pull from it the important points for your “real” letter. Take this emotionally charged letter and draw from it the thoughts you want to express with tact, compassion and an appropriate level of energy. Remember that words on paper cannot be undone. Never send mail when you’re upset. Always wait 24-48 hours before sending an emotional letter on its way.
Some people say you should never put negative words into a letter, but I say it’s an important and vital part of our nature to communicate the good and the bad. The trick is how you do it. If you can follow the basic principals of human care and kindness, you won’t write a letter that’s a scathing diatribe to your mother-in-law. You’ll remember she is a person just like you and me (only louder and more bossy and opinionated and overbearing and superior to you in every way).
We’re nearly at the end of our challenge and it’s the season to be jolly! Is there anything weighing on your mind that will keep you from enjoying your holidays to the fullest? Explore this idea of making peace with yourself or with others.
Below are a couple of links for web sites that are in the spirit of today’s challenge. These can also be utilized in lieu of the challenge as described above. The point of these challenge days is to step out of our routines and try a few things that might be new to us. Enjoy!
PostSecret
Letters We Never Sent
Tags: emotional letters, healing, letter writing, letters, making peace, peace
