30 Journal Entries for Self Discovery - Day 1

I have seen a lot of people doing journal entries to help with self-love or self-discovery. Obviously, most people keep these private because they are a personal journey. I belong to a few writing communities and I've seen people rave about how awesome they are. I asked a lot of my writer/ journal keeping friends which one they followed, and I think I have it narrowed down to the one, in my opinion, will actually teach me to learn about myself a little more. Instead of keeping a secret journal entry and all that, I decided to make it public and answer a question a day as a 'journal entry,' and give my ideas on how each question helps us with self-love. This is my first entry. You can follow along and do it with me or just judge me if you want. Please keep in mind these are my personal journal entries, I'm just trying to give out as much of an idea of what I think of these prompts. I don't want people to think I'm writing one sentence and then judging the questions based off of my no-effort answer, which is part of the reason I'm making it public. Thanks for following along. Remember "There is nothing to writing. All you do is sit down at a typewriter and bleed." - Earnest Hemmingway

DAY ONE: DEAR PAST ME...

Dear past me,

I don't even know where to begin. I guess I should start with stop being so hard yourself. Life bites you in the ass but it bites everyone in the ass, stop beating yourself up over shit that happens to everyone. Try not to trust people so much. The people that you're giving so much of yourself to, they aren't in your future. Don't cut them off. You have great memories with them, but stop giving so much when they aren't giving you even the same respect.

Slow down. Please start appreciating things more. Stop taking moments for granted. Spend as much time with your dad as possible and listen to your teachers. They may be a pain in the ass but they are trying to help you. They see your potential and want you to go far. Call your sister more often. Go to church. Appreciate the people who make time for you, even if you feel like going out with other friends to a party. Those people aren't your friends. They won't be around when things get hard. Take Rocky on an extra long run and play with him as much as humanly possible. Let him sleep in bed with you, no matter how hot it gets.

This is going to sound crazy, but take care of the piece of shit Chevy that you buy for yourself. You're gonna miss that truck like crazy when it's gone.

I don't want to give too much away, but when the guy you think you're in love with asks you to do something that you're not sure you agree with, listen to yourself. You make the right decision. That boy doesn't love you. Live your life for you and don't question it so much. The decision doesn't affect him as much as you're thinking it does at that time. Everything works out in the end. You're not a millionaire or anything, but you're happy. You make your own family and life is good. Stop worrying so much and just enjoy your life where it is now. You have plenty of time to worry. Breathe.

MY THOUGHTS: I think this is a great first 'assignment' to self-discovery. It forces you to look at your life as it currently is and it doesn't tell you what past you to write to. I naturally just thought to write to myself as a teenager, entering high school. But I feel like it'll take you back to whatever time in your life you wish you could really re-do. It really made me look back at what I not necessarily regret, but what I wish I would've done more of. It really makes you look back at your life and how different things would be if you knew then what you knew now. I think it's a really great prompt for a little self-learning and definitely a great start to an interesting journal journey. It is a really emotional topic though. It honestly made me think so much of who isn't in my life anymore and all the people I lost either to death or just as a part of my life. However, without a little emotion and maybe some tears, are you really discovering anything?