Journaling Practice: Letters from Love

Journaling is a great practice for grounding, getting in touch with your emotions and simply expressing your feelings. It's one of those tools that I love, and do some form of it most days. There are all kinds of ways to journal: Write what happened in your day, vent about something that happened that upset you, find some journaling prompts and answer the question, Morning pages - where you write 3 pages every morning on whatever, but the 3 pages daily is where the magic comes out. Whatever way journaling feels best for you, great! I highly encourage it for anyone wanting to get more in touch with their thoughts.

One of my favorite journaling practices is called "Letters from Love"

I love Liz Gilbert: famed author of "Eat, Pray, Love," "Big Magic," and many other books. She has such a gentle, calm way of being, and her words always speak to me. A few years ago I heard Liz speak about her journaling practice that she calls Letters from Love. It's a little weird at first (sort of like the High Five Habit that I do daily - thanks to Mel Robbins), but I get SO much out of it!

My Journaling Practice

Every morning (after I brush my teeth, wash my face, drink water and get my coffee of course!), I sit with my journal and write. I have 3 sections of my daily journal:

• 5 things I'm grateful for (typically things that I noticed over the past 24 hours)

• 10-12 intentions - these are the same each day (I review/update them quarterly-ish)

• Free journaling, or Letters from Love - this is a space to write whatever is on my mind

What are Letters from Love?

This is a tool to help us speak and write to ourselves in a more loving and friendly manner than the familiar inner critic (you know that inner critic! And if you don't, take some time to really notice the things you say to yourself on the regular!). I certainly can't explain the process as well as Liz does - so if you'd like more detail, check out her Substack (I'd start here: What, Why, and How). Here's an excerpt from Liz:

{In letters from love} we are looking at ourselves through the eyes of unconditional love: a spirit that knows all of our fears, anxieties, character defects, resentments and struggles — and loves us anyway. A spirit that knows how often we disappoint ourselves, or get lost in disappointment over others — and loves us anyway. A spirit that knows how much we often don’t want to be here, how overwhelming our Earth School curriculum can be — and loves us anyway. A spirit that knows our shame, our secrets, our self-criticism, our regret, our awfulness — and loves us anyway.

Maybe even loves us more, for all that.

But a letter of unconditional love? What would that be like?

The general idea is that you're writing a letter to yourself from "Love" which could be whatever that means to you - spirit, God, the universe, energy, whatever.

Start with the question:

Love, what would you have me know today?

If you have something that you're dealing with or feeling, you can also pose the question more specifically. For example, start with "Love, what would you have be know about grief." Or overwhelm, uncertainty, dealing with difficult people or situations, etc.

And then always begin with a greeting/opening - something that resonates for you (and it might feel a little weird - but remember, this is a letter from LOVE to YOU.) Mine always start "My Dearest Becky." 😍

Feels weird, do it anyway

More from Liz: And then allow the answer to come. What would the spirit of unconditional love tell you, if it had a voice? What does your heart need to hear today, in this exact moment? Where is the suffering, and what does it long to be told? What reassurance or comfort does your spirit need? Let the words come.

I really try to tune in and just write. There are definitely themes that come through (encouragement, acknowledgement, etc), but somedays I am surprised by what comes out. I always learn something or at least feel better. Takes 2-5 minutes and helps me ground myself for the day.

These letters can be as short or long as you want, handwritten, typed out or even captured via voice note. You do you, boo! Mine are usually one page (or less if I'm in a time crunch!), handwritten. Liz writes a LOT and types them out. Whatever, no rules! There is no right or wrong.

Here's an example of a quick one I wrote this summer:

I'm pretty sure you can't read this one 😅(I write fast and the goal isn't for it to be re-read!), so I will translate. Some background first, this day I was feeling a lot of heavy feelings - many people close to me were dealing with stuff - health issues, relationships ending, loved ones losing friends. This was a quick letter to me from Love:

Love, what would you have me know today?

My Dearest Becky -

Be gentle. Notice when you're being hard on yourself for things you did or didn't do. Where is that coming from? Set reasonable expectations for yourself. This is life! How glorious it can be. All the ups and downs make it spectacular. The feelings that take you on a rollercoaster. Exhilarating! See it for what it is, and most of all, enjoy it!

❤️ Love

The really fun thing about this one was that in the next 10 minutes, I pulled a tarot card (I sometimes use them as a tool to reframe or tune into my feelings/intuition - my deck is nature based), and below is the card I pulled. The first line of the "Counsel" section is "Being fully open to your feelings can be a ROLLERCOASTER, a raw and sometimes challenging experience."

• 

  Tarot card

• 

  Tarot reading

A rollercoaster.

That's life.

Let's enjoy it!!

What do you think about the idea of Letters from Love? Let me know if you try it out, I'd love to hear about your experience!

❤️ Becky