Gratitude For Different Versions of Ourselves
First up in ‘Things I am Thankful For’ this week (‘past versions of me’ edition!)
My 3 year old self for starting a life-long obsession with cool sunglasses. These are Mickey Mouse ones, I mean, SWOON!
Hi there
It’s time for some Thursday thanks 🙂
This week’s thank-yous are a little different. I mentioned last week about how perhaps I should thank younger me for coming through some challenges.
In therapy sessions, I often introduce the idea that we have different versions of our ‘selves’. That might be ‘little you’, ‘teenage you’, ‘younger you’, or simply ‘past you’ or ‘future you’. It’s a really helpful way of weaving in some self-compassion, especially if there is a visual aspect too, like a photograph of you at that age. Perhaps you can see where this is going?! I do try to practice what I preach 🙂
I thought it’d be interesting, and fun, to think back to different versions of me and to say thank you to them from time to time. Here’s a small selection of previous versions of me that I feel thankful for today.
If you’d like to work together with me and learn about self-compassion, or you’d like to explore different versions of yourself, please have a look at my website for various info and offerings.
I’ve got so many things to thank this version of me for….I’m 18 years old here, I’d just failed my A Levels and was about to go back to college to repeat the year. Amongst other things, I’m thankful that she went back and re-sat those A levels because that was the first step towards my psychology degree and my journey to becoming the therapist I am today.
And last but not least (for today anyway), I’m thankful to 32 year old me for starting AGAIN (1 divorce and 1 failed long-term relationship later!). This was the year I moved to London – hands-down one of the best decisions I’ve ever made.
Gratitude Inspiration Prompts
- Which past versions of yourself do you feel proud of? Why?
- When you look back at that younger version of you, what do you see?
- If you could teleport your today-self back in time and offer that younger version of you some words of comfort or guidance, what would you like to say?