Time travel is possible.
Time travel is possible.
Did you know you could go to the future and meet your future self?
How far in the future is up to you. A week from now. A decade. Longer - what if you met yourself after you'd passed through the veil from life to death? What stories would that version of you have to share?
Our future selves know things we don't know - these challenges we're living through? They've already found their way around them. And if we go to meet them, we can ask them how they did it. And they can offer us perspectives and paths that we can't see from where we're standing.
It's like reading a novel and skipping a few chapters ahead to check that the characters made it past the bandits before you read on to find out how they managed to survive.
So how do you go meet your future self?
One of my favourite ways is a mixture of visualisation and writing.
I take some time to organise myself into a quiet place. Make a cup of tea, get something to write on. Sit quietly for a few moments.
And then I imagine my now self getting up and walking out the door, out into a new landscape. Maybe I'm in a forest, walking down a twisting pathway through the trees. While I walk, I consider what my challenges are, what questions I need answers to.
And then somewhere along the way, I see a figure coming towards me. As they get closer, I see that they're me - older, perhaps wiser, but recognisably myself. We smile. Say hello.
And then I write out the conversation we have. Each time I switch from now me to future me to now me again, I start a new line on the page. Writing isn't mandatory, but I find it helps make the conversation feel more real, and then I have a written record of the insights and ideas that come from shifting my perspective to that of someone who has already found success.
I write until I feel complete, thank my future self and imagine my now self walking back to the here and now, back into my body.
Time travel, just like that.
Is it all 'just your imagination'? Maybe. But to me, that's not a particularly useful question. Imagination is one of the most powerful resources we have. If we can't imagine a choice, if we can't imagine a way forward, we won't choose it. We won't walk it. So whatever we can do to enable ourselves to imagine more, imagine different, imagine bolder and brighter - we should jump on those things like magic carpets, and let them fly us to new heights.
Give it a try and see what you find - and if you'd like, come along to the next online therapeutic art group where we'll be exploring a version of this process that includes both writing and art. Art group is a friendly community of creative folk and we'd love to have you join us if you feel like it.
Onwards, to the future…