Today I'm offering another version of this exercise, although it calls on your imagination to work in the other direction. Today I'll encourage you to imagine your future self. Again, as with the previous exercise, try to make your imagining as fully realized as possible; try to picture yourself in the future with your thinking alone. Image seeing both how you look but also where you are, both in as much detail as possible. What can you hear? What fragrances surround you? How do your clothes feel against your body? How is it with your spirit?
Once you have a pretty clear picture of your imagined future self, engage in a conversation with them as you did with your younger self. This time, though, ask them more about them: How are they feeling? What are they doing? What do they think about the stage of life you're in now? What lessons have they learned on the way from where you are to where they are?
It ultimately doesn't matter if this dialog is "real" or not. Like a dream, this imagined conversation can offer you material to dance with, open your thinking to the surprising and unanticipated. On Wednesday I encourage you to try not to over-think the exercise, and that's true again today. Try to avoid imposing what you think your future self should be telling you, and what lessons you think you should have learned. Try, even, to avoid insisting that your imagination create the vision of your future self that you hope you'll become. As much as possible, try to remain open and receptive to whatever your imagination creates ... just as you do in dreams.
If talking with your "younger self" could provide insights into how you've gotten to where you are, talking with your "older self" can help you to see more clearly where the trajectory you are currently on might lead you. What future is your present preparing you for?
I mentioned in my first post that my ancestors, on one side of my family, were Vikings, and that from what I understand, the ancient Nordic understanding of time was not tripartite as is ours -- past, present, and future. Instead, as I wrote then, they understood time as a two-fold reality: That Which Has Been (everything from the beginning of time until this moment), and That Which Will Be (everything from this moment until the end of time). From this perspective, where you are in your life right now, in this very moment, is the coming together of who you've been and who you're becoming.
Pax tecum,
RevWik
