Have you ever found something you’d previously written, done, or created and realized you’d found it at just the right moment or suddenly had a whole new perspective on it? Have you ever shocked yourself with your own previous knowledge or understanding?

Messages from ourselves can come in a return (I love Buddha Doodles!)

Let me try to explain what I’m thinking. As you may know, I’m the administrative assistant here at Life Skills Resource Group Orlando. I’m a counselor-in-training (in graduate school to be a Licensed Mental Health Counselor!), so I have lots of interest and increasing knowledge, but I’m not quite a counselor yet. One of my duties here is to keep our social media interesting – that means finding great stuff for our Facebook, Twitter, and Google+ accounts! If you’ve followed our pages you might notice that items are posted all around the clock, 7 days a week. Fortunately that does not mean that I’m always at work! It turns out there’s a very cool way to schedule items to post at certain times!

What I’m trying to say is that I choose most of the items that go on our social media sites (Cindy Fabico and Amy Smith post and send me ideas too), but often I set them up to post at least one day in advance. That means that what I’m thinking about the day I choose them and what I’m thinking about the day they appear is often different.

I follow our Life Skills Resource Group Facebook page on my own Facebook page, so I see everything that I (and Cindy and Amy) post on Facebook after it comes out. And – even though I chose it – sometimes I still find that I see something brand new in the message, or it was exactly what I needed to hear at that moment. I thought it was interesting when I chose it, but all of a sudden it is absolutely important to me – in a way I didn’t expect. Every single time it happens it floors me. It’s as if I sent a message to myself.

I think this happens in lots of ways in our lives. We find a note we wrote, a journal entry we wrote, an assignment we did for school and are blown away by what we knew then. We say something to a friend that we always say, but suddenly it has new meaning for us (or we realize we’ve been reminding others but not reminding ourselves). We go back to a place we haven’t been for awhile or see a person we haven’t seen for awhile, and it brings back the types of thoughts we had then.

We as humans are on a constant path of change. What is most important to us in the morning may not be what’s on our minds in the afternoon. What we ponder before bed may be completely different than what weighs on us in the morning. Where we were 5 years ago may be a reminder of how far we’ve come or where we’d like to get back to. We change; we oscillate; and sometimes we need reminders – whether it is because we need to relearn something or just to notice that we have indeed changed. The path is decidedly not straight. I think in many ways that’s just important for us to recognize. We might return to the same thoughts or places and get something different out of them. We can learn from our past selves.

Last night I went to the gym. The morning me that had excitedly packed gym clothes was now tired, post-work, post-class me (and in fact kind of hoped my gym buddy wouldn’t want to go anymore). Morning me knew going to the gym was something I wanted. Evening me was aware, but had different priorities. Fortunately, day-before me had set this image to post on Life Skills Resource Group’s Facebook page:

My message to myself

(Found through Living Life’s Facebook page)

I was about to start on the treadmill when I flipped through my Facebook and saw this. Even worse, I had captioned it “What can you do now to end your day this way?” Well, then there was no hiding. It was exactly what I needed to hear, and it was time to have a great workout. And have a great workout I did. Why? Because every time I got tired I thought “Will I regret not pushing harder? Is this an excuse? Keep going. This is the end of your day.” My message to me worked – even when I didn’t know it was a message to me. That amazes me.

Have you given yourself messages? What messages do you want to give to yourself now? What messages are you already giving yourself? Do you need help crafting your self-talk? Do you need help understanding a message or reframing your view of your past? Do you want a partner in creating your path forward? Individual counseling or life coaching could be a helpful tool, and our experienced counselors and life coaches at Life Skills Resource Group Orlando would be excited to partner with you. Give us a call at 407-355-7378 to set up a free phone consultation and move towards a better you.

Yours in messaging awe ~Krista Bringley