all versions of you exist right now. go talk to them.
your past, present, and future selves are in relationship—it’s easy to think about this linearly, so let’s start there: past-you is the foundation of current-you, who will inevitably become future-you. that plays nice with the reasoning side of the mind. but what if you’re willing to move beyond the linear time of this three-dimensional space?
all of a sudden, current-you can change the experiences of past-you, which loops back to current-you and inevitably influences future-you. what if in the same way you can visit past-you, future-you is trying to send you comfort and advice, if you’d only recognize it and receive it? just as this very transmission is channeled through your current-self by your future-self for a future-self that has yet to exist—it starts to get a little less liney and a little more loopy: it exists because it was sent…and it was sent because it exists.
but this is where it starts to become heady, and you’ll want to stay grounded.
at minimum, this is a psychological process: it’s reaching into the psyche to find the free-radical material still banging around in your system, often expressing itself through unconscious patterns or the classic blockage of "this is just the way I am".
like swallowing a handful of blueberries, you reach into the past to sit alongside a younger you, stuck reliving those difficult experiences through which they developed clever survival skills and coping mechanisms. you are the antioxidant coming back to say, “i feel what you went through and i understand you completely. you did an amazing job under those circumstances. thank you. things are different now—can i unburden you, my love?”
allowing these younger parts to come forward to say their piece, show you what they’re carrying—and letting them know how much you appreciate what they did for you—is profoundly changing. letting yourself feel the “why” behind that invisible hand that’s been guiding you back and forth through the deep grooves in your mind creates a small dent. over time, that dent can become a new cart path through the cobblestones of your mind, leading up and out of that ancient groove to new and wondrous places.
if past-you has put down their burdens and found the respite they so desperately needed, doesn’t it stand to reason that current-you is fundamentally changed? as the mucky tarball of shame or radiant flurry of hurt blossoms into a bright little girl, how might that feel different in your present—soon to be future—experience?
now imagine future-you: the one who has 20:20 hindsight, knows how it all works out in the end…the present you of the future, looking back on past-you of the current present.
why don’t you ask her the questions you have? why don’t you sit with her, let her comfort you and give you advice, and unburden you? sometimes you get hit with a sudden insight, just a feeling of knowing what to do—why would you assume that isn’t future-you reaching back into the present to keep you on course?
now, of course, the future hasn’t happened yet, it’s the future! but hasn’t it? isn’t it? whether it’s The Future or A Future—and don’t get this confused with predetermination—there is either a notional or literal future unfolding right now. by reaching into it, you don’t get to know it, you get to feel how it feels to have made the choices you made and a choice about what to do about it now.
when you look into your future and see joy-filled and radiant you, what choices did she make to get there? what does she know that you don’t yet? ask her!
you have only to reach into your past or future
for present company.