tales of Suchita

In the beginning of October, I conducted a challenge called the 11 Days Letter Writing Challenge. The objective of the challenge was simple: you had to handwrite eleven letters to yourself over the course of about two weeks.

I got a wonderful bunch of people signing up and keeping at it until the end. They were kind enough to go on this adventure with me. There were a few mourning the loss of their parents, someone going through a difficult workplace environment, a few going through health issues and a few who had never sat down to have a conversation with themselves until they started writing the letters.

Here are some things conducting and participating in the challenge taught me:

I. Using a pen and paper to write a letter is a revolutionary act. It is you taking five, ten, fifteen minutes out of our busy schedule to simply be present to yourself and what you have to say. The best part is, all answers that we seek outside are then found within. The magic, as they say is within each one of us. We just need to remove distractions to see it.

The below quote quite beautifully sums it up:

II. It is a powerful way of decluttering your mind. There are times when I’m so close to a problem that getting distance from it so I can view it objectively becomes difficult. Writing it down, especially from the point of view of the problem was eye-opening.

For example, I wrote a letter where success was addressing me. Here’s what it had to say:

III. Writing it down is you finally giving yourself permission to stop lying. So often we get entangled with the stories, lies, deceptions and loops that we create to keep ourselves comfortable. When I put it down on paper, I can stop repeating the lies to myself. Because my truth, in that moment, is right in front of me to see, in black and white.

IV. A paper is an excellent container. One of the participants said it quite beautifully, “I feel that each of us is holding so much inside us and in years what we couldn’t say or do. Words, paper and pen and a safe place like this could help us pour it out.”

V. Reading everyone’s letters showed me how courageous it is to allow yourself to be vulnerable. We often feel if we cry, it means we can’t take the stress or the harsh words and that makes us weak. But allowing yourself to feel fully, without judging your feelings is an act of courage.

VI. The simple act of going back to pen and paper reminded us of our childhood, when we used to write in school. Some even remembered the many greeting cards, notes, inland letters we shared with each other when smartphones weren’t a thing. And how it helped us connect on a deeper level.

This was a deeply intense and satisfying two weeks for me. I cannot tell you how elated I am that so many people chose to trust the process. I hope to do this again someday.

If the above inspired you, here’s one of the prompts I shared with the group which produced some of the cutest, most-poetic letters. Try it out and if you do, don’t forget to share it with me!

Prompt: you are walking and the sky wants to give you note. What does the note say?

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This is written as part of #BlogchatterHalfMarathon