The EASIEST Way To Time Travel (Visiting Your Past Self)
By: Monica G. Bulnes
Tags: Writing Habit, Daily Habits, Journaling, Changing Daily Habits, Advice For Life

If you could travel back 10 years and spend a day with your younger self, what would you learn about who you are?

What lessons could you apply in the present to enrich your future?

If Only We Could Time Travel…

Visiting our younger selves could teach us these lessons:

Nothing is permanent. Neither bad nor good — all things come to an end. Realizing this will help you get through the bad times AND cherish the good times. 85% of what we worry about never happens. Looking back at every small detail you cared so much about will remind you how insignificant your current struggles are in the grand scheme of things. You will forget someday. Some of our most precious memories can be easily forgotten in the hustle and bustle of daily life. It’s nice to reminisce on the little things that once brought us joy.

This is just the tip of the iceberg. There is so much more to be learned from our past selves.

How To Time Travel Easily

What can help us travel in time to learn what our youth has to offer?

Simple — keep a journal.

I know, I know. As someone who stopped writing in her diary after approaching 5th grade, I can hear the groans at this advice. I used to think…

What do I write about?

What if I have nothing to say?

What if my writing sucks?

It’s so time-consuming.

This is pointless because no one will read it.

However, way too many benefits come from keeping a journal that outweighs every single excuse you could name.

Journaling isn’t about being a great writer. it’s about documenting your life for your eyes only. Because someday, you’ll forget the little things.

You’ll look back at those journals and it will catapult you 20 years through space and light and you will remember the person you used to be before marriage, children, a mortgage, the death of a loved one.

The words you wrote, no matter if they were written quickly and sloppily, will weigh heavy on your heart.

Some entries will make you smile at the way you’ve grown, others will give you a knot in your throat and tears in your eyes.

Journals are a safe space, a judgment-free zone where you get to express yourself and put on paper all of the things that go on in your head.

If you choose to share entries with others, that’s up to you. It allows you the luxury of watching yourself grow up right in front of your own eyes.

Your Journal Is Important

Imagine if Anne Frank didn’t document her time up in that attic during the Holocaust?

Imagine if she said, eh, it’s not that important and no one really cares that I’m hungry up here, or that it’s cold, because it’ll all be over someday and this won’t matter. Writing this won’t save me or anyone else.

If journaling meant nothing, we would be missing entire accounts of precious human lives. We would have lost so many inspiring moments in history.

You Will Regret Not Journaling

All you have to do is write is 5–10 minutes a day a few times a week to capture an accurate snapshot of your life.

I can’t believe I don't have journals that document my college experience.

It hurts me to think that I can’t just thumb through some pages and time travel back to the past 10–15 years of my life because I failed to keep a journal. Please don't make this same mistake.

The best time to start a journal was 20 years ago. The next best time is today.