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Jeanette Martin's avatar

Love this Elizabeth and will plan on writing a January letter and checkout the service. What I'd love to surprise myself with is a real paper letter to me in my letterbox out of the blue! I don't get enough of them!

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Susan Patricia Fox's avatar

I journal and I believe they are very similar.

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Elizabeth H. Cottrell's avatar

Absolutely. The main difference is whether you use an online service that actually sends the letter back to you at a certain time (or if you set up a reminder to go back and read your letter to yourself at a certain time), but journaling definitely has some of the same attributes.

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Jack Watson's avatar

Lovely reflection - I’ve done this once before and it was such a fulfilling experience looking back on what I’d written as it came from an unhappy spell. You’ve inspired me to do it again! I’ve got some big goals for this year so I’ll base it on that I think 😊

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Elizabeth H. Cottrell's avatar

Thanks so much, Jack. I'm so glad this inspired you to try it again. I have found it very therapeutic myself.

I see you're a teacher, and I tell the story in my book about a teacher who came upon the idea of encouraging her students to write letters to people in their lives that they might never mail. A different thing, of course, from writing to yourself, but you'll appreciate it. Here is the article that inspired the story in my book: https://www.edutopia.org/blog/writing-for-an-audience-strategy-elena-aguilar

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Jack Watson's avatar

Thank you, I’ll give it a read.

Something I want to do with my students is get a writing club going with a local nursing home. This has only stoked the fire! ❤️

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Elizabeth H. Cottrell's avatar

Ooooh, what a great idea!

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Denise Wakeman's avatar

Thanks for sharing the letter your wrote yourself last year. I was think I had to write an essay, but what you demonstrated is simple and can make a big impact. Thank you, Elizabeth!

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Elizabeth H. Cottrell's avatar

I’m so glad — isn’t it interesting how we all have a tendency to make things harder than they need to be. I do this to myself all the time. Some of the most meaningful notes I’ve ever received, for instance, are not long at all. but of course, they’re heartspoken.

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