Where do you see yourself one hour from now?
Where do you see yourself one hour from now?
This was the question I asked myself every time I attended the family court sessions only to find that my ex had asked for more time and the next hearing date would be about a month later. This would be the question I asked myself before entering the mediation session with my ex. Sometimes I would add the condition, “if I came out with my sanity intact and not go crazy.” For you see no matter how prepared and calm you were, even felt like a ninja, the moment you laid your eyes on the person who managed to ruin your entire married life singlehandedly, all sorts of emotions that you thought were dead would rise up to the surface, alive and kicking.
By the time you managed to get the emotions to back down, you would have to ask questions and answer them to make sure that you stayed free of your ex without further damage to your soul. So in order to get through each court session I asked myself this question before entering, “Where do I see myself one hour from now?” Usually the answer ranged from “a shopping mall” to “back at home sipping a hot cup of instant coffee”.
The magic of this question is that it can be extended to any point in the time space continuum.
“Where do you see yourself 24 hours from now?”
“Where do you see yourself one month from now?”
“Where do you see yourself one year from now?”
And the question could be further extended to:
“What would you see if you saw yourself as your friend, say Sheila, does?”
“What would you see if you saw yourself as your school teacher but today and not years ago?” “What might they say about you?” “What might they expect from the impression that you left on them some years ago?”
And for the imaginative kind, like me:
“What would you see if you saw from other side of mirror from a parallel universe?”
“What would you see and describe if you were an alien from another universe, observing human behavior and reporting back to their space station?”
Most important of all, “What advice would you give yourself, if you got a chance to meet your current you, as the-20-years-from-now future you?”
I think you would have got the point by now. But I have to warn you, the only way these questions would succeed in making you prepare for your future self is if you were brutally honest with yourself to answer them. This would include tearing up pages in rage, uncontrollably crying in the bathroom, sulking and grieving for several days altogether. When done with the mourning stage, you can gradually but firmly start to accept the current situation that you are in, the behavior that you never thought you exhibited, and the bitter truth behind it all.
That revelation period is gruesome to get to, but could provide you with a deep sense of clarity that comes mainly from deep meditation. It’s like cleaning a cluttered room, only that time the room is your soul. Additionally, do not forget to count your blessings. Be kinder to your future self. After all he/she is waiting for you to mold him/her and has huge expectations from you.
I ask myself this often, sometimes ask my friends indirectly or directly how they perceive me. It helps to make sure I take action today, and be a tad kinder to my future self.
