Pearls Update

I cannot tell you how exciting it is to receive all your pearls!

Many of you have said the exercise has been any number of the following: powerful, cathartic, fun, unexpected. Someone said it made her address the question on her morning journaling (morning pages for Julia Cameron readers) and the pearls just started flowing, even though before that she felt she had no pearls. Another person said she never thinks in those terms and loved this new way of thinking.

But I seem to have stressed out some of you – I have received several emails and tweets saying people don’t know what to write.

So I thought I would include some questions that may help:

* When you were what is something you were really afraid of, but turned out to be completely ok?

* What is something you have discovered recently but wish you had known years ago?

* What is something you do that makes you really happy and you want to keep doing for the rest of your life? {for this you would be telling a future self not to forget this, whether it’s a life passion or making tea every day at 4pm}

* What was an epiphany you had about your relationship with that made the relationship easier to understand?

* What was a purchase you made that you wish you had made years earlier? {yes, this can be about material objects. I firmly believe there is wisdom in making one’s life easier or better, and that can include material things}

* Conversely, what is a material object you removed from your life that you don’t miss at all despite fearing you would miss it?

* What is one activity {like too much TV} that you swore off of? Was it scary? What did you replace that activity with? What did you learn from it?

* What is something you always wished you would do or learn? Or a place you would travel to? {You could write a note to yourself for five years in the future reminding yourself about it}

* What is something that makes you sad and was a hard lesson to learn? {perhaps a reminder would help}

As you can see the possibilities are endless. Please don’t let yourself get paralyzed by it – grab a journal, notepad, napkin and a pretty pen {or basic pen – nothing wrong with a free hotel pen} and see what comes to mind first. The beauty of this exercise is that it is universal – by definition we have accrued knowledge and wisdom a younger version of ourselves did not have.

To find out how to submit your own pearl of wisdom, see here.

Picture by fdecomite (via Creative Commons)