What? Mental Time Travel?

In the vast tapestry of motherhood, where time seems to simultaneously stretch and shrink, I stumbled upon a captivating lecture by Dr. Julia Mossbridge. She is a cognitive neuroscientist with a knack for bending minds and time itself. Her lecture explains the idea of "mental time travel" or "precognition" - and that, not only we can get messages to and from our future selves, but connecting and communicating with our future selves can greatly enhance our well-being.

Now, before you envision crystal balls and fortune-telling toddlers, let's explore how this insight can alleviate the rollercoaster of daily stress.

In Dr. Mossbridge's 5-day experiment, folks recorded messages to their future selves. The result? A pronounced uptick in perceived well-being. What's truly remarkable is that this positive impact reached folks regardless of their Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) scores. Cosmic happiness knows no boundaries.

Throughout my motherhood journey, I’ve yearned for an elder to show me the ropes, someone who knew me intimately.

Turns out you can have your own personal time-traveling expedition: sending messages back and forth between your present and future self. Sound like the stuff of sci-fi? Keep that thought handy, while Dr. Mossbridge leads the way:

Her precognition practice is based on expanding our awareness to our "Long Self”, our self over time: pictures and models of us from birth to death overlaid over one another, connecting with the ages you've been and the years you'll become. The wiser-than-Yoda version of you that spans from baby giggles to wrinkle-earned wisdom!

Are you raising your eyebrows yet? If not, then you might just be intrigued enough to give this a shot. For those of you with your skeptics' glasses on – embrace the questioning mind, my dear, for in that blend of skepticism and curiosity lies the essence of discovery.

How it’s done.

Borrowing a bit from Tara Brach's meditation playbook, this practice involves engaging in a dialogue with your future self. Sit down for a meditation, and envision your future self as a mentor of sorts. Talk to them, share what comes up, and then pause to receive guidance. Mossbridge stresses that the key lies in liking your future self and trusting that your future self has sage advice for you.

My time-bending twist to this practice.

I tried the practice outlined above. I sat, and meditated with Tara Brach gently guiding me through my earbuds, annoyed at the thought that I was just playing "make-believe guru." I found that awareness of my younger self was much easier (obviously! I remember her!) than the mind-bending concept of connecting to my future.

And there it came, a faint whisper from the future: “Flipp the script!” it said.

So I did! I remembered a practice from one of the dozens of self-help books stacked by my nightstand: Writing Letters to Your Younger Self - whispering advice to your past, a time-traveling motivational speaker. And guess what? This cosmic wisdom circle continues because guess who's still writing letters in the future? That's right, the "you" who knows where the time-traveling snacks are hidden!

Now, before you start drafting a letter to your younger self about stock investments, remember this isn't just a one-sided conversation. This practice can help integrate past hurts (I don’t like the term heal past trauma, more on that in a future post) and "see" the future. I write notes with love and compassion, give myself advice, compliment myself on decisions that turned out to be the right ones, offer guidance with 20/20 hindsight at forks in the road, pep talks at wrong turns, encouragement and advice I wish I received back when. Those notes, like breadcrumbs through time, strengthen my receiver for the advice yet to come. Tuning my old-timey radio to catch wisdom waves from the future: as I refine my connection with my past self, I’m tuning in to insights that echo back from my older, wiser, and more mature self.

Wanna give it a try but don’t know where to start? Read a couple of my notes to self as a motivator! It can also be you and your wise future self sharing parenting tales over a cup of cosmic chamomile tea. Trust me ;) that elder-you knows a thing or two about PTA meetings and the probabilities of getting poisoned by essential oils.

So, dear reader, embrace your Long Self, send messages to your past like a time-traveling pen pal, and trust that you're navigating the cosmic chaos of motherhood with your very own TARDIS of wisdom.

Remember, cosmic happiness knows no boundaries.

Thanks for being here! This post is public so feel free to share it.

PS: Wanna go down a rabbit hole of mental time travel? I also really like this article on bbc titled What We Get Wrong About Time and this blog post calling in yogic philosophy to explain perception.