Personal Letter to Greta Thunberg

Greetings Greta,

I’m Yusuf Kemal, from İstanbul, Türkiye. I’m 18-years-young, (or 1.55 years younger than you).

Firstly, How’re you feeling today?

I know you’re going through a lot right now, because of manifold reasons, -climate anxiety, studies or something completely different. I’d like to provide help, support, inspiration and solace, cuz I’ve been in a similar boat for many years, except I was somehow able to suppress it for all those years since … well.. I could explain later on what I mean by this if you ask me to.

Now, I wanted to share four main points/lessons that I learned over my spiritual/wisdom journey I had embarked on many many years ago, if that’s ok with you.

First thing I’d love to share is that I learned that we shouldn't underestimate our breath, cuz it's connected to every one of our emotions, and while I was reading a very scholarly book titled “Limitless” a couple years back, there was a remarkably powerful and effective technique I learnt -amongst the myriads of things I learnt from it- , and it, was the “4-7-8 rule”, developed by Health Expert Andrew Weil, M.D. 

It is basically about inhaling your breath spread over 4 seconds, then holding it for 7 seconds, then exhaling it over a period of 8 seconds. And Jim Kwik, the author of the book, suggests repeating it four times in total. Here’s the exact copied excerpt from his stellar book:

“• Exhale completely through your mouth, making a whoosh sound.

 • Close your mouth and inhale quietly through your nose to a mental count of 4.

 • Hold your breath for a count of 7.

 • Exhale completely through your mouth, making a whoosh sound to a count of 8.

This is one breath. 

Now inhale again and repeat the cycle three more times for a total of four breaths.”

You can choose to use your breath as your partner to help you calm, relax, balance, find peace and ease. Smiling has also been found to be closely and inextricably linked to our emotional state of mind, so, that could be another worthy technique to employ as well.

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Secondly, I once read somewhere that “We do ourselves a great disservice when we let the noise of other’s opinions distort our reality, subvert our own thoughts, and drown out our inner voice.” 

In the light of that, and in regards to anything and everything -be it FFF, the environmental movement, activism or even your own personal career goals and dreams-, What do you want to do? What do you envision? What does your heart tell you? Listen to it. As Steve Jobs put it “Don’t be trapped by dogma, which is living with the results of other people’s thinking. Don’t let the noise of other people’s opinions drown out your own voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition, they somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary.”

I heard once that life is nothing but a very difficult exam; an exam of choices; most people fail in it because they try to copy others, not realizing that everyone has a different question paper. I am unsure whether or not this is relevant, but something tells me to share it here, so I just did. I guess its my intuition, mayhap, I dunno .. LOL

I always try to remind myself that, how other people see or think of me is not important, how I see myself means everything. Truth to tell, I’d even go as far as to say that what people think about one is none of one’s business. Be you! I really find it remarkably healing and therapeutic during tough times. It just helps bring me peace.

There’s a common perceptual bias that our brains have, and philosopher and writer Jim Cooley illustrates it eloquently: “Today, I’m not what I think I am; I’m not what you think I am; I am, what I think you think I am” .. It blew my mind when I first heard it back in late 2018/early 2019 .. and to be frank, it still does! 🤯

Carl Jung once said that “The privilege of a lifetime is to become who you truly are.” I’ll admit, I had been running away from who I truly was, for many many years now. And that is my biggest regret in life. If I ever get to share my story one day, this will all start to make sense. For now, I’d just like to be of inspiration to you. 

Jim Carrey once said “Your need for acceptance can make you invisible in this world. Don’t let anything stand in the way of the light that shines through this form.” 

So, you could try to ask yourself questions, Greta, you’ll truly be amazed at the results, as I once was (and still am). Don’t just listen to others, listen more and more to your own soul! Steve Jobs’ quote from hereinbefore could be of guidance here. You are the painter of your own life, don’t ever give the master brush to anybody else. You may take cues or inspiration from them, -be it about activism, how you spend your time, your career choice(s), or something else entirely- but you are the master-painter of your own painting, your own artwork, your own masterpiece. And if you find that people don’t like you or accept you for who it is you are, remind yourself that this only happens because they haven’t accepted themselves for who it is they are. People’s thoughts on you are merely a reflection of their own reality; their own state of being; their own mindset; and their own soul. It’s never about you, never was. 

And throughout my journey of wisdom, and through meticulous analysis and contemplation over more than half a decade, I have come to the conclusion that self-awareness could be very useful and beneficent here for us all in these distraught and soberingly dire times. I have practiced it often, and the results I received were just flabbergasting. I was (and ok, I’m gonna be honest here, still am) in awe over its power. It is truly one of the most powerful tools I encountered during my ongoing spiritual journey of wisdom that I had started way back in early 2017.

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Thirdly, now, I’d also like to share this quote from Jay Shetty that I stumbled upon recently and that I feel that it may be of help or inspiration to you. “It’s important to feel your feelings. It’s ok to cry. It’s ok to be angry, or sad, or confused or hurt. Acknowledge your feelings, your pain and your discomfort so that you can start to build again”. I myself am hurting cordially right now, for many reasons that I would be glad to explain in the future to you. 

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Lastly and definitely not leastly (I’m not sure how that is even linguistically accurate but, anyhow), I’d like to share something truly paramount that I learnt a few years ago and has now shaped my life forever; 

Australian nurse Bronnie Ware in her book “The top five regrets of the dying” enumerates the biggest regrets of people who were on their deathbeds and had less than 3 months to live, she spent many years tending such patients. And here, is what they had in common;

The top 5 regrets they all had in common were:

No 1- I wish I had had the courage to live a life true to myself, not the life others expected of me

No 2- I wish I hadn’t worked so hard 

No 3- I wish I had the courage to express my feelings

No 4- I wish I had stayed in touch with my friends

No 5- I wish I had let myself be happier

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So, with that in mind, I hope this has been an inspiring read for you. I’m unsure how you will perceive what I wrote, but I just intend them to inspire, uplift and be of help to you really. 

Even though I'm not sure how all of this will resonate with you, if at all, I still really hope that it does. I live with the adage “If my life can help someone else, then.. it matters.” .. and I just want to know that I mattered too, -that I’ll be remembered benignly for being such an altruist. That’s my biggest wish -and biggest fear. 

We all believe in you, and I am confident you believe in yourself. 

The doors are open, Greta, and all you have to do .. is walk through. 

I wish you a splendiferous day! 

Yours with care,

Yusuf Kemal