Your biography

It is very useful to write a biography of yourself, in order to get an overview of the feelings that play a role in your life.

The exercise

This biography is supposed to tell about circumstances and events in your life, and especially in your childhood, that have considerably impacted you. If you are aware of some of the feelings and emotions that those situations brought up, it would be good to describe those too. So, it is not like a professional resume, that only lists your achievements. You can include those, but it would be a good idea to also include the things that were not so good in your life.

Examples of what to include

Family

It would be important to write about your childhood and how the family was, that you grew up in. Did you feel loved and supported? Were you punished? How was the balance between these two? How were your relationships with your parents and siblings?

School

When writing about school, you could include things like whether you found school boring, exciting, hard, easy, scary, welcoming, and how your contacts with teachers and students were. Were you popular or aloof, did you feel accepted or perhaps not, did you domineer others or did you go along?

Big changes

Include situations that were emotional or stressful for you, or kind of big changes. Family members lost or gained, or friends. Jobs and unemployment. Moving to live elsewhere. Health problems. How were those changes for you?

Addictions

Did you or family member or friends have any addictions? Regularly being drunk, gambling, smoking, drug use? How problematic were those? Do you have any idea what problems were to be solved with those addictions?

Keep the biography

Contrary to the other exercises here, it would be a good idea to keep the biography you write. Thus, you can refer to it now and then, which can help you get a better understanding of your feelings. You can also add or change parts later on.