The Past Is Dead-Stop Trying To Resurrect It

I think it probably took my health becoming bad to make me realize that I can not hold on to the past nor can I base my life on the future. The present is all I have. I have been around people who just can not seem to let go of the past, what was said, what was done, what was lost and it consumes their life. The one thing I have learned is that you can never change the past. It is over and done. So trying to keep the past in the present is only affecting our living…our life now.

“The Past is dead. It is over. It is done. You can not change it.”

So, if this is true and it is, then would not holding on to things from the past that upset you, that hurt you  be a futile action? It is keeping alive something that is harmful but that you can not change. All it does is keep alive memories of hurt or anger or sadness or grief. And every minute that we do that is a minute we waste being happy and living our lives as intended…joyously.

I call the troublesome things from the past that keep cropping up and we play them over and over in our heads the race track syndrome. The thoughts ace around and around in our heads and while those negative thoughts of what someone said or did to us, or a hurt or a loss are playing in our heads, we have lost the ability to live our present life.

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There is a saying “toxic thoughts equal a toxic life” and I believe that is true. As long as we hold on to anger, hate, malice, extreme sadness and grief, we are keeping the negative atmosphere in our lives and therefore our lives become those emotions.

I have been around people who would be so angry over something someone said or did to them that all they did was fume and spew anger about this person. She lived in that toxic energy and would talk about all the things she would like to do to them or all the things she hoped would happen to them. The past is dead. We can not change it and all people who acted like this were doing was changing their present life.

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It is hard when someone upsets us to let it go but we can choose. Oops, there goes that choice word again. It is a choice to hold on to all of these things and it is a choice to let go and forgive and move on. Forgiveness is for us most of the time so we can move on. I have found myself in the past where something hurt me so much that all I could do was lay there and cry. My solution to get rid of this feeling was to write, I would write my pain out and  put down what happened and then I would burn it.

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It took me a few days and after writing it and burning it several times, it began to lose the effect on me. I think this is because I was taking it out of my head and putting it on the paper and once I get something on the outside, it loses power. It is when we keep it inside and nurture the negatives feelings and replay them over and over and over in our heads that they become so toxic that it affects not only our emotions but our physical health.

Choose to live not to hold on to the past. Choose to forgive for that is one of the most healing things you can do for yourself. Choose to stop blaming your past for your problems. Choose to keep the past in the past and live the present.

You can do it. You deserve to have joy in your life, not negativity.