A few years ago, I decided to delete my old Facebook account, at an attempt of what I thought was a way of closing a chapter. We all try to cope. My account was filled with memories, people, and experiences that needed to be left behind and I felt like I needed closure. Needless to say, I immediately proceeded to open up a new one.
A couple of days ago, I bumped into a blast from the past. Someone had commented on a few old photos of a friend of mine and these appeared on my newsfeed. It brought back many great memories, so I decided to relentlessly start trying to retrieve the old account back. After a good thirty minutes or so of typing in all of the possible emails and passwords I could remember, I gave in to the idea that I wasn’t going to be able to do so. Frustrated, I went out for a run and forgot about it for a while.
Later on, it got me thinking about how we always want to leave the past behind, but we still manage (in my case, not on my old Facebook account) to look back every now and then. The past courses through our minds, wether a good or bad thought, or a nurturing or destructive experience, dwelling on what happened only leaves us hindered and stuck.
The dictionary defines the word past (adjective) as something “gone by or elapsed in time, of having existed in, or having occurred during a time previous to the present; bygone.” It’s over. It does not exist anymore. Therefore, the past is solely a conceptualization. The past does not define us, but we choose for it do it some times.
This means we are often living in a conceptualized world, ruled by the ghost of our past, and sometimes, without even noticing, it leads us to second guess ourselves and further on, delaying and impeding us to fulfill our goals.
“The secret of health for both mind and body is not to mourn for the past, worry about the future, or anticipate troubles, but to live in the present moment wisely and earnestly.” ―Becoming Minimalist
Letting go of the past may not be easy, but when you become mindful of the present, you realize that you are not your thoughts; you become an observer of your thoughts from moment to moment without judging them.
“Mindfulness involves being with your thoughts as they are, neither grasping at them nor pushing them away. Instead of letting your life go by without living it, you awaken to experience.” ―J. Dix
Life unfolds in the present. My little anecdote got me thinking on how important it is to work on moving and carrying on. And this is what leads us to the future. The dictionary (adj.) defines the future as something “that is to be or come hereafter.” Another conceptualization. A psychologist depicts how we are so trapped by the thought of what’s coming as “eating a cookie and thinking, “I hope I don’t run out of cookies.” We may know the reactions to certain actions, but just as so, the galaxy might just collapse and we are not here to see tomorrow.
“Yesterday is gone. Tomorrow has not yet come. We have only today. Let us begin.” ―Mother Theresa
Till next time,
MM
(Images by the AMAZING witchoria.com)
Marie Momentum 