At times, we allow the past to dictate for us our attitudes  and how we react and respond to people in the present time.  Instead of concentrating on what we have now and the opportunities we have now, it is so easy to go back to dysfunctional ways of reacting and responding to people we meet and jobs we get. The past can color so much how we feel about us, other people, and current circumstances. Our lives could  have happier endings if we could just start with fresh thoughts, feelings and assumptions. We miss out on so much when we are unable to do this. We begin new lives with baggage we carry with us from the past such as failed marriages, a job that disappointed us and led to a firing, and friends who betrayed us or abandoned us when we needed them the most. Some of us become so obsessed and consumed with past failures, guilt, and shame that a new beginning can seem almost impossible for us. Guilt has a way of holding us back when it is connected to the past. We want to change the past and make it better than it was or we want to solve or resolve problems that follow us out of the past like ghosts that haunt our dreams and thoughts and hinder growth.

We waste precious time doing this because we often fail to focus on what is in front of us in the here and now. The present can bring us new skills and good people to help us learn to trust in others. We can find resources, if we focus on looking for them, that can help us grow or teach us to love. This takes time and energy. The present is often filled with beauty and joy as well as hope. To find joy, we have to learn to get our eyes off the past and focus on what we do have and what can be possible for us now. We need to focus on positive thoughts and not negative ones in order to move forward. We have to be brave, be courageous in owning responsibility for the outcomes of our lives by casting anxiety aside. We are the only ones who have the power to change our circumstances and we must seize the present moment in order to move us on to a better place in time. It is us who must do the letting go in order to shovel ourselves out of the past and into a better tomorrow.

Yu/stan/kema