Not In The Past, But The Importance Of Living In The Present
The course we have mapped in the past to get to where we are today is engraved in our minds. This “engraving” greatly influences what we think, what we say, and how we act. It also affects the strategies we have to cope with the different situations that life brings us. Experiences lived, lessons learned, and people we know are part of our current personality. Keep reading and discover the importance of living in the present.
What we did in the past determined who we were at the time. But you are no longer the same person, you are the one who lives this day. As human beings, we are constantly changing. We change a little every day, with every new piece of information we receive and with every new thing we learn. Change is simply inevitable.
When we reflect on failures or regret what we did in the past, we only harm ourselves. It is true that guilt is a feeling that, when used properly, can help us correct situations where we have gone wrong. But if we make it a big number and become obsessed, it can become a toxic feeling that can damage our lives and not help us figure out our past.
The past is unreal
When we say that something is unreal, we mean that it is not real. We cannot get into it, touch, smell, see or hear it. If something cannot be experienced by our five senses, it means it does not exist in our present life. This is not to say that it never existed and it was, of course, very real then. Of course, we know that these things have happened, but they are real only in our minds and psyche.
For this reason, every time our mind travels to the past, it is a good exercise to “relocate” ourselves to the present. In the same way that our mind travels to the future, it only fills us with useless anxiety. The only thing that really exists is here and now; the past and the future exist only in our heads.
One thing is the reality of the present, where we really have the power to influence things, and another very different thing is the psychological reality. In this reality, some of the functions we are currently doing are not merely useless on a practical level. Actually, contemplating the sufferings of the past or worrying about the future hurts us. If we are affected and anxious today by what happened yesterday, we will lose valuable time in our current lives.
Living in the present, how to do it?
The first step to really living in the moment is to realize that the past is not real. It was real sometimes, but not now. That is why we must stop giving too much meaning and value to something that no longer exists. Naturally, we can do that by using something we have learned in the past to help us with this. In this way, the past can be useful and remain part of us. Problems only arise when we chew past things that don’t help us grow.
Accept that you cannot change the past
Finally, discard everything you do in the present and that is meant to change the past. We have to accept that the past cannot be changed, that whatever happened, it happened for a reason. Be it good or bad.
There is also no reason to criticize or harm others, to beg or bury things that have happened. The only useful thing in the past is that we can learn from our mistakes, we can avoid making the same mistakes again.
So focus on life in the present, what is happening around you, the people you see now, the objects you touch, the smell, what you hear, what you taste. There is nothing else, at least for now. Live this today and free yourself from your past.
