Put the Past in the Past Where it Belongs

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November 13, 2023

Put the Past in the Past Where it Belongs

Don't let your past regrets ruin your present and future opportunities. That will only lead to more and more regrets.

The longer you live on this planet, the more experiences you have, good and bad. The more wisdom you can gain about what to do and what not to do, but there is a huge requirement for you to be able to do so.

You have to keep cleaning off your plate.

Think of it like a plate of food. You have some that you like, some you love, and some you just can't stand. Imagine having a taste of several different dishes on your plate, and then leaving all the rest there.

For your next meal, all that leftover food is cold. There isn't much room for new food, whether it's similar or totally different than what is already and still on there.

So you squeeze some in and pile some on top, and you're sad to see that the old food that was good isn't good anymore.

As time goes by if you repeat this every day, the old food begins to rot and decay. Any new food on the pile is touched and tainted by the mold and you can't even taste it and how good it is because of the old rotted food spoiling it as it comes in.

With this analogy, the obvious solution would be to wash the plate clean every day to allow yourself to receive the new food every day as it is. Stop choosing foods that you don't like and choose more of what you do.

But so many people in life hold on so tightly to the past, good or bad, that there is no room for a present to exist.

They aren't even able to actually think of good memories, because all they see is how rotten everything is now and end up wishing they could go back...an impossible and powerless wish.

Wash the plate.

Forgive yourself and others, whether they are in your life or not. Forgiving just means accepting things happened as they did and cannot be changed, and setting down the wishes of would have, could have, or should have. It's dealing with present day reality as it is, not how it might have been if only something from the past were different.

Cut away the dead past to allow the present to breathe and grow

Gardeners can appreciate this and know it's true with plants that live more than just a season.

New growth cannot turn into anything substantial if it is continually suffocated by the past. As we age, our past becomes larger and larger and our future becomes smaller and smaller. It is critical that we learn to set down, wash, or cut away the regrets and focus on the past.