Cage of the PAST : How to Deal With it?

Good memories cause suffering more than bad ones. Well people say we are in pain because of bad experiences or failures in different phases of life in different sectors like friendship, love, family, career, success etc. Every human being has their own stories or past. There is no human being at all who doesn't have any past. Now what is the past? Lived part of life, gone by in time or no longer existing. 

What ingredients or content this past made up of? What we lived or went through years ago, past few months or at a very recent timeline of life our brain keeps all the files as memories as good and bad experiences according to one’s perspective. These are those memories our eyes perceived, ears heard, our flesh felt by touch or our heartfelt emotions or our brain mentally experienced. What fills one's mind, heart and soul with happiness in terms of eternal bliss, joy, peaceful mind, satisfaction or fulfillment of any human desire in terms of luxuries, success, achievements create good memories in life results cause of sufferings whether life graph goes downward after a certain graph, or we desire for more than that parameter. If we lack those blissful and joyful moments that we lived in the past but if it is the need or desire of the present, then a human being travels through the tunnel of regrets as past cherishing memories start causing pain as we are in search of that again in present.

Desiring for more than what we had in the past also causes sufferings in the present timeline of life as what we are getting in present is the outcome of our current efforts, hard work and destiny according to current external circumstances, comparing it to the past achievements and feeling dissatisfaction while urging for more also causes sufferings.

On the other hand, if we throw a light on the phases where we face failures are the durations where we were broken. Sometimes we get good people around us who channelize our life back to the normal. Sometimes human beings have a self-driven force of self -realization which keeps channelizing an energy where one learns a lifetime lesson with a failure and within painful focus, he himself breaks the parameter of past where regain of confidence takes place and failure converts into success or happiness. In those cases when we trip on that past incident, we feel thankful and grateful to the divine force that it happened in the past else we have not been at a good place in the present.

Now let's talk about the literal meaning of the word past- it means things which no longer exist anymore. Then how it is possible that things which no longer exist affect our mind, body and soul at such a level that it hampers our present and disturbs our present decision-making power daily which also distracts the future. REASON - our brain or mind has a natural tendency to compile each fine detailed experience we perceive through our senses, body and brain whether it is good or bad as memories. Few of them fade away within time as if we resolved it on time with the help of family, friends, or positive people around us or by self-realization we moved on to our own track closing a part of life, sometimes deeper bad experiences or failures replace those lighter painful memories. 

In the case of good memories, when we go through dark phases of life-happy memories become painful, we regret and doubt our own decisions of life in the present.

Therefore, attachment, good memories never give growth, but painful failures and bad experiences push broken pieces of human beings to recollect them and sculpt yourself into a new version required to your present timeline which we called “maturity within age”.

Past has no meaning. Once things have gone or an incident happened or does not exist anymore it has no value physically, but as human beings have a collection of memories since birth to death in mind within time when it gets retrieved, we live those memories again and again mentally which is of no use in present or even for future. Physical memories don’t have life, it's already a dead thing but we human beings keep them alive in our conscious and subconscious mind by living them again and again whenever memories files get retrieved into our brain as per external circumstances or state of mind. It's an automated nervous system which sensors, perceives and records everything in our brain as memories.

How to get rid of switching into the past?

1. Time is wound, and time is medicine, keep yourself busy.

2. Make a distance cut-off to the person, place or things.

3. Spend my time with yourself and your hobbies.

4. Travel to the places you have never visited (travel does not mean to travel expensive trips only as everyone cannot afford those trips, travel means to explore new- it can be a nearby park you never visited or nearby cafe, etc.)

5. Practice yogic asanas and meditation, make it a part of daily routine so that one can feel lighter by heart and more active by brain in present.

6. Make any sports or physical activity as a part of your daily schedule.

7. Spend more time with loving and positive people around.

8. Keep yourself involved in spiritual things, do prayers daily, do charity or help needy people-feeling of gratitude and joy of giving heals us emotionally keeps us happy.

9. Keep writing 10 positive things of the day daily to motivate and 10 bad things one feels happened to them and think from a different perspective to deal with them in a better way to keep moving forward.

10. Whenever the mind trips into past happy memories, cherish them without comparing or demanding it to the present. If it is a deep rooted failure, whenever the mind goes into those sections, if you feel like crying it's ok to shed tears as it's a cleansing and detox process of the body mentally - physically. It gives you a feeling of calmness and peace at heart and mind at a time. Instruct your brain that whatever happened it has already gone and has no existence physically- mentally at all in my brain. Once you habitually practice this after a certain time even though a person, place or anything from past come into present existence cannot trigger you anymore. 

So, the PAST is all in our heads, FUTURE is in our hands while living our PRESENT to the best.