Forgiving the past

For some people, the past is a Memory Lane they want to always go back to. To some, it’s a dark shadow that haunts them. They analyze that relationship that failed and relentlessly review all the things they did wrong. Or look at the business decision that cost them so much and dwell on the things they could have done right.


 Once and for all stop being so hard on yourself. You are a human being and human beings have been designed to make mistakes; so what you dated the wrong person and learned a bitter lesson; chased the wrong career and had to start again; or trusted a friend who betrayed you. It’s life, we love, hurt, cry, laugh, learn and do it over again.


It is easy to spend much of your days beating up on yourself for past mistakes. I know it can be difficult getting over something, especially when love and betrayal is involved; but emotional pain can become an addiction. Emotions like sadness, depression, guilt, shame, fear, low self-esteem can become so common and constant that you can’t imagine life without them. They can become a part of your life that you have to depend on them to live.

Unless you want to experience them for a second time, it makes no sense to worry about past events or mistakes.

Instead, use the lessons you have learned from your past to rise to a whole new level of awareness and enlightenment. Sometimes it takes losing what we were settling for to remind us that we deserve better. Start over and wisely build something better this time.

Did you know that every second you dwell on the past you steal from your future? Every minute you spend focusing on your problems you take away from finding your solutions.

 You know you can’t go back, you have to worry only about the best way to move forward; thinking about all those things that you wish never happened to you is actually blocking all the things you want to happen from entering into your life..


Grieve but get over it because anything you lose comes around in another form. No matter what the situation is, remind yourself that you have a choice. Use the lessons to fuel your future growth. Remember, happy people have often experienced as much adversity as those who are unhappy. What sets them apart is that they have the good sense to manage their memories in a way that enriches their lives.

“The most beautiful people we have known are those who have known defeat, known suffering, known struggle, known loss, and have found their way out of the depths. These people have an appreciation, a sensitivity, and an understanding of life that fills them with compassion, gentleness, and a deep loving concern. Beautiful do not just happen” – Elizabeth Kubler-Ross

The past is gone, but today is here. You can be happy again.

“If you want to be sad, no one in the world can make you happy. But if you make up your mind to be happy, no one and nothing on earth can take that happiness from you” – Paramahansa Yoganda

You only have to make up your mind that you deserve happiness, you deserve love, you deserve success, you deserve loyalty; As long as you don’t keep making the same errors and have the good judgment to let your past serve you, you will be on the right track.

Open up your mind and all you desire will find you.

As Mark Twain wrote, “we should be careful to get out of an experience only the wisdom that is in it – and stop there; lest we be like the cat that sits down on a hot stove lid. It will never sit down on a hot stove lid again - and that is well; but also it will never sit down on a cold one anymore.”

You will soon see that your life would not be as rich and colorful without the mistakes of your past. So be gentler to yourself and see life for what it really is: a path of self – discovery and lifelong learning. You can't forget the past but you can forgive it, forgive yourself and the other people.  ♥