Posted on Friday, September 9, 2016 5:49 PM
Well, how long have you been holding on to difficult events in your life?
The weight of the past can cause lots of problems in the present.
Holding onto the past can increase anxiety and depression, cause difficulty in relationships, problems with sleeping and even indecisiveness. Holding onto the past can weigh you down and keep you from living life fully.
First: Consider what you ruminate on. What memory or memories get played over and over in your mind?
Sometimes it works to pull out a journal or sheet of paper and start logging any negative thoughts that go through your mind. This allows you to see patterns and recognize how much of your time and energy is focused on the past.
Second: Once you’ve identified where your thoughts go. Identify what you want to replace the thoughts with.
For example if you notice that your thoughts always go to a failed relationship or negative self-thoughts, now’s the time to replace them with positive truths, such as, “that was then, this is now,” or “I’m okay today.”
Now, I don’t believe in lying to our selves! But the truth really is that today is a new day and we can start to live in a different way and see ourselves in a different way. If we tell ourselves every day it’s dangerous to cross the street, we eventually believe it. So let’s tell our selves the positive truth and start letting that sink in.
A third way to start letting the weight of the past go is to focus on what is positive in our lives now.
We want to live in the present, not the past. When we are living in the past we miss the good around us.
Studies have shown that we can train our brains to look for the good or the bad that happens around us. If your brain excels in looking at the negative then it’s time to retrain it!
One way to start is by writing down three things a day that you are thankful for. It could be as simple as the taste of ripe fruit, the beauty of a sunset, or friendliness of a store clerk.
By practicing these three steps each day
you will notice that your brain starts to put down the weight
and free you up to live more fully in today.\
Today's blog is written by Anita Griffie. To contact Anita or to schedule an appointment to meet with her, email her at [email protected] or call her at 503-477-2957.
