You Can Visit Your Past — But Don't Live In It
You don't want to confine yourself to the same mindset you had in the past.
Asya Cusima / Canva By Larissa Martin
Whether I’m eating a favorite childhood meal or watching an old movie, I’m a big fan of visiting the past. I love to remember simpler times when I had fewer responsibilities.
It’s nice (and even tempting) to visit the past now and then, but I still choose not to live in it.
We all crave a time when life was “easier.” We’d rather look back on better times than face our current situations.
But even though it’s okay to visit old times for a little while, don’t stay there so long that you can’t solve your current problems.
You don’t want to confine yourself to the same mindset you had in the past.
People in my life often love to attempt to relive the past. They try to avoid living in the present or thinking about the future at any cost, even their own happiness. So they deny that the present is even happening.
Instead, they live in a bubble of nostalgia because it comforts them, but this also means that they can’t progress in life.
As a society, we need to realize that the past is the past for a reason.
Who we were a long time ago and what we did back then is only a part of who we are. However, it is not all we can be.
We have to move forward to see what we become and how far we can go instead of constantly trying to go back in time. When we live in the past, we sell ourselves short of who we can be and what we’re capable of.
Yes, the present and future may be difficult, painful, and unexpected. Do you know what’s tougher than your present, though?
We are living in a world that doesn’t exist anymore. After all, we aren’t meant to live in our pasts.
We grow and improve so that we can move forward and build lives that make us proud. Reality isn’t always pretty, but it’s real life and we can’t run away from it.
Take a minute to remember how fulfilling your life is now and how many good things your future could bring. Now, think about how many opportunities you’ll lose if you choose to live in the past.
If you’re currently living in the past, I hope that you enjoy it, but you should always have hope for everything that your present and future can bring you.
Instead of living in the past, use your past as a tool to help you build a brighter future.
Larissa Martin is a writer and self-published author whose work covers love, lifestyle, and pop culture topics. She has had bylines featured on MSN, Yahoo Lifestyle, Thrive Global, Thought Catalog, Project Wednesday, The Minds Journal, and The Mighty.