Stop Re-living Your Unpleasant Past

​Learn how re-living unpleasant memories can affect not only how you feel now but how you’ll feel in the future. So, learn to choose what you're going to let come into your mind.

​Once you have more control of what comes into your mind, you’ll be better able to have more control of your life.

​How you re-live the past 

Every time we remember an experience we had, at any point in our lives, we are re-living it. It’s as if you’re going to the past to bring the essence of that memory with you to the present moment.

For instance, focus on an experience you had at work some years ago. You found out that someone who did the same job as you did got paid more money for it than you. You might have felt anger, resentment and maybe even insecurity of your worth as employee, and who knows, maybe also as a professional and human being.

The moment you go back to that experience, without you even knowing it, you’re bringing those emotions of anger, resentment and insecurity that you felt during that experience to this very moment -the NOW. The now is when everything happens, nothing ever happens in the past or in the future, everything is always happening in the now. And when you go back to a memory of the past you bring the emotions of those experiences to the now.

The good thing is that it also works for positive memories and emotions. If you go back to a good memory from 10, 20 or even 30 years ago, you’ll be doing the very same thing –you’ll be bringing the positive energy and emotions from that specific moment to the now. 
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​The brain and its programs

The brain is always trying to save calories. It has so many things to run in the body to keep it healthy and alive that it's totally understandable that it has to create programs to have certain tasks run on auto pilot.

Because of the millions of years the brain has been trained to look out for danger, it makes it very easy for the brain to focus on what might go wrong —this is one of humanity’s programs.

This constant focus, of the brain, on what might go wrong makes it easier for us to focus on what might go wrong in our lives as well. This is one the reasons why we put so much attention on the possibility of something going wrong than going right.
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​Re-live only the pleasant experiences

Now that you know that your brain is always looking out for the negative things that may come and hurt your body, which makes it easier for the mind to focus more on negativity, you’re going to be more conscious of the amount of attention you’re going to give to the thoughts that come to your mind. This is how you become mindful of your thoughts.

One of the things you’re going to be mindful of is of knowing that every time you think of an experience, you’ll know that you’re bringing the essence of the emotions and energies from that moment to the now. This is not a problem when you go to the past and bring memories that make you feel good.

Whenever your brain brings you negative feeling memories, you need to be mindful, and consciously and immediately step in and stop that process before it gains momentum. You can change it to a memory that feels better about that same experience, or you can focus on something entirely different; because, remember, the energy of the feeling you experience now is the energy that you use to create your future.
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Study the past if you would define the future.” ― Confucius
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Re-living unpleasant experiences from the past are not a bad thing, as long as the emotions and energies you brought forth are to help you improve your life from now on —and now even so. But if you really want to change your life, you have to change the thought as soon as possible. You have all the power to do so.

When a memory continues to come forward in your thoughts, and you can't stop it, maybe it means that you’re ready to let go of the pain that is attached to that memory. Think about it.
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Related Publications:

Change Your Thoughts, Change Your Life

When Feeling Bad Feels Good

9 Ways To Calm Your Mind

Get Out of Your Head

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