Holding on is believing that there’s only a past; letting go is knowing that there’s a future. ~Daphne Rose Kingma

The journey is much easier when you are not carrying your past.

We know that what we focus our attention on causes us to get more of that object of our attention. We all want to move forward in life, to be more and have more. Yet how many times do you find yourself ruminating about the past? It’s amazing how much we bring up past situations, especially negatively emotionally charged ones, into our minds and conversations.

When we remember the past with anger, regret, resentment or shame, we create negative pictures of ourselves or others that trap us there. When you speak or think of past situations don’t you feel it in your body as if it were happening right now? As long as you place your focus and emotional energy on the events of your past, you create more of the same. You continue to suffer from it. Realize the past is done. You can’t change it, but you can learn from it and heal it.

So, if you catch yourself bringing up an event from your past that was distressing in some way, stop! Realize that you may have created that situation in order to learn from it. Think about what you learned or how your life changed because of it. Maybe you realized that a certain behavior on your part really didn’t feel good or made your problems worse and you never did that kind of thing again. Perhaps you developed more inner strength due to the obstacles in your path. Your entire life path could have changed as a result of something that, at the time, seemed like a horrible situation. I know mine did and I’m grateful for it now!

Consider difficult situations in your past as comparable to lifting weights. In order to develop muscles, a person needs to stress the muscle by working it. The recovery from the stress is what develops the muscle. People and situations in your life could have been the “weights” you were lifting in order to develop and grow. Remember that the universe is friendly to you and interested in your highest good. You are, after all, a part of it! Everything that happens in your life is FOR you. Take what you learned from the past and then…….LET IT GO. You’ve learned from it–it’s work is done. When you do remember the past, think only of the good things and then amplify those moments into something even better.

A large part of letting the past go is forgiveness and gratitude. Forgive others and forgive yourself. Embrace the growth you received with gratitude. This allows you to be in the present and see yourself and others clearly. Then, set the intention that you are now ready to learn your lessons through the path of joy. This doesn’t mean obstacles won’t come up, but you will navigate them with much more ease and grace.