Friday, April 13, 2007

Unleash The Past

Many of my friends and family tell me that my memory of recent past events is not average, and not as good as it should be. I smile when I hear this, every single time. Why? Because during more than 15 years of study, I have found this to be true: the past is aptly named, and should remain so.

Think about this for a few moments: what can you honestly do about events that have come and gone? Sure, we can save them for posterity, the moments in life we cherish, and that is an admirable thing to do in anyones life. We can save them for reflection, building blocks along the way in life, things we would learn from and decide not to repeat. Again, a worthwhile thing. We could save them and use them to fuel our lives, use the anger and frustration as a propellant to get the jobs done. Just in reading that makes it seem kind of strange, doesn't it?

Any time the word past is mentioned, another word is automatically used in conjunction with it: that word is Remember. A word to be wary of, to be sure. The reason I say this is a quote I heard from some time ago (and I honestly do not recall who said it) that went something like this:

"The word remember is a simplistic word conveying a complex situation. The action involved means to take a portion of something lost or set aside, and to re-attach it to yourself. In short, to re-member a piece of the past or something that is not present in our lives. What this means in relevance to past events is that we re-member something from a past event and bring it into our lives in the here and now."

For me, this is such a bold concept and statement that it took time to digest and put into my own terms. What I have found is profound. Here is an example.

We remember an argument that we had with a loved one. All the details, most of the words, but most importantly, we remember the emotions. the whole spectrum of them. In effect, we have brought that past event to life again in our present, the here and now.

I know some people will scratch their head and nod, waiting for the next sentence. However, I have to tell you this also. Science has now proven that the mind can not discern between a visualization of an event and the actual event itself. Some world class athletes train in this fashion: they visualize doing the sport, and their muscles respond in the same way as if they had actually done that same thing for real.

So when we remember and relive those past events and emotions, we bring it to life all over again, into our current waking moment. Be it a happy moment, a sad one, an angry one, they all come back to life again through remembering.

Unleash the past, remember only those items that represent what you desire other people to know you by. Leave the anger, the hurt, the frustration alone, let it die its natural death. Chose instead to remember the happy, the joyful, the uplifting moments. Fill your life with the greatest things from your past and allow it to come to life again and again any time you want. Re-Member those times in your life to the here and now.

Unleash the past and allow it to work with you to unlock your tomorrow.

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