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MY SUNDAY JOURNAL
By Dalton Roberts
IPS Features
7-28-02
ENTER PAST MOMENTS
Some teach that we should forget the past and live in the now. They
forget that the past shines light on the now. Everything we have
experienced in our past is and always shall be a part of our now. Memory
guarantees it.
An interesting experiment in self-shaping is to take some moment from
our past when we seemed to be in complete tune with life and re-enter
that moment. Re-enter that moment without getting attached to any of the
imagery. Just feel it, then release it with a smile.
This does two things: (1) you get the upliftment of a great moment in
your life and (2) you get the surprise power of seeing you can feel
aspects of your past without getting attached, or glued, to them.
The past is a good place to visit but not a good place to live.
INTERESTING SIDE ROADS
What about negative aspects of our past? Should we go back and re-enter
those moments, too?
My experience is it is not necessary to make a conscious decision to go
back. Life itself will often toss you back into some old unpleasant
chapter of your life. So what can we do about it?
The best we can do is to see it as an interesting side road we traveled
at that time. Again , without getting glued to it, ask that the
interesting parts of the experience re-appear to your consciousness.
This makes you a spectator and keeps you out of an old blender.
Unless we step inside the blender again, and get all spaghettied into
old experiences, we can see with the perspective of time some good and
interesting things that happened on those side roads. It was part of
your path at that time and there's nothing wrong with acknowledging it.
To repress and reject it only makes it stronger because what we resist
persists.
With good old memories and painful ones, too, play with them in the
present like old toys from your childhood. Never run from a bad one and
don't pack your clothes and completely move in with a good one. Both
have come to mind to be your teacher and playmate one more time.
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