Past, A Curse Or Blessing?

Past is a memory which is gone in time, every minute passing is a memory in past, but we only remember or our mind will only remind us of the things which made an impact, things which brought us tremendous joy or terrible misery. Everyone has some event or experience that brought them pain and happiness, we travel to our past on several occasions through memories about the moments and experiences. Many believe it’s a circle that they can never come out from, but why do we think about the past when we are well aware that it cannot be relived? 

Past consists of all types of emotions and experiences, some moments which we wish to relive or recreate, others we wished never had happened. Some of the most beautiful moments in the past also bring sadness when we realise that it cannot be recreated, some others bring immense regret. That is the way of life we cannot expect what the future has to offer or get back what the past has taken. 

The experiences one had in the past play a huge role in their life, a person’s decision-making, behaviour, and physical appearance over time is influenced by their past experiences and this can happen consciously or subconsciously. Some people take positives and find ways to improve themselves by entirely recreating their life and inspire the world around them. Some others make themselves believe that they can never come out of the mess, accept that is their fate and live through the same mistakes over and over again. Others lead a parallel life, on one hand, they raise their life and personal standards, on the other hand, they restrict themselves because the fear of being left alone or exploited haunt them and confuse them in making strong decisions during a critical situation which reminds them of the past. 

When we compare our bitter past with the present situations and calculate the future results, they never come out promising. That fear leads to bad decision-making and restricting oneself from doing what they love, the fear of being left alone, being rejected, losing something they love, will convince a person to restrict themselves from what present or future has to offer them. 

At times we repeatedly ask these questions to ourselves, Why did it happen to me? What did I do wrong? Why didn’t I realize it sooner? Why me? Most of them blame god, some of them blame themselves, others blame people or situation which caused it. Whatever happened in our past was due to the decisions we made on situations we felt was favourable to us and by expecting a better future. For others, they were not brave enough to say “NO” or “YES”, lack of resistance they showed during a vulnerable situation, and there are the unexpected miseries like the act of nature which we cannot control. Different people different experiences, but these all are gone in time, the only place this remains now is in your memory. 

It’s all created in our mind, our happiness and sadness, strengths and fears, joy and worries, these are all associated with our thoughts, memories, and emotions. It will only hurt us if we think about it, the past doesn’t torture us, our thoughts do. When you think about the past as a burden that becomes a burden for you. It's easy to say difficult to control, everyone has experienced pain some or the other way, our past has hurt us all. May be your pain must be bigger than mine but you and I both know that the more we think about it the more it will consume us.  

Past is not a burden, it’s a learning curve, we could not learn to walk without falling, mistakes are not to be repeated but rectified. Future and present are the opportunities to make things better, just because your past did not turn out to how you wanted it to be that doesn’t mean that your future will be the same. As living beings, we have survived wars, nuclear attacks, natural disasters. Each time we rebuild our life around it, whatever happens, life has to move on.

There is a beginning and an end to everything. Restricting ourselves because of bad past experience it’s the most terrible mistake that we do. Life has endless possibilities; everyone is living a life which someone else wishes they could live. Make most of it, “past is not a curse but a blessing” to make things right the next time.