The Past - You can learn a lot from it

The past - can you learn from it?

There is a difference between thinking about the past, living in it, and wanting to change or erase it. Sometimes we live in the past because it's familiar — we know what happened, so there are no surprises. Maybe, from time to time, we are tempted to revisit the past because we’re comforted by the “good old days” As an Enneagram Four I totally get that one of the biggest challenges I face is learning to let go of feelings from the past…sigh.

More recently there’s a media and social buzz about editing the past, because it makes some feel uncomfortable. But, One cannot and must not try to erase the past merely because it does not fit the present.~Golda Meir

I suppose for some ppl living in the past allows them to avoid dealing with issues in the present. Consider that forgetting our own history, personal or social, sets us up for possibly not fully understanding the present and our role in it. To forget our story is to abandon who we are and why we are here. 

Remembering and learning from the past. In the fifth book of the Old Testament, Deuteronomy, written in the form of a farewell address by Moses to the Israelites before they entered the Promised Land of Canaan, we read: “…Be careful never to forget what you yourself have seen. Do not let these memories escape from your mind as long as you live! And be sure to pass them on to your children and grandchildren…”

According to Constantine Sedikides, a psychology professor, nostalgia is absolutely central to the human experience. So I look ahead to the future, reminding myself to draw from the past, recalling both my successes and failures and never forgetting what I’ve seen, teaching these things to my children and grandchildren…#Pkes