How to forget the past
The moment you let go of all the negativity, resentment, grudge and anger that you hold inside of you, is the moment that you free yourself from all the clutter and buoys of your life. Take for example the principle of flight. If an aircraft has to fly higher and faster, it has to be light and carry the minimum possible weight in order to reach those levels. Similarly, a commercial aircraft with all the people and baggage that it carries, flies at a much slower speed. Similarly, a mind free of clutter is able to achieve more than a mind full of fear, anxiety and ill-feelings.
If you analyse, most feelings in life towards people, situations, etc. are mostly cyclic in nature. They tend to repeat themselves till the time you decide to let go of them and reset your emotional index towards the issue. Our mind tends to remember and cling onto the last note that it left the thought on and starts the new interaction based on the present judgement. This is the most improbable and intelligent thing that we as humans do. Any other animal, till it has been severely afflicted, will meet you with a new feeling each time to sees you. Take for example your pet dog, if you own one. They will be as delighted to see you, each time they meet you after a gap. This however, is not the same with us humans.
We need to stop carrying this very excess baggage and tend to forgive and forget about any past inhibitions that we may have wrt. situations in our life. meet everyone as if you’re meeting them for the first time. Show them the respect and love that you will have for anyone that you actually meet for the first time. Condition your mind to hold no grudges and have no resentment.
A classic example is that of a young child who still has no judgement of what is rather good or not so good for them yet. When the child starts howling, wanting something that you’re sure is going to harm the child, you calmly, yet firmly refuse the demand of the child and try to instil some logic as to why the demand is unreasonable and why it cannot be fulfilled. Similarly, your own mind is like a small child that has little control in terms of the thought direction it should take. It has to be continuously corrected and reminded of the principles of the new thought regime and maintain serenity in all your interactions.
Letting go can easily trigger fear. When you leave something behind and don’t know what to replace it with, you leave space for the unknown. Change is always scary, especially when you don’t know what’s coming next. That’s why you might find yourself clinging to the unwanted because that’s what’s familiar and known to you.
To make sure that doesn’t happen, consciously decide what’s coming next. Let in instead of letting go. Rather than pushing away the unwanted, invite the wanted. When I left my corporate job in search of a higher calling, I battled with shame. Shame for stepping off the beaten path, for making a controversial choice, and for not having a clear path in front of me.
It was when I finally stopped fighting shame that I was able to see clearly. That’s when I could invite curiosity to join me instead. Curiosity did the exact opposite of shame; it helped me see the opportunities, not pitfalls, of the unknown and taking the road less travelled.
If you want to let go of anxiety and self-doubt, invite peace and confidence. If you want to let go of a past relationship, invite a new loving relationship. If you want to let go of the lazy and dull version of yourself, invite an active and energetic version of you.
