Letting Go of the Past
One of my dreams is to write a book about this subject, as this is something I have struggled with for the better part of my life. For the mistakes I have made in this past, I have consistently and severely punished myself mentally, which has led me down a path of depression, guilt, and self-doubt.
But I soon learned that everybody makes mistakes, and punishing oneself for the mistakes that normal people make (Yes! it is normal to make mistakes), ensures that the past sticks with you indefinitely. For as long as we punish ourselves in our heads for what we have done, the harder it becomes to move on from it; the more our past will haunt us, denying us our right to live free and happy lives. All life is precious, and no matter what we have done to ourselves and to others, we deserve to be happy. Some of us will want to seek forgiveness from those we have wronged, and this is good. If it is in your power to seek forgiveness, then it is probably something you should do. In fact, I highly recommend it, as forgiveness helps us move on.
You should also however, be aware that the strongest form of forgiveness does not come from external sources, but from yourself. We need to be the ones who forgive ourselves. Forgiving ourselves is the first and most important part of our path to exorcising our past demons. Whenever we feel guilt creep in for our past mistakes, we must remind ourselves that we forgive ourselves. That everybody makes mistakes, and that we need to make mistakes in order to learn from them.
The fundamental keys to letting go of the past are accepting that we are not perfect and that we are human when we make mistakes; that we cannot be hard on ourselves for making mistakes, and forgiving ourselves for our past mistakes so that we can use our present focus on ways to avoid making the same mistake, so that our future is bright and full of life not pain and regret.
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