Past and Future

Thoughts of past and future do not make us who we are now. The past might have been who we were at the time, but our memories and conclusions of what happened back in the past might not have been totally correct. Our feelings and worries about what may happen in the future rarely come to pass. We can wish the most beautiful results or worry about the most terrible events, but our wishes and worries are unlikely to come true. Past and future is not who we are now, we make them who we are and if they are not helping, we can just let them go.

Issues with the past and future do not require us to give them more attention, other than the initial thought or emotion. This can take less than a second and when we see them, we can just as easily let them go instead of reacting or making them bigger.

Our active mind is not the boss. Our mind is a tool that should help us find the best way through life. We can look at each moment and try to understand what is happening. It is helpful to use our memory of past events and compare them to what is happening now, but we should not let our mind react immediately based on those past events without giving it a little oversight.

I am not saying that we should not use our sense of self, concepts, opinions, judgements, and habits. They are important and are a great resource. All of our senses, opinions, and judgements are good, but we should not use them exclusively to make decisions and new stories.