A Quote
Another quote:
"Don't let your worst moments become your story. You blow the presentation and spend the drive home scripting perfect comebacks to an audience that's already gone. Your relationship ends, and you spend months replaying conversations that can't be changed. All the time spent perfecting the past is stolen from the future that's still waiting.
The past is a teacher, not a judge. Your next move matters more than your last mistake." Shane Parrish, Farnam Street
These two quotes reminded me of something I tell myself and others when we get caught up ruminating about the past: there are only two reasons I can think of to visit the past, intentionally.
- To reflect and learn from it
- To savor memories (something I seem to do more of as I get older!)
If you find yourself ruminating about something, ask yourself if it fits into one of those two categories. If not,
Let That Shit Go does not mean applying a forceful effort to control what thoughts arise. It means stepping up on the awareness balcony so you can see what stories (past or otherwise) you are telling yourself and then, dropping any resistance to the thoughts or memories (no self-flaggelation or criticism), seeing them for what they are (just molecules deep in your 3 lb football sized brain that are summoned from the cauldron of the past), and then letting go of the mental narrative by either saying to yourself something like "hmm" or "oh that again" and then gently moving your attention to something else.
It is a powerful practice and a habit that can be developed.
