Letting Go

Letting go of the past is vital for our growth. We can’t move forward if we are looking back every now and then. But our mind has a tendency to pull us back, and remind us of our past pain, hurt, guilt, shame, regrets etc. How do we bring ourselves back in the present moment when the grip of past tightens around our present?

One way is to consciously remind yourself to move forward, to focus on your present and the way ahead. To tell yourself that past was just a phase of your life, and now it’s time to enter a new phase – the way we enter college after high school, and the corporate world after our education.

But sometimes, memories of old times, or the time we’ve spent with our loved ones has the strength to disturb our peace of mind. We may be very stable and happy in our present, but something triggers our emotions, and we find ourselves walking the alleys of past, with no control whatsoever over our feelings or desires. What do you do in such situations?

One scenario that I’ve found beneficial at such times is to imagine that you are walking on a bridge (the bridge of life, you may say) with a deep valley underneath, and with every few steps that you walk forward, the segment of the bridge that you’ve already crossed begins to crumble. So, the only option you have is to keep moving forward (towards the future) because if you try to go back (in the past), you will only fall down like the debris into the valley. You may pause for a while, ruminate, or take a peek at the path travelled (past), but you cannot afford to stay there much longer, else you carry the risk of falling down!

So, you can pause and reflect at your past for a while, but the longer you wait, your past might just suck you in. Consider it as a phase of life that’s over, and now you are on to the next phase, so just keep forging ahead. Your past or earlier phase has shaped you into who you are today. You are more experienced and reformed than you were yesterday (in your past), just carry that wisdom and strength of transformation in your stride, and hop onto the next phase, and then to the next and the next till your last breath, reminding yourself that each phase is essential to our being.

After all, what is life – a remarkable compendium of contiguous phases, each phase molding us to meet the requirements of the next phase.

There is much more to life than you’ve experienced so far. Look at the infinite Universe, and imagine the grandiosity that awaits to be explored!

Vandana Bhasin