Afraid of the Past?
Posted on 10. Mar, 2010 by Sue McDonald in Fear & Courage, Personal Growth
Afraid of the past? Now that seems like a silly concept, doesn’t it? How can one be afraid of the past when it has already happened?
Yet when one looks closely at the fears we have for the future, we see they are often repetitions of old fears, or of things that have happened to us or to others in the past.
What is it you fear? Do you fear losing the one you love? Do you fear losing your job, your security, your identity or do you just fear the fear of your friend, the fear
Look back at your past and see…did you not once “lose” someone or something you loved? Did you not feel that your security was “taken” from you? Consequently, the fears that you hold for the future are a deep rooted trauma that the past will repeat itself.
You may even be fearing something that happened to someone else. That also is in the past, even if it is not directly your own.
We have all heard of self-fulfilling prophecies. As a matter of fact we live them every day and every moment of our lives. We see failure, then we manifest it in some form, and the first words out of our mouth are “I knew this would happen”. We think we might get lost on the way to a place we have never been, so of course we do, and we comment “I ALWAYS get lost when I go to new places”. We are creating repeat performances of our past and fulfilling our “worst” expectations.
Conversely, when we sincerely expect to succeed, we do. Some people say that we get what we ask for. I would say rather that we get what we expect, what we are willing to receive, and what we think we deserve.
We can stop expecting the worst. Our lives need not be a series of re-runs. Each day can be a brand new show. You may have gone to bed feeling tired, but after a good nights sleep, you wake up feeling refreshed.
In the same way, even though your past may have had “more than your share” of trials and tribulations, you can let that go! So what if you felt your mother didn’t love you! So what if a previous lover left you! So what if you failed in the past! It is all in the past!
Today is a new day, and it can be a completely new start, if we treat it that way. Don’t goad yourself into a self-fulfilling prophecy of misery.
Arise each day with the attitude that this is a brand new day, a brand new life. It is more than turning a new page—it can be a complete new book. Perhaps in an earlier novel of your life, you were always left with a broken heart.
howtohappiness
Mar 19th, 2011
Thanks for this, Sue.
How true is it that we can continually be chasing our tails with past beliefs. This is how our poor patterns of behavior come about.
When we take a look at them, and become conscious of them, then we can change them and write that new book.
It is a great reminder, having closed a few poor habitual, fear driven behaviors to keep a look out for more. They can be hidden quietly sabotaging our plans and dreams. Wonderful when you knock another one over, though!
And I think you need to be generous with yourself, too, as these habits are old, and persistant. It takes time and practice, and resist the old patterns. When we fall back into an past behavior, we need to be loving toward ourselves and forgiving, gently guiding ourselves back to our new, improved, fearless path.
I love writing the new book.
Sue McDonald
Jun 9th, 2011
Thank you so much for for your wonderfully inspiring comments and for sharing your wisdom with my readers. When we reflect on what we are attracting into our lives, our whole being is changes to an even more powerful and empowering vibration. The power of gratitude in our lives for all that we have attracted to us for our learning and growth is certainly energetically sky rocketing our journey
Great comments – look forward to being able to share your journey as you continue to write from your heart
Love
Sue