Stop Re-reading the Past

“You can’t start the next chapter of your life if you keep re-reading the last one.” – Michael McMillan

Why do you pine for the way things were—the so-called “good old days”? Clinging to the past, desiring what once was, actually offends what is and what may be. Your memories of the past are often incomplete, romanticized, and stripped of the pains you endured. The mind, in its attempt to preserve you, writes a narrative most pleasing to you.

Perhaps this is an evolutionary strategy. Your brain surfaces pleasant memories while suppressing pain to protect you from dwelling too long on trauma. Yet, not all pain is forgotten—some remains raw and unedited, lurking in the background. But neither the joys nor the pains of your past are meant to hold you captive. They exist only to remind and inform.

Beware: excessive attachment to the past, whether through nostalgia or regret, shackles you to what can no longer be changed. Avoiding pain or ruminating on it is just as restrictive as trying to re-create the fleeting joy you once knew. Both prevent you from embracing the freedom you need to move forward.

Learn from the past, but do not live there.

Recognize its role in shaping you, but refuse to let it define you.

Life flows forward, not backward.

Let the past be a guide, not a cage.