"Stop Dwelling on the Past" From Marauder #10 - April 2013
This is the subject that came to me to be the topic of conversation in this month's article many days ago. The importance of understanding the meaning of this statement has yet to be determined but for some reason it's intriguing me to further explore. Living in the past. That could translate
to leaving from the present that you and we are in and being in the past. When we do this, we find ourselves thinking about things that happened or feelings we had. Many times it's something that we wished we had again or something that we wished we had done to change the outcome of the present we find ourselves in. Other times, it's something amazing, something that makes us laugh uncontrollably even in the present and will in the future. It's a pleasant memory that, with fist under our chin, we sit and try to relive and it feels so real. As if we were going through it all over again, reliving that exact moment.
Then there's the other type of 'dwelling on the past' and it involves a feeling of being stuck. Stuck in this situation or event that made us so furious we can't let it go. Every time the smallest thing reminds us of it, we go back into a dark, angry, and negative void which takes away more of our present time. But then what? What do we gain from this? Why are we feeling this way and why do we allow ourselves to relive, of all things, THAT experience? There is nothing to 
gain from this practice. All we do here is just introduce that old negative energy to our present and waste our precious time over something that we cannot really change; it is in the past. It's really not so easy to be in the present at all times and there really is no way to tell our brain not to remember the good or the bad that happened in the past. It is how we learned everything we know that brought us to this present time that we are in. The nostalgia of bringing back and reliving the time that we feel like we have lost to time itself is what I believe we are trying to do. In a sense pause the present time and time travel to a time before. Little do we notice though that as we do this the present keeps moving into the future, our time does not really ever cease to continue.
gain from this practice. All we do here is just introduce that old negative energy to our present and waste our precious time over something that we cannot really change; it is in the past. It's really not so easy to be in the present at all times and there really is no way to tell our brain not to remember the good or the bad that happened in the past. It is how we learned everything we know that brought us to this present time that we are in. The nostalgia of bringing back and reliving the time that we feel like we have lost to time itself is what I believe we are trying to do. In a sense pause the present time and time travel to a time before. Little do we notice though that as we do this the present keeps moving into the future, our time does not really ever cease to continue.
Time is now, not the past or the future.
not a statement to discard the importance or relevance of our experiences and of our past because it is what made us what we are now. All of it is stored in us consciously and subconsciously. We know it , we went through it. But what are we doing right now? Why aren't we as happy as the happiest past we've had?
Of course each individual situation is completely unique and maybe things haven't truly felt as happy as that one moment in time where everything seemed perfect, but we have the power to change every aspect in our lives to strive for that feeling; or is that dwelling on the past again?? Not if we are in action, not if we are changing our now with the ultimate goal of a continuous present happiness.
- Written by Philip Al-Hajj
- Photography courtesy of Sals Photos
- Written by Philip Al-Hajj
- Photography courtesy of Sals Photos
