Healing The Past

“Life becomes easier when you learn to accept an apology you never got.” ~~ author, Robert Brault
 
I get inspiration for my weekly newsletters at the oddest of times and in the oddest of places. While I was driving yesterday, I started thinking about how different the view through the windshield was from the view through the rear view mirror.

The thought occurred to me that you do need to glance in that rear view mirror frequently to make sure nothing is coming up on you that might cause harm, but you spend most of the time driving with your focus on the road ahead. As a metaphor for life, that got me thinking about whether I spend too much time staring into the rear view mirror and not enough keeping my vision on my present and future.

For me, what's in the rear view mirror are past hurts, wrongs, mistakes, failures and losses. I expect that is true for most of you. And, I know from my own experience, that it can be hard to move forward while looking backward.

So, how does one truly heal the past?

I think it's not a simple process but it's one of acknowledging the past, accepting what you cannot change and then learning from the experience. I find there is always something for me to learn, so I look at the past, however difficult, as time in the playground of life. Sometimes you fall off the swing. Sometimes the other kids don't play fair. Sometimes you have to try something again and again until you conquer it (monkey bars for me). But in each situation, you are growing and learning about yourself, about life and about how to keep your heart open. And this is the very definition of healing.

Healing is such an important part of life regardless of how your life has been. If you are growing and learning, then you are also healing and your growth and self-healing helps many others.
  
"True healing is the willingness to treat yourself and others better than the past ever did." ~~~Matt Kahn, TrueDivineNature.com

​I love this quote. Often, we carry the past around including messages of self-criticism. But if we keep treating ourselves as that person that others felt unworthy or of little value, then we allow the past to truly define the future.
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For me the essence of healing the past is the process of coming back into balance and being-ness with what there is about me that is incomparable, unique and eternal. Healing is about love - love of self, love of the Divine, love of others and love of life.
  
I invite you to take a break on self-improvement and settle into a love affair with you. See what happens and find out what heals when you shift into seeing what has always been true about you - that you are the pure emanation of Divine love and light.
 
Treat yourself better than your past ever did. I am going to do that each day and remind myself that the past might deserve that glance but it doesn't deserve the direction in which I am going.

With love and continuing prayers for Ukraine and all who suffer,

Cathleen

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