Do you sit by the window pane for long and think beyond the brain? You may possibly be caged by the much fatal flaws that most of us have: the addictive urge to dissect the past, the dead, and the bygone! We spend the lion’s share of our lives looking back on what ‘was’ rather than focusing on what ‘is’, even when we’re well aware that it gives nothing in return, but on the contrary robs us of our peace and poise of mind. Yet none of us stop mulling over the past disappointments and heartbreaks.
To put it shortly, rather than centering our focus on the lively present, our keenness lies firmly on the dead past and the uncertain future, the reason why we fail miserably in making the most of our vibrant present, only to regret later, when it becomes a part of the long-gone past. This is quite common among everyone, irrespective of age and gender differences, but I believe women lament a little more when compared men. I don’t intent to call it a fragility, but prefer to depict it as the anguish of the perfectly calculative human mind that finds it hard to realize that one of the much cautiously taken step has gone wrong. A mishmash of good and bad, the past is a chapter of life that has been read and lived, but yet, we’re always haunted by it for no rational reason, and the reason why we’re forced to think more and keep dissecting each moment, in order to create and convince justifications that our mind would easily and unquestionably agree on. But are we good in convincing the conniving minds of ours? The honest answer is a ‘No’. No matter how long we sit and rack our brains to list out the thoughts and reasons for the past actions of ours, our mind will continue to pop-up newer and more complex questions, like a merciless lawyer who keeps arguing fiercely, to prove himself.
So why exactly do we take pains to think and craft reasons and conclusions one after the other, to justify an action that has already happened in our life, for good or bad? This innate human demeanor, I believe, is the root cause of distresses that spoil or present. They not only steal a lion’s share of time but also keeps us blindfolded from indulging in the happiness and fun that the present open-mindedly gifts us. As the camouflage of the past continue to trick us to live in the bygone, the present waits at our door steps uninvited, and sadly leaves as time flies. The unwillingness to let go, the stubbornness to get stuck in the past, and the scare of outcomes of a bygone action are all failing strategies that you latch on to, for no valid reason to cite.
So does that mean we’re bound to erase all that has happened in the past? No, we’re not! Remembering the happy times is in no way harmful, and other contrary can help boost our confidence to make the most of the present. But sadly, we count more on the harder times than the happier ones, the reason why we often can’t let the past go. Past wounds will never do anything good but will only hurt us more, the reason why one should never cry over the spilled milk. We move on and on, in our fast paced life, and no one aims at staying in a point and ponder over trivial things, the reason why we, I believe, should aim at walking (or sometimes) running more, than staying still, hoping to encounter amazing things on the way.
Like a bacteria that slowly decomposes a corpse, the past rots our mind and makes it ‘smelly’, leaving our mind heavily poisoned. As long as the much pondered past is on no way related to the refreshing present, it’s nothing but a putrid waste that has to be flushed right way. Its defective, it’s infected, the reason why past is something to be buried and not to be carried along. Imagine a bird that has been caged for years together, and crying desperately to be freed, that’s how the past moans from inside, yet we never listen to its sobs. So start listening to lit and let the bird fly as earlier as possible, because, soon you will hear its happy chirping near the window pane of your heart, making you feel better, easier, and happier.