Memory is such a tricky thing, yet so much of how we live our life is based on what we remember. We remember that mean instructor in our second grade class that shut us down in front of everyone, teaching us that our eagerness and curiosity are not appropriate, tainting our future scholastic explorations. We remember our sister’s coldness, or our brother’s emotional fragility and our adult relationships are guided by these memories.
Our past can and does create an emotional hangover that clouds our daily life.
Have you ever compared your memories of a specific occasion with someone else? Sometimes the two of you remember the same things, but sometimes your recollections are very different. The emotional baggage that a person carries to every experience often colors how he or she views and event. Our happy memory might be anothers nightmare.
When a conscious or unconscious emotional perspective colors one’s view of the present, history is getting in the way of a fresh new life. Knowing that you have the power to choose how to react to any situation is a way out of this kind of patterned thinking. When you feel your emotional buttons being pushed, step back and make a choice to react differently. New choices can often create a beautiful, and more interesting, new experience.
