I think nostalgia is one of the greatest gifts anyone can receive. For a brief moment, one can really feel the effects of a past experience that has the potential to change their life, for the better or the worse. You never really appreciate the little throwbacks in your life because it usually leads to either a pit of unexplainable emotion or twinging pain of regret.

 

Moments like these are the reason most people live in the past. Its just easier, especially when life gets difficult, we tend to always throw ourselves back to whatever feels comfortable, especially if it was a really sweet time in our lives. I think that’s why it’s called living in the past. We try to “escape” our present by going back in time and reliving something that was quite probably the most beautiful thing to have happened to you. But regardless of how nice it is to sit and reminisce, you can never truly escape whatever it is that’s hitting you at that moment in time.

 

I feel like in the past, living through memories has prevented me from moving forward. There will always be specific things that lead your mind astray….a gift, a photo, a place, a person. Even something as simple as a scent of a perfume or the way something sounds can pull you into a memory you once treasured or held close. And it’s not like these things happen when you want them to either. Sometimes at the worst of times you are reminded of things that once would’ve made any of those situations better. The thing is, whether we want to admit it or not, reminiscing about the past is never going to truly get you through the present. Not on its own anyway.

 

Our present is made up of a series of decisions that we ourselves have made. The old saying that the only person to blame is yourself is somewhat true. I mean we can never really know the consequences of any decision unless we make it, but despite that they are still our decisions. The result is either a sense of gratitude to your past self, or an overwhelming sense of regret.

Without both of which we can never really learn from whatever has happened, and make decisions based on that in the future… in other words, we can never really continue to grow.

 

I think the main reason why I live in the past more and more, is not just because whatever is going on right now is tough, but more because the past is a reminder of what could have been. In some fantasyland I think I was hoping that somehow and someway I was going to be able to grasp whatever it is that once made me happy . However true that may have been, its not what’s going to make me happy now. And that’s why I think nostalgia is so great.

 

Taking in the best memories of what has happened teaches you to appreciate every good moment that is yet to come. It makes you understand that the road has rough patches, but also some very pretty good spots as well…a whole lot of ups to go with the downs, and that’s what should get you through it all.

 

 

Living in the past should be reserved to when we’re on our deathbed. It is there where we can truly be happy, because there isn’t much more else to be done. But when you are where you are, right now, making sure that no good moment isn’t cherished and no hard obstacle is not yet conquered is a good enough reason to never really let the past get a hold of who you are.