I caught myself today. It was a pretty hefty moment of realizing I’m stuck in a pattern that is exacerbating depressive thoughts.
You know I love my memories. Going back and reliving my favorites is one of my coping mechanisms. I encourage everyone to do it! But what I caught myself doing is going into my gallery of memories and closing the door behind me. I’ve been swept up in nostalgia that’s getting increasingly sad because times have changed so much (uniquely for me and en masse for us all) and these feel lesser like memories and increasingly like “can’t haves.” When not swimming a lazy morose backstroke in thoughts of things I used to be able to do, I obsess over wanting all things to just be back the way they used to be.
See what’s happening? What terrible thing I’m doing? I’m looking ONLY backwards and I’m moving NO. WHERE.
It’s time for some forward.
The future is a beautiful thing. It’s full of possibilities. This is a big idea I teach! To daydream, then make those daydreams objectives, then keep moving forward step by step until what once was only a dream becomes a reality.
Life is a marvelous, magical blank canvas that we get to paint ourselves. So I say, while it’s grand to step into the galleries of our pasts once in a while and enjoy having a grateful and sentimental look around, we need to spend more time getting out of the gallery and into the studio, working on painting canvas after canvas of new memories, of a new brilliant future.
Some inspiration to get you started:
What’s with the Bison, Christina?
What’s Your Purpose?
Refresh Your Hardships with a “First Day of School”
And for when you do want to spend a little time in your gallery and don’t want to feel too sad, take this with you: What My Aging Dog Just Taught Me About “No Going Back”
