You can’t Un-Live the past. You just choose to forget

To change something is a choice - Unknown

Some memories can be so painful that you just want to forget them. While it is not possible to erase memories from your mind, there are strategies that you can use to make a memory less prominent. You can also do things to change the way a memory makes you feel and to replace unpleasant memories with new pleasant ones. Keep in mind that it is not always possible to forget a memory, so you may want to consider changing a situation if unpleasant memories are interfering with your life.

Think about what bothers you the most about the memory. Your next step is to pinpoint the most upsetting parts of the memory. Getting to the root of what bothers you the most will help you figure out what you need to forget. Write these specific things down so that you can work on forgetting them.

Are you determined to forget the past? I know many people don’t fully understand what that means. They wonder, “How can I forget something that’s happened to me?” But one definition of the word forget is to disregard intentionally or to overlook. In other words, you have to choose to disregard your past so that it doesn’t hold you back. You have to consciously make an effort to forget, to erase from your extant memory and let go. In other words, you have to choose to forget. That means the good and the bad. Sometimes our past victories keep us from rising higher as much as our past failures can. If we don’t let go of the old, we’ll never be able to embrace the new. It is just the way this works.

It doesn’t matter what’s happened in your past, it’s time to forget what lies behind and make the choice to look forward. Trust that God has a better future in store for you. Trust that He’s working behind the scenes on your behalf. Trust that He who promised is faithful — as you forget what lies behind and press forward, you’ll experience His power and blessing in a fresh, new way.

If all you do is attempt to relive something that has already happened, you’re missing out. The mental space you create by letting go of things that are already behind you gives you the ability to fill the space with something fresh and fun. Joel Osteen puts it aptly when he said “You must make a decision that you are going to move on. It won’t happen automatically. You will have to rise up and say, ‘I don’t care how hard this is, I don’t care how disappointed I am, I’m not going to let this get the best of me. I’m moving on with my life.”

(Culled from my book, The Path Less Traveled...https://www.amazon.com/Path-Less-Travelled-Reflections-Learning/dp/1540663507/ref=la_B01NAFINA0_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1518345927&sr=1-1).