Taming the Past

It’s the last episode of 2016, and the first episode with the new, shorter, more targeted focus.

Since it is the end of the year, let’s look at a more empowering way of looking at the past. We all have ups and downs – and the downs usually seem more vivid and more detailed than the positive (which we often tend to gloss over. Experts say that we see the negative more vividly because of one word: emotion. The negative tends to stand out because there is more emotion, and intense emotion, attached to it.

So, what does one do to reign in the negative? The event has already happened so we can’t change the event or the consequences associated with it, but we can change the way we look back at it. Instead of reliving the event mentally, we can search the event for the lessons the event can teach us. What can we do to prevent this mistake from happening again? What did it show us about ourselves? How did it make us stronger, wiser or better?

By focusing on lessons to learn, we can take bit of the sting out of the memory. We end up more empowered than demoralized.

Next week, in the new year, I’ll share my antidote to New Year’s Resolutions.

Music Credits

Funkorama Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)
Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/

Your Call Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)
Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/