Simply Anxious

Holding onto past pain poisons the present

I have always been someone who forgives easily. I know deep down that most people when doing something that pains another are simply coming from a place of fear and inner pain. They are clearly hurting inside and so their survival instinct is to hit out!

Forgiveness either for someone else or yourself is a good thing, no matter how painful the experience was for you. It frees you from bitterness, guilt and anger, and these three emotions really don’t feel great and can ruin your inner happiness and wellbeing. Holding a grudge will only hurt you in the long run and serve you no purpose at all. ​ I learned this in my own struggle with anxiety. I had an awful experience that I carried with me every day for over a decade. Looking back, I can see how holding onto that experience poisoned my present moments and definitely impacted my mental health. ​ I basically lived in the past, regurgitating the experience over and over again, blaming, feeling a victim and overthinking how I could have made things different, IF ONLY…. going over and over in my mind, keeping all that pain alive. And for what? It was this that was causing me to suffer. Yes, the experience was painful, but I was out of the situation, I had been for years, life had moved on, but I hadn’t. ​

Letting go of your past pain can be so liberating. Keeping it alive in your head will just cause you suffering. ​ Remember, whatever the experience, it’s gone, finished. The past is the past! Don’t exhaust yourself and waste your energy on it anymore. We react, we calm, we change, we flow, and we are not our past. ​ To be able to release your past you need to forgive. Just forgive by accepting what happened, let it go and be grateful for the opportunity to move forward with love and compassion for yourself. This is a much more empowering way to move forward in life. Just keep what you have learnt from your experience and release everything else. ​ 🖋️ Written by Lisa of @simply_anxious