How Important Is Your Past?

One of my favorite quotes is from Buddhist Monk Thich Nhat Hanh:

THE PAST IS FINISHED.
LEARN FROM IT AND LET IT GO.
THE FUTURE IS NOT EVEN HERE YET.
PLAN FOR IT, BUT DO NOT WASTE YOUR TIME WORRYING ABOUT IT.
WORRYING IS WORTHLESS
WHEN YOU STOP RUMINATING ABOUT WHAT HAS ALREADY HAPPENED,
WHEN YOU STOP WORRYING ABOUT WHAT MIGHT NEVER HAPPEN.
THEN YOU WILL BE IN THE PRESENT MOMENT.
THEN YOU WILL BEGIN TO EXPERIENCE JOY IN LIFE.

This is a very present minded philosophy that leads you to believe that focusing on this moment in your life is most important. Very solid advice. But what if you're stuck? Stuck in a place that keeps you held back in the past, makes it difficult to focus on today, and makes the future look like a concept that can never exist. Or what if some event from the past or continued behavior pattern is stuck in the deepest part of your mind? So deep down that it has become a part of you, even though you consciously want to change.

If this describes you, you're not alone. Most issues/behaviors, if not all, that you struggle with are formed in the past. There was a time in your life when you didn't feel this way. It might have been two weeks ago or ten years ago. The key is to find out when your symptoms didn't exist. Once you find that period in your life, move forward until the moment the symptoms started. At this point look at what changed in your life, what was different on that day than on the day before? Did something traumatic happen? Did someone say something to you that frightened you? Were you in an accident? Did someone leave you or die? If you can pinpoint the moment and what significant event occurred, you have just taken the first step toward finding solutions for your problem, living in the present day and looking toward the future.

Sometimes it's difficult to find out when and why such issues began by yourself. Even traditional talk therapy may not help you get to the source. This may occur because the source of your problem has become imprinted into your subconscious. As mentioned before, it became so deep that it's part of who you are, it's become an automatic response or behavior.

How many times have you said to yourself that you don't want to be this way or feel this way but continue to do so?

You already know what it is you need to know, you just don't know it yet.

Consciously you say to yourself, for example, I don't want to feel depressed anymore. Yet, you continue to be down and feel overwhelmed. Let's say that you've been feeling this way for two years. You're still able to wake up every morning (with much effort) and get through your day, but it's exhausting. More than likely what's going on is that something happened two years ago that started the process of the depression. You've been down for so long that your subconscious mind took it in as something important. You depress every day, it must be important. So it made depressing an automatic behavior.

That may be the reason why you are having trouble overcoming your depression. Your subconscious needs to be informed that you do not want to feel this way anymore and that you want to change. Therefore, the quote above. You already know you want to change, you just have to inform/reinforce your deepest mind (subconscious) regarding your decision.

So how do you do this?

One way to open your mind and communicate with the subconscious part of you is through hypnosis. When in a hypnotic state you are more capable of relaxing and focusing on what's important. With the help of a licensed professional who has been trained in Counseling and hypnosis you can more easily get to that starting point and take the necessary steps to move on with your life in the positive direction that you have been looking for.