Dissolving the past ???

[present_in_pain]

For those of you who feel you've have had a painful past ... do you find the past haunting you each day, as you try to put it behind you and move on ?

Or, have you successfully put it behind you ? If so, how ???

Eckhart Tolle talks about using the present moment to dissolve the past ... to shine the light of consciousness on the past, in the present, and dissolve it.

How ???

I feel like my past is my biggest enemy, and continually haunts me, even when I sleep (in the form of nightmares and disturbing vivid dreams). So, I could really benefit from some advice here. Thank you !!!

[naturesflow]

[QUOTE=present_in_pain]For those of you who feel you've have had a painful past ... do you find the past haunting you each day, as you try to put it behind you and move on ?


Only if I hold on and not let go. Letting go now for me allows me to let go deep to the emptiness, where it all moves into peace and my natural open state where the past no longer binds me.

Or, have you successfully put it behind you ? If so, how ???

Conscious walking through it all, support and care from others who have helped me. Open sharing and dedication to the pain and trauma. A willingness to be open to feel and let go. Trust in the process and being ok with it all as it unfolds in me. I feel let go over and over till its done and I know when its done peace takes over the old story and memory. When I am done peace takes over in most areas of the past issue or trauma. It comes into my space through many angles, so I face it as it arises til I feel peace. I process fast now so this helps, but this has come with deeper awareness and building of understanding of myself.

Eckhart Tolle talks about using the present moment to dissolve the past ... to shine the light of consciousness on the past, in the present, and dissolve it.

How ???

By staying present with everything in you in this moment of now, it allows you to be more conscious of what your feeling, how your thinking, how you can shift or let go. Its the willingness to be fully present with yourself in everyway the moment calls you to yourself.

I feel like my past is my biggest enemy, and continually haunts me, even when I sleep (in the form of nightmares and disturbing vivid dreams). So, I could really benefit from some advice here. Thank you !!!

LIfe is a process and it can take a long time, or short time to end the past especially the severity of past experiences has been deeply conditioned in you. Everything you are dealing with can offer you a space of understanding and healing. Even those dreams. Not being afraid to listen and allow as it calls itself to you can help. Seeking support in ways to deal with each step that opens up in you can help if you don't know.

I always pick a starting point in myself. It might be a particular issue that might stand out as important to me to address, or it might be something that is continually haunting me from my past that might need my attention and start there. Often we have core issues that can be addressed that can undo the layers laid over this, so professionals can help you if you need it in this way.

[sky]

For those of you who feel you've have had a painful past ... do you find the past haunting you each day, as you try to put it behind you and move on ?

Or, have you successfully put it behind you ? If so, how ???

Eckhart Tolle talks about using the present moment to dissolve the past ... to shine the light of consciousness on the past, in the present, and dissolve it.

How ???

I feel like my past is my biggest enemy, and continually haunts me, even when I sleep (in the form of nightmares and disturbing vivid dreams). So, I could really benefit from some advice here. Thank you !!!



Yes the past and its memories can really affect your present, it can stop you enjoying the here and now.

I would suggest that you try some ' Mindfulness Meditation ' and also read about ' Mindfulness ' and see if that can help you move forward and allow you to enjoy ' The here and now ' There are plenty of good teachings that may help you find some peace.

Try some Buddhist teachers videos which you can find on youtube, or google ' Mindfulness teachings ' . If you need more help regarding Buddhist teachings on this come over to the Buddhist section and I'm sure you will get some good info:

Hope you find peace in your life...:hug2:

[Baile]

Hi pip, I related to your haunted comment. I spent my 20's in a very dark place and my life was a real nightmare in so many ways. Two things changed for me around the age of 30; one that I was in control of, and the other a divine intervention experience.

First, I came to the realization one day that I had to take some conscious steps, something had to change. I made the decision to get healthy physically and mentally. For me, that meant quitting alcohol, tobacco and rec drugs. It's been 30+ years and I've never touched them since. Also, I took steps to remove myself from all the negative relationships in my life. There were people in my life who didn't support me and I had to let them go. I had to move away and create new physical surroundings for myself. That's how I "dissolved the past." Steps like these, anyone can do. It's not a matter of doing what I did, it's a matter of identifying what you need to do, and then do it. Life always takes care of the rest after that.

As for divine intervention, it does happen that spirit will intercedes when we need assistance the most. I've had that happen a few times in my life. One thing though, it's often if not always preceded by something in me having to do with making the inner decision first. I'm not saying that's always the process, but it has been for me. There's a Goethe poem about this human/spirit relationship: Until one is committed, there is hesitancy... Boldness has genius, power, and magic in it.... Look it up.

[God-Like]

For those of you who feel you've have had a painful past ... do you find the past haunting you each day, as you try to put it behind you and move on ?

Or, have you successfully put it behind you ? If so, how ???

Eckhart Tolle talks about using the present moment to dissolve the past ... to shine the light of consciousness on the past, in the present, and dissolve it.

How ???

I feel like my past is my biggest enemy, and continually haunts me, even when I sleep (in the form of nightmares and disturbing vivid dreams). So, I could really benefit from some advice here. Thank you !!!

Hi,



If the past still haunts you to degrees where you have nightmares then one is perhaps not ready to let something go .

There is a process where the pain eventually works it's way out just like a splinter or any foreign body does .

To shine the light of consciousness on the past as Tolle puts it is a good place to start .

To put stuff behind you and move on is attainable but easier said than done if things are left unresolved .

Bring it all to the surface if you can handle it, relive the moments but transmute / transform the energy felt .

Try and think of sufferings in a different way in relation to your own growth, that is easier said than done also, it really does depend on what stage you are at within the process for some will agree to say one is only ready to let things go when they are ready to let things go, this time will normally be when they have suffered enough already .


x dazzle x

[wolfgaze]

Eckhart Tolle talks about using the present moment to dissolve the past ... to shine the light of consciousness on the past, in the present, and dissolve it.

How ???


I believe what he was touching upon is the fact that the more you fixate on, dwell on, become preoccupied with your painful perception of your 'past' - the more you energize those thought-forms and the more debilitating their effect become in your life. Kind of like the notion that you can turn your 'past' into a monster that terrorizes you and completely ruins your ability to connect with the present moment and enjoy the here and now. Tolle says the 'past' and 'future' (as we imagine them) are mental constructs of the physical/egoic mind - and I would have to agree with him. However something that he doesn't go into detail about or speak about the importance of is the process of releasing old/stored emotional energy - purging it. It may be necessary for a person to consciously connect with elements of his/her past solely for the purpose of tapping into the emotional energy that was generated by those past experiences - and for the reason of allowing oneself to fully experience it (the emotion) so that it can be cleared and the person can be freed up. In this context connecting with your past would be functional & therapeutic. But yeah, the incessant fixating and dwelling on one's past in a manner that continues to generate hurting and affliction - that's not functinoal but dysfunctional. Suppression of one's feelings and trying to distract the mind or block them out isn't going to be effective either. If the underlying emotional energy is still there from the past experiences - then it will continue to reside in the subconscious mind and have effects on the individual.

This is not easy 'work' by any means... Perhaps one of the toughest challenges a person faces in his/her lifetime - reconciling and freeing oneself from the influence of one's past... So there is no simple set of instructions or surefire way to go about doing this - it just takes a lot of effort, strength, courage, and determination...



Or, have you successfully put it behind you ? If so, how ???

Yes... Over the course of 5 years I went through a period of significant internal changes and spiritual growth that I can only describe as a 'spiritual awakening'. This involved transformative shifts in my state of awareness and also liberating emotional releases (purges) that freed me from the prior influence of the emotions I was holding onto from my past. This internal process brought me to a state of awareness where my 'past' no longer has any effect on me nor any relevance to my present state of being - I don't even think about it anymore because there is no need nor any compulsion or inclination to do so. I can tell you that now, 'past' and 'future' very much do feel like mental constructs of the physical mind (the way that Tolle described) - and I no longer identify with either of them. The notion of the 'future' does not feel like it has any real substance to it - not the way I had once perceived. Past/Future are thought-forms that we identified with, but all we really have to experience is the perpetual present moment. Sure our past experiences have left impressions on us and affected us - but we do not need to consciously re-live our past experiences in our minds as if those circumstances are present right now and we are going through it again. Rather if we continue to foster conscious growth within ourselves and continue to expand our state of awareness and broaden our perception, while letting go of our former limiting beliefs and old ways of thinking - we will find ourselves reconciling the effects of our past experiences, changing the way we think about those experiences, and bringing about the healing of our emotional pain/wounds....

Again, there are no easy answers, instructions, or directives to offer on this subject matter. 'Inner work' is the solution though - in the form of introspection (self-reflection) and deep contemplation. It requires time, patience, effort, determination, strength and courage. If you continue to hold the intention to go beyond yoursef and you allow yourself to proceed forward (rather than clinging to an old/familiar way of being), slowly but surely you will arrive at where you want to be.

:smile:

[Lucyan28]

There is no way to destroy or vanish the past,

how could we destroy something that does not exist anymore?

The past no longer exist.

Now if we're talking about the bad memories, just let them flow, be grateful for them, because they're part of our present wisdom =)

[Baile]

There is no way to destroy or vanish the past,

how could we destroy something that does not exist anymore?

The past no longer exist.There are different streams of thought with that. In fact there are self-development techniques to assist the seeker in transforming the past into that which heals rather than hurts. The idea here being that past, present and future are intertwined and therefore do affect each other.

[Lucyan28]

There are different streams of thought with that. In fact there are self-development techniques to assist the seeker in transforming the past into that which heals rather than hurts. The idea here being that past, present and future are intertwined and therefore do affect each other.

Yes there are different perspectives, I'm agree with that, but I believe that such techniques to change the past or future realities would cost a lot of energy/power/magic and a really developed entity/wizard to change the natural laws of the universe, especially one like that. I don't recall any wizard/person on this dimension that was capable of performing such miracle.

I think it's easier for a human to accept things (past memories that hurt) with a smile and an open heart. Those memories are really important for us, because they're part of what we are right now in this present moment.

Edited: I just thought that maybe those meditations and techniques to change "the past" help to transform the "memory of the past" rather than the actual past events, I mean our thoughts have a pattern, and those patterns can be indeed modified, in that way a hurtful memory can be transmuted into a happy one. I'm agree with this approach :D

[Mr Interesting]

Oh, you're lucky, I just lost the multiple paragraphs I wrote with a server busy message.

That'd be neat ah, just write it all down then go to publish and 'boom' it's all gone!

Anyway I do a book called "The Artist's Way" by Julia Cameron... about five times and each time things got better and I got sharper.

That was almost thirty years ago and now any past I have, brilliant or loathsome, isn't seen that way at all. The past, with the perspective sorted, is just as valuable as the future as a potential... it's brilliant even, as each feeds into the other and eventually brings us to now.

[Baile]

Edited: I just thought that maybe those meditations and techniques to change "the past" help to transform the "memory of the past" rather than the actual past events, I mean our thoughts have a pattern, and those patterns can be indeed modified, in that way a hurtful memory can be transmuted into a happy one. I'm agree with this approach :DMy experience: There were times in my past where I left jobs due to my inability to get along with various colleagues. For years I carried around my anger towards them. Many more years have gone by and I can see the sometimes-negative role I played in all that drama, and I now hold nothing but positive thoughts about that time in my life.

What's fascinating to me isn't that my attitude has changed; I've always been committed to personal self-development. No, what's fascinating is the realization that I have within me the capacity to transform my memories and feeling life into whatever I wish. I am capable of changing the way I view and experience the past. And given the understanding that past, present and future are intertwined, I believe in some real way I am changing the past as I work on my present-day relationship to the past. Or, I am changing the way past, present and future integrate with each other, in this lifetime or possibly some other. It is something I am exploring right now. NLP uses techniques to change timelines and rewrite personal history. And I have spoken to NLP people who have stated that, yes, the past in fact can change as a result. And logically the same could be applied to the present and future.

[present_in_pain]

Wow ! Thank you all so much for all the thoughtful responses !!!

It will take me some time to read and understand them all. I might then write more, in response.