One thing that all too often keeps us viewing our lives through a keyhole instead of using our key to open the door to a world of positivity and generosity is unduly focusing on the negatives from our past. Did you know that you can literally see into the past? It’s true, in certain circumstances. For example, nothing known to science travels faster than light. It goes a blazing 186,000 miles per second. Now, consider that it takes 1.3 seconds for sunlight reflecting off the Moon to make its way to your eyes on Earth 238,900 miles away. That means you see all of the craters, mountains, and valleys on the Moon not as they are in the present but as they were 1.3 seconds earlier.
It gets better. When the Sun peeps over the Eastern horizon tomorrow morning, you’ll see the Sun as it was eight minutes and twenty seconds in the past. If you ever get to view the Sun through a filtered telescope and witness a stunning solar flare or sunspots, you’re not seeing them in the moment, but as they were in the recent past. The star closest to us in our Milky Way Galaxy is Proxima Centauri. If you’re looking for it, you’ll need a telescope, but it’s in the constellation known as the Centaur. When you locate it, you’ll view Proxima Centauri as it was just over four years ago.
Then there’s Sirius, the brightest star in the night sky. You can clearly see it just east of Orion’s Belt, but not as it is now. You’re witnessing Sirius as it looked 8.6 years ago.
Let’s take one further leap back in time. If you have a telescope, are away from the bright lights of a city, and it’s a moonless night, you can see the faint Andromeda Galaxy, the galaxy closest to our Milky Way—and you are seeing the past. The very distant past. A whopping 2.5 million years into the past.
Look up the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) online and you’ll see images of stars and galaxies whose light took billions of years to reach that ultra-sophisticated instrument. Some of those objects likely no longer exist in our present time. Yet you can still see them. In a sense, JWST is the ultimate time machine. But viewing the past of our own lives is very different than watching the past of an object in the night sky. Our memories replay somewhat skewed images of people, events, and the results of those experiences, whether positive or negative, but it’s not our past itself. Residual impacts of our previous decisions, relationships, and activities are with us in our minds, but literally speaking, our past does not exist. Only our present does.
We spend so much time worrying about and often regretting the past. We can sometimes even obsess about the past. But think about it. Why would you spend precious time and negative emotional energy on something that does not exist? You can’t change something that’s no longer there. All of those things from your past that may be weighing you down did exist at one time, but right now, and for the rest of your life, your past is gone. That doesn’t mean it has no value. You can learn from your past and apply it positively to your present (the only thing that truly exists in time and space), which can then impact your future in a positive way.
So, take some of the energy wasted on being anxious about and lamenting the past and choose to no longer allow that non-existent thing to rule your emotions. You can’t change something negative in the past that doesn’t exist in your present. Instead, take from your memory only that which will benefit you in the here and now. Apply it positively to your present so that your future will be better.
Rod Robison is a Tucson, Arizona based author, magician, mentalist, and inspirational speaker. His book The Magic of Cultivating Positive Emotions: Four Powerful Secrets Mentalists Use to Influence Thoughts and How You Can Use Them to Improve Your Emotional Health is receiving rave reviews.
“Rod absolutely blew us away with his presentation to our group this week. He was so good that I got this book and it truly amplifies all the excellence of his message.”
Available at www.TucsonMagician.com/books
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