Dropping History, Dropping Pounds

Ahhh history....

Everyone's got history...lots of it in many cases.

We feel trapped by our histories, burdened down by what has happened to us...  
and by what we have done to ourselves as a result of stress and traumas. 

All the events that upset our lives and put us on less than glorious paths in life...
and in the less than glorious ways we care for our bodies.
 
We feel like we are wading through an ugly endless swamp
and we are getting tired of dealing with it all.

While history matters...it is real...and powerful at times,
it is less helpful when it comes to getting better. 

Sometimes, when I see that something is not working like it should, I take a different tack.

People spend so much time and energy trying to understand what has happened to them.
And that can be a good thing.   But there is a season for everything.

When all that effort isn't giving you the results you need, it may be time for a new approach.

One approach that can really help is 'dropping history'.

So what would happen if we found a way to drop some of that history.

So much of our history is filled with defeat, self blame, unpleasant triggers and the like.
We go round and round and round....looping endlessly
until we have worn deep ruts in our minds and in our habits.
That gets discouraging!  It goes nowhere!

Here is how I learned to drop history and free myself.

It started with a friendship that had faltered. 
A certain person had offended and hurt me to no end. 
I would not retaliate in kind, but I would tally up all the terrible things she did or said. 
As time went by I began to seethe with resentment and hurt.
Many were the times when I self medicated with food or drink as a result.
Eventually the whole mess was taking up way too much room in my head.
I was stuck.  The load just got heavier and more hurtful.

One day an image floated before my mind's eye. 
I saw a large chalkboard and on it was written all the grievances that I had against her. 
It was a very long list.  I felt my anger and spitefulness arise once more.  Pretty toxic stuff.
    
Then I saw a big eraser on the ledge of the chalkboard.
I had the thought of just simply erasing the whole tiresome list.
Making it clean...

'Who cares!?'  a part of me cried.   'Who cares!?'
Some of that junk was 10 years old....Who cares!?
Wouldn't it just feel better to wash the slate clean?

In my mind's eye, I did just that!  I wiped the board that day...
Over the next days and weeks when the memories returned to haunt me,
I wiped the board clean again and again and again.  Day by day.
"Who cares about all that junk?!  Not me!"

I learned to live without that history and all the misery that came with it.
I found myself feeling lighter and happier... Why hadn't I thought of this before?!

Had I forgiven her?  Well, I suppose so... 
I just wasn't interested in carting all that around anymore.  It wasn't healthy...for me or her.

It soon occurred to me to drop history with other parts of my past...
"Who cares?!" became a kind of anthem.

In the end, I even learned to forgive myself!  The greatest gift!

I honestly don't care what mistakes were made yesterday or last month or last year.
All that weighs me down and gets me no closer to my goals. 
When you learn to drop history, your own good energy returns to you.
It is suddenly easy to change your life for the better.
Let the past go...
Living without history can be incredibly liberating!  
Today is a good day....that is enough. 
Why poison today with thoughts of yesterday?

You will be amazed at how much history can be dropped...
Take a chance...pick a starting point and try it for yourself!

I leave you with a quote from Marcus Aurelius:
"Reject your sense of injury and the injury itself disappears.”