Positive Thinking

How to Let Go of the Past

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Photo by Gianandrea Villa on Unsplash

You read much about why you should let go of the past. However, it’s more important to know how to do it. Most people will eventually come to grips with why they should do it. They get stuck on actually taking steps to make it happen.

Give yourself permission to let go of the past. That is an important step. Your brain can latch onto something and is waiting for you to release the responsibility. By committing to this release, your brain can focus on other productive areas. That release comes in the form of telling yourself to let go.

Learn from your past experiences. There are learning nuggets contained within your past. Anything you have done or tried before is up for grabs in the University of your past. It’s up to you to recognize what those lessons are and how to use them effectively. The way to use them is to determine why they happened and how to avoid them in the future.

Consider learning meditation. When you are relaxed, you will have an easier time of purging your past. One of the best forms of relaxation is meditation. It takes several sessions to get your body and mind in tune with the techniques. Don’t expect fast solutions with this. The key is to keep doing it until you feel the effects.

Don’t hide from your past. People try to pretend certain aspects of their past did not happen, especially the more embarrassing moments. However, this may cause them to come back to you with a vengeance since they are bottling up within you. Acknowledge everything about your past but commit to pushing forward.

Keep a journal of your experiences. Be as detailed as possible so you can refer to the journal when faced with similar circumstances in the future. Don’t treat your journal as a bible, however. Just use the journal as a guideline.

Don’t expect all changes to occur immediately. Your past habits may be difficult to break. Therefore, don’t try to change everything in one shot. Give it time. It took a long time to develop those bad habits.

If you are too hard on yourself about your past, stop. It’s okay to acknowledge that you made some mistakes but don’t get overly critical of them.

Concentrate on the good aspects of your past. Sometimes, you may focus on your mistakes and mask the fact that you had some wonderful experiences in the past as well. These are equally important.

4 Top Tips for Facing Your Fears

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Photo by Alexandra Ișvănescu on Unsplash

You might not realize it, but deep down everyone is afraid. The big difference between you and all those people you can see who are successful is that they confronted their fears. They worked through their issues to get ahead or went ahead in spite of them. If you don’t face your fears, you’re likely to miss out on a lot in life. Someone once said that one of the saddest ways to sum up life is with could have, might have, and should have. Don’t let that happen to you.

You have a choice between controlling or being controlled by your fears. Here are 4 top tips for overcoming your fears and achieving your goals.

  1. Baby steps

No matter what your fears are, from public speaking to mountain climbing, you don’t have to do it all in one go. Work out what you want to achieve and take baby steps. Each small success will increase your confidence and shrink down that fear.

  1. You don’t have to do it alone

No one said you had to hide your fear or overcome it all by yourself. Build up a support network of family, friends, and colleagues who’ll have your back and cheer you on. Get professional advice from a coach or mentor or buddy up with a friendly colleague.

If you have anxiety issues that seem overwhelming, get professional help. Be kind to yourself and get whatever support you need.

  1. Accentuate the positive

A positive mindset will go a long way to help dispel fears and worries. A negativity spiral makes things worse, increasing your paralysis and helplessness.

Look around you and actively identify what’s going right in your life. Change your mindset and expectations to focus on abundance and success. Half the battle is learning to accept that you deserve success, you deserve to win. You can focus your energy on getting there.

  1. Take control of the story

Rewriting your narrative can knock your fears on the head once and for all. If you see yourself as a competent, successful person, those niggles of self-doubt, that negative self-talk won’t be able to get a toe-hold.

Take control of your story, decide to be brave, confident and successful. Write down all the negative things that go round and round in your head. Make a list, and for every bad thing write a positive one. Bat down the self-doubt by setting down your skills, your strengths, your good points. You’ll soon see they outnumber the weaknesses, and you’ll be back in control of your own success story.