“They take their pasts with them into the present and continue to re-create it.”

A thought by Henry Cloud, from his book, The Law of Happiness: How Spiritual Wisdom and Modern Science Can Change Your Life (The Secret Things of God) (p. 49). Howard Books. Kindle Edition. (Click on the book title to go to Amazon.com to buy the book.)

We’re dealing with happiness here that we can have by living in the moment.

Henry says, “Much of people’s inability to live in the present results from their trying to live in the future to avoid what they are experiencing right now. They are like a hamster on a wheel, always trying to stay one step ahead of their feelings. The behavior is often a coping mechanism that was developed early in their lives to avoid painful feelings or to give them a feeling of control over environments that were painful or stressful. But the problem is that now the coping mechanism from the past works against them, creating more stress and keeping them from achieving happiness in their present lives. They take their pasts with them into the present and continue to re-create it. The human mind just does that.”

He goes on, “I was participating in a leadership event with former prime minister Tony Blair, and my task was to interview him about his experiences as a world leader. I was asking him about the mindsets, pressures, stresses, and so forth—generally what the experience of that level of leadership was like. One story he told me was that at Prime Minister’s Questions, which is a brutal question-and-answer session that Parliament holds at regular times, he would always notice his internal stress level rising as that hour approached on the schedule. It happened like clockwork in his internal system.

“But the interesting thing was, he told me, that even years after being in office, when that hour rolls around, he can still feel his stress level go up.”

Henry then said, “Think about that in terms of yourself. Your mind may have also been trained to be ‘on guard’ for what is coming and to live more there than where you are right now.  In the meantime, you may be missing your God-purposed life because of an old stress pattern.”

Maybe this is also true of you.  Maybe there is stuff in your past that is holding you back from enjoying your present  So, will you strive to let go of your past so you can really live in your present?  Will you? 

Yes, yes!