“Your Past Determines Your Future” – NOT!
Hi! Welcome to the second video of my “Mind Games” series, in which we look at the belief that “The Past Determines Your Future.” Most of us would argue correctly that we have some power and some influence right now in the present moment to create the future that we want. We can make choices, take action steps, and express our preferences in such a way that we do shape what we want and make it come into being.
But most of us probably also have experienced that there’s some limitation in our ability to create what we want. That limitation comes in large part, I believe, from our belief that the past is stable and unchangeable. The reason we believe that is because most of us, most of the time, are operating inside of the construct of the mental energy field.
Limitations of the Mental Energy Field
The purpose of the mental energy field is to help us navigate our way in the physical world. It’s not a creative energy. It’s a reactive energy. The mental energy field pays attention to what’s happening, creates some meaning or understanding of what’s happening, and creates strategies to help us stay as safe as possible.
Because the mental energy field has a linear understanding of reality, it also has a very strict construct of time. Which is “A” goes to “B,” goes to “C.” And you can’t go back to “A” because that’s already happened. Therefore the mental energy field looks at the past and says, “Well, you can’t change it. We’re just going to adapt to it.” Which is what it does best.
A “Stable” Past Hobbles Your Current Power
Seeing the past as unchangeable, the mental energy field creates strategies that limit what you’re allowed to do. If you, for example, experienced a traumatic loss as a child – like the loss of a parent – your mental energy field doesn’t see any way to “fix” that. All it can do is try to strategize so in the present moment you don’t have that happen to you again.
The strategy might be, for example, not allowing you to have a long-term, meaningful relationships, because you might have the loss again. Another strategy might be for you to look desperately for love, to fill up that void that was left behind. Either way those are working against what may be your true goal, which is to have a meaningful, long-term, mutually responsive relationship. In the mental energy field that’s really the only thing it can do – is try to make due with what’s available.
Option Two: The Spiritual Energy Field!
Luckily for us we are not limited to the resources of our mental energy field. We also have access to the much larger spiritual energy field, which extends well beyond our physical bodies and our mental energy. The spiritual energy field is not responsive in its action. It is creative. That means it can do new things, and bring new things to life. And the spiritual energy field is not limited to a linear understanding of things. It can access all parts of us at all times.
The reason that memories are problematic to us is not because they have happened. It’s because they are currently happening to us. What I mean by that is there is a piece of you alive, left alone in that memory. When we are young and have a traumatic event happen, we don’t have a lot of resources available to us. So we end up cutting off a little piece of ourselves and leaving it behind. That part of us continues suffering while the rest of us moves on and tries to function without it.
When It’s Time to Reclaim Ourselves
You actually can get away with that for a long time. You go on and do things with your life, and feel pretty OK for a time. Then a time comes when you’re ready to be empowered. You’re ready to create something really meaningful, and you discover that you have left behind a piece of you that you need. That is creating limitation. That’s when you know that you have to take care of this unfinished business.
The spiritual energy field knows exactly how to access those pieces of ourselves and rescue them from the memory and integrate them back into the whole self. At that point the memory becomes a dead memory, something that happened but it has no impact on us any longer.
The Surprise Bonus!
What’s good about this obviously is that the limitation is released. But what’s extra good about it, which we don’t always expect, is that we gain back some of these gifts that we lost as children. We know that children have amazing gifts – of laughter and joy, uncensored love, and magical thinking, and dancing and twirling in circles. All these amazing energies that we associate with childhood, most of us don’t seem to have access to as adults very readily – because that part of us got caught off.
When you integrate that part back into your larger self, suddenly you can have access to those childhood gifts. Suddenly you are able to look around the world with young, fresh, innocent eyes. It’s a huge blessing, and it’s hugely helpful when we’re trying to be creative in the world. That’s the kind of energy you need to really get your juices flowing!
Ready to Reclaim Your Childhood?
If you discover that you’re at a point in your life where you are longing to do something powerful and creative, and you can feel the emptiness of something not being present – it’s probably you! It’s a piece of you that got left behind – a part of you that can very easily be rescued by your spiritual energy field.
It is an amazing gift, and I love it when I work with people and that happens. I do have an amazing tool that I’ve provided in the membership area of my site. The link is below. If you’re interested in learning more about that let me know. I look forward to hearing how this impacts you and how you’re interacting with this “Mind Game.”
I invite you to join me next week when we work with our next “Mind Game” which is “Contentment is a Virtue.” Hope to see you then. Bye!