Prisoner of Your Past

Hi everyone, for this video discussion I thought I’d try something a bit different. Instead of watching and hearing someone explain the topic, I thought that it would be nice to try some reflection and then do the discussion.

The video has just a quote and some background music. You can reloop the video for the music if it makes it easier for you to think. If you want to use other music, go ahead.

Now that you have reflected on the quote, how do you feel? Does this quote hit home for you? Do you know someone who is a prisoner of their past? Were you once a prisoner of your past mistakes?

Prisoners of Our Past Why?

It’s not always easy to break free from our past. Sometimes people don’t know that they’re living their daily lives, though in the present, the mindset is in the past.

Mistakes, wrong choices, setbacks, not forgiving others, or not forgiving onself are some reasons why people are prisoners of their past. People can be smart, kind, and wise, but things change when something bad happens to them whether it’s by someone else, something else, or by their own free will. Now people will go through the storm and come out of it. However that’s not always the end of the story.

During that storm, people sometimes bury or try to bury something bad that happened to them that they don’t want anyone else to know. They are told to toughen up, smile, or act like it never happened and move on. Yet they deal with various emotions like regret, guilt, jealously, unwanted stress, or sadness. In some cases, people will succumb to depression or other bad habits and sometimes not realize it like unhealthy eating or drugs.

Other cases though, people will not want to forgive someone else who did them wrong. This can keep them stuck in that past hurt. Someone who hurt a family member, a friend, or someone close to them can be stuck in that past hurt because they are unable to forgive themselves.

Forgiveness can be Freedom

One way to help break free from being a prisoner of your past is forgiveness. I have talked about forgiveness before and forgiving yourself of past mistakes is the first step toward healing and truly moving forward. You acknowledge your mistakes, you see them as life lessons in which you learn from, and you free yourself from your prison.

Forgiving others is different. We are directly or indirectly taught that we shouldn’t forgive others who did us wrong. We wind up holding a grudge which can affect and change our way of living and thinking in ways that can be unhealthy. Remember forgiving someone doesn’t mean that your justifying or exonerating what they did to you, it means that your not going to be hindered by that hurt any longer. Your not going to let that hurt dictate every decision you make. Your not going to let that other person or people have power over you anymore. You accept and acknowledge what happened, you forgive the other person, and then you truly move on.

Both scenarios show that forgiveness toward yourself and toward others is the first step toward healing, fixing things, making things better in your life, and maybe in other people’s lives as well.

Wrap Up

Being a prisoner of your past happens to even good people. Some know it and some don’t. Your not alone if you felt this way or are currently feeling this way. There are people all over the world who are prisoners of their past. Maybe the waiter who served you last week is a prisoner of his past. Maybe that server at Starbucks, the person right beside you, the person who is always happy, or your closest friend who is like a sibling to you are prisoners of their past.

You can break free from this. It will take some time and effort, but you can take the first step and start making and living a better life you deserve. You are worthy of love, respect, kindness, and peace of mind.

Reflecting on life can be scary, but it can be beneficial and enriching. I hope that when you reflected earlier when watching the video, you realized some things that you need in your life and/or no longer need in your life.

Take care, stay safe and remember your not alone and you have worth in this world.