Consider a time in your life when you did something that was so immensely embarrassing
that you felt like the world would never take you seriously again.
Think of a time when a friend, partner, or family member did something that hurt you
so deeply that it made you question the meaning of human connection.
Reflect on a time when you failed at something that you tried so incredibly hard to accomplish
that you felt you would never be able to move on and feel good about yourself again.
Now observe yourself right now.
How do you feel?
Do you still feel any of those ways right now because of those moments?
Would you have been thinking about those moments if I hadn’t just reminded you of them?
Perhaps you are able to find a lingering memory of them somewhere in the recesses of your
subconscious mind, but the feelings associated with them have lost most, if not all of their
weight on your current state a being.
Your feelings of happiness, sadness, excitement, stress, love, hate and everything in between
have all since reset.
You have moved on.
You have since experienced new moments that have buried the old.
What you were once transfixed on, certain that life was ruined because of, is now simply
a blurry memory.
This is because you are a human and you are forced to move on, whether you like it or
not.
As passengers aboard the train of time, we are forced to leave moments and occurrences
behind us.
This can be sad when fun and beautiful things happen, but it is liberating when bad things
happen to us or because of us.
Leaving moments behind us is not to say that the moments of our past don’t effect and
mold who we are and who we will become, but it is to say that they no longer solely control
how we feel right now.
And likewise, despite how good or bad or intense this moment feels right now, it too will matter
very little to our future self.
No moment lasts forever and as such, no feeling lasts forever.
We will without doubt experience more sadness, embarrassment, failure, stress, and mean-spiritedness
in the future.
But we will also experience more happiness, wonder, pleasure, love, and positivity.
These new moments will require our energy and attention and as a result, the feelings
associated with the moments of the past will dissolve into insubstantiality.
Ultimately, time is the best medicine for all wounds, both physical and mental.
Just like a cut on your arm, with time and a little bit of maintenance, an injury to
your sense of self will heal over.
Perhaps a light scar will remain like the one you would receive on your arm, but it
too will fade over time.
Right now things may feel dismal.
Perhaps you made a big mistake at work.
Perhaps you are going through a fight with a friend or a partner.
Or perhaps you have done something really foolish in front of lot of people.
Whatever it may be, the feeling of it will only last a short period of time.
Eventually there will be something new that you have to concern yourself with and this
thing you are worried about right now will no longer matter.
No single moment defines who you are or how you will experience life.
Time will carry you onward and you will always adapt to the fluctuations of life and return
to your center.
And so therefore, every time you experience something negative, despite how much it may
seem like it at the time, it most likely isn’t going to ruin your life and you can take it
a little less seriously.