Conversations With Cinthia

The past is hard for everyone.  Some long for the past, while others want to erase or avoid it.  Many of us want to erase parts of our pasts while holding onto others.  But the key to dealing with the past is not romanticizing it or avoiding it; it is learning from it.  Cinthia states today that “time is either a guide into your future or a tormentor that can’t be changed.”  Which will you allow your past to be for you? One of the reasons learning from the past can be tricky is that lots of factors impact our memory of it.  Neuroscientists have found that people rarely remember the past with perfect accuracy.  Sometimes family members seem to genuinely “remember” the same events very differently.  How do we know what is fact and what is simply our experience or perception?  One key is to be gentle with your past.  Remember, the goal is not to live in the past or use it to judge ourselves or others.  We do have to resist what we know is untrue.  Rewriting the past is not helpful.  We can face what we know and