It might come as a surprise, but there are times when I’m at a loss as to what I’m going to write about in the week ahead. I’ve brainstormed a list a mile long but I have to feel it, too. So most of my topics haven’t come from that list at all…

It was during this weekend ritual of deciding where I will go for the week that I decided to go back to my “morning pages” from when I went through The Artist’s Way a few years ago. It’s sort of a journal; sort of a brain dump. I thought something from my past would inspire me.

Wow. No.

I should have known. That time in my life was more of a time of recovery than a time of inspiration. But I had forgotten because I’d already rewritten history.

As Sara L. Orem, Jacqueline Binkert and Ann L. Clancy discuss in Appreciative Coaching: A Positive Process for Change:

Time is a shared perception of reality that can differ depending on culture, society, and family. Individuals experience time differently depending on circumstances. Because it is subject to reinterpretation, the past is as dynamic as the present and future. [Italics mine]

You see, the past can be rewritten. And when it should be and has successfully been revised, don’t unnecessarily journey there again. In this instance, there’s no benefit to me if I relive the stress and unhappiness of that time in my life. The rewritten version draws on the parts where I was content and happy – even if those moments were fewer than I now remember.

Dredging up stressful memories creates stress. Remembering the good stuff helps us to move forward.

Don’t look back.

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