Don't You Dare Look Back

Its been a little bit since I last posted. Not that I haven’t written but I haven’t completed anything. I’ve been writing during my lunch break and a new topic arises but I can’t seem to finish before the break ends and don’t feel the motivation to finish the topic I was writing at a later point. For that I apologize. 

Today’s topic comes from another song. Music touches my soul more than I’d like to admit. It makes me realize how important it is to let the right kind of music enter my world.  The song this time teaching me is  “Shut Up and Dance.” The specific phrase from that song “don’t you dare look back” is what taught me this time. It got me to thinking, too often in life we spend looking back. How healthy is it to spend your time in the past? 

Whether you are focused on good times or bad times looking back can hurt.  There are many joyous moments, and as unfortunate as it is, just as many challenging moments in life. The obvious observation is that when someone focuses on the bad times, hope is lost.  Who wants to live a life without hope? In researching the definition of hope I found several answers. 

•             To feel that something desired may happen
•             The feeling that what is wanted can be had or that events will turn out for the best. 

When you look at these definitions, it shows a desire for something good to happen. Without hope, motivation is lacking. Without motivation, there is no action. No action and I’ve found you enter depression.  Having gone through years of clinical depression I do not wish that on anyone. Simply think about what you are spending your time “looking back” at.

On the flip side of that, you might be looking back at a positive moment in life. This is something that I know all to well. One of my passions (photography) is focused on just this, looking back at the good moments.  Spend too much time here and you may get yourself in a similar place. This time despair, thinking that you can’t recreate the moment you had once. This is equally as troublesome.

 
One thing I’ve learned is that it is best to live in the moment. Admittedly that is much more difficult to do than it is to say.  Besides avoiding too much time looking back what other advice does everyone have to live in the moment?