3 Ways to Tell if Your Past is Haunting You

We all have shenanigans in our past. Maybe it was yesterday. Maybe it was when we were kids. Maybe it was big, maybe it was small.

Maybe someone hurt your feelings.

Maybe someone messed up.

Or maybe it was you. Maybe you hurt someone’s feelings, or you messed up.

Whatever it is, you’ve got to resolve it.

Because if you don’t resolve it, you’re going to keep carrying it around with you. And when you carry it around with you, 3 things will happen:

#1. You’ll drain your energy.

An unresolved past issue is like leaving your glove compartment open in your vehicle. It seems like a small thing, but it’s going to drain your battery. Past issues that hang around are always taking up your precious energy, wasting it in secret.

#2. It’ll affect your future choices.

We learn from experience. If you have had a past negative experience and you have not yet let it go, transformed it, found the silver lining, forgave it, or otherwise moved on, then that experience is going to influence your decisions. You won’t be making clear choices in the present moment, you’ll be making them in the fog of your past.

#3. You’ll hurt others.

Old hurts that aren’t healed end up bleeding on other people. You’ll project onto other people how you feel about those from your past. You’ll hold grudges. You’ll misdirect your stressful emotions like anger, frustration, and irritability onto those closest to you. Those around you may not have dropped the bomb, but they suffer from the fallout.

Is there something in your past that you’re carrying around? Is there some hurt from your past that is draining your energy, affecting your decisions, and causing you to hurt others?

It’s important to do the work to let those things go. But how do you know if they’re gone? Or how do you know if they’re still haunting you?

Here’s how to tell. Use these three checkpoints:

1. When you recall the past, do you feel negative emotions such as resentment, hurt, anger, frustration, anxiety, worry, shame, or grief?

2. When something reminds you of your past, do you feel any of those negative emotions?

3. Do you avoid thinking of the past altogether and try to push it away?

If you answered "no" to all 3 checkpoints above, you're good to go!

If you answered "yes" to one or more, that's how you know that you have some healing to do.

Did you answer yes to any of those checkpoints? Is your past haunting you? Contact us, let us know, and get some free coaching to let go of the baggage, be in the present, and live a renewed life.

Here’s to Conquering Stress,

The Stress Experts