Should We Think About Our Pasts?

Should we think about our pasts?
Our elders and all the people whom we are of much concern to, have always motivated and advised us not to look back but to head forward only, as the adage goes “Do not cry on the spiltmilk”. However, if we come to think of it, we would then realise that it is our past that teaches us to make our present worthwhile and beautiful. Instancing, the means the legendary heroes of our country had employed in order to demolish the social evils, theevents we read about in the pages of history texts, their actions, motivate us to be lead a life which would be full of peace and spiritual fervour. History, being a subject, that records the past which is indeed important, instilled in us all the social codes of rights and wrongs. Today, when we stand in protest whenever witness an unfair social behaviour, we know it is a result of learning of our past. In the poem, To India: My Native Land by Henry Louis Vivian Derozio, he laments the glorious past of the country. It grieves us equally as we, the readers of the twenty-first century, are much more accustomed to social hostilities which have brought down the grace of our country. The poet also understates the motivation in his poem. It is not necessary that ruminating about the past has to be personal everytime as it could have social, political or economic associations too.

It must be known to all of us that even psychiatrists demand to know about the accounts of our pasts during the counselling sessions. Pasts, according to the research of psychology can shape our future. Whatever, is our present state of life today is all because of our present state of minds. However, dealings with pasts differsfrom person to person. Psychologically speaking, it has been noticed in many cases that the nature of childhood or a certain phase in life of an individual has a major role to play in moulding the person that is it makes them who they are today though results are never predictable. For example, a child going through the rocky patches of his childhood like not achieving satisfying marks as a result of which he has to become a subject to constant tantrums of his parents, can pass him off a depressed individual in the later years of his life or a person who has seen his/her parents getting separated from each other is deeply affected which lasts till the person’s death. In such cases it has been seen that such children or people are socially awkward, avoid crowd, conversations and social and family gatherings. These people cultivate suicidal thoughts in themselves. Most of the cases of suicide are due to depression. It can hence be concluded now that it is very important indeed to mend such a person by making their present worth living which serves as a remedy to overcome a tormenting past and this present which is worth living today would become a soothing and unproblematic past the next day.

No matter how much our peers advise us not to think of our pasts but there happens or have happened certain instances which keep haunting us all throughout our lives and these very hauntings turn out to be the nightmares, giving us sleepless nights, leaving us full of fatigue. Ruminating about the past, dealing with it rationally, trying to get to grips with it with the help of psychologist can sort our days to a great degree. There is a fine line between thinking about the past and regretting about it and the line between them ought not be blurred. Thinking about the past can provide solutions to those very problems so that we do not repeat the same in our present. We all are learners and our instinct is to learn, within or without the academics. This is the reason why homo sapiens has emerged to be the most powerful force on the face of the planet. We have been constantly evolving over the years and so are our minds. Mistakes, if dealt with propwerly, can lead to growth.