don't keep staring at the spot you tripped.....

Have you ever encountered a nightmare or a bad dream that keeps playing over and over in your mind everytime you try to catch a shut eye? It's want of those things that probably plagues most of us if not all of us.

I am no biologist and neither am I a neurologist but there's definitely something in our brain that insistently wants to store bad memories or bad experiences and then constantly reminding us about it. Last night I was watching Discovery channel and I got a bit more insight on a health condition called posttraumatic stress diorsder or commonly called as PSTD. Apparently it's common to see PSTD manifest itself amongst soldiers and those who have witnessed really bad scenes in their lifetimes.

In the show, there was this soldier who was sent to Iraq as a medic and he witnessed a colleague getting shot and he treated him. His colleague did survive the incident but it left a scar in the medic's mind. By the time he got back to the USA, he constantly saw the scene replaying itself over and over again. When his PSTD got so serious, he actually saw blood all over his hands from treating his colleague. It was as if he was back in Iraq again. He kept seeing blood on his hands that he kept trying to wash the blood off to the point he was literallys scrubbing his skin off.

Before I go off lecturing about PSTD, let me regress back to the original topic of this post. PSTD is a severe condition without a doubt, but I think that even we suffer from some from PSTD in our lives albeit not as severe as the soldier I was talking about above.

It is undeniable that me, you and a whole lot of people out there have had experiences in their lives that they'd rather forget. Sometimes, there are unfortunate moments that you stumble upon a scene, text, verse or anything that suddenly reminds you of that bad memory. Like it or not, that's life, we are going to stumble upon things that simply remind you of bad memories. Even I have had issues with bad memories and bad past events (regretfully)! Leave it be long enough and it will take you over and control your life, of which more often than not you end up feeling sorry for yourself and you continue dwelling in "should have, could have, would have" conundrum.

The past will be a mish mash of happy and sad memories. In fact, it's good reminiscent the past every now and then, talk about it over a cup of tea or to catch up with friends but a line has to be clearly drawn between reminiscing and clinging on to the past. Many a times we keep dwelling on the past and that inherently holds us back from moving forward. Moving forward is the ever constant in our lives because time doesn't stop for anyone.

My grandad once told me, "If you tripped at the spot behind you, just look back at it, check your wounds and then move on. Staring at the spot you fell isn't going to change anything!". That's my food for thought today...... hope it sheds some new light in your life.