When a Piece of Your Past Comes Back

You know that feeling. We all do. When you’ve carried on with your life so happily, and a piece of your past comes back. It quite literally takes the breath of you. Or, in my case, my heart starts pounding and I start sweating.

Just take the scene in Sex & the City when Miranda spots the man she originally thought she was going to marry while out on a walk in NYC. Her reaction? She hides, running around behind a bus shelter.

We’ve all been Miranda at some point or another. It’s that time you finally got over a bad breakup. It’s been a few months, or a year, and you’ve finally moved on, but, out of nowhere, you run into your Ex while at the grocery store.

Or, you bump into that horrible boss from two jobs ago while out at a networking event. Your heart sinks into your stomach and you quickly shuffle around to find other people to talk to (or just leave altogether).

What is it about our past that always feels like it haunts us? And, why do we get so worked up? Eckhart Tolle teaches us to live in the present. Use the power of “now” to eliminate the worry and suffering of whatever was in our past and whatever the future may hold. But in one-tenth of a second, we get the wind knocked out of us, ignoring anything that message taught us.

I’ve since calmed my nerves, appearing to be relatively unshaken by my run-in with the past. After a few cleansing breaths, I had to remind myself of exactly what Tolle teaches–to not allow the past (or another person) to take hold over my emotions.