I have been thinking a lot about my high school days, which are becoming more distant than seems possible. I was wound up pretty tight.
- like tightly woven yarn -
I was a perfectionist that put a lot of pressure on myself to always have it together. I was afraid to relinquish control, my worry/anxiety, and the goal of perfection because I didn't know what would happen if I let myself unwind... I was afraid that I would completely unravel.
Looking back, I wish I would have been far more carefree and relaxed about life. I wish I would have taken things in stride a little better and worried a lot less. 16 year old's shouldn't worry like I did. Granted, I had some scary stuff going on because of my dad's health issues, but I wish I would have relaxed a lot more. I wish I would have been...But we all know that we cannot change the past.
It is what it is and that is okay.
The best we can do is move forward while keeping the lessons from the past in our back pocket.
When I catch myself wishing that I would have worried less and relaxed more in high school, I change my mantra to, "Maybe I was a little too uptight in high school, but I am learning to be less wound up and more relaxed right now."
It is an empowering practice because I am acknowledging the reality of the past but I am also using it to help me move in a better direction instead of making myself feel badly about what I did or didn't do. It is such a beautiful and powerful thing to change a "should of, would of, could of" into a "Right now I am... improving, getting better, moving forward!"
We all have mistakes and moments in our past that we would like to have a do-over for, but time doesn't work that way. Instead, let's learn from those moments and use them as positive fuel to change and take the next step in our lives towards becoming real super women - which are simply women trying to become a better version of themselves (even though they are already pretty great).
It is an empowering practice because I am acknowledging the reality of the past but I am also using it to help me move in a better direction instead of making myself feel badly about what I did or didn't do. It is such a beautiful and powerful thing to change a "should of, would of, could of" into a "Right now I am... improving, getting better, moving forward!"
We all have mistakes and moments in our past that we would like to have a do-over for, but time doesn't work that way. Instead, let's learn from those moments and use them as positive fuel to change and take the next step in our lives towards becoming real super women - which are simply women trying to become a better version of themselves (even though they are already pretty great).
1 comment:
The biggest lesson I've learned about the past is to really work hard to take "mental pictures" of the good times. You never know what's ahead of you, and you may have a day, a week, a month, or a year where you need to refer to those mental snapshots often in order to remember just how good life can be. This is a little different direction than you took, Kristin, but I agree with your perspective, too! Focusing too much on regrets does nothing but add millstones around our already-strained necks.
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