How do you live in the past?

Question

I'm not so sure of how people "live" in the past. I think about the past present and future. Mainly I just deal with the present and what's going on. But I do remember the past and have learned from it . I recall it because without I wouldn't be here in this present of who I am now. And of course, I prepare for the future.

Answer 1

I believe that we spend much of our time living in the past. Our very sense of identity is based on everything that we have already experienced. Memories are always history.
When we hear a favorite song on the radio, we remember what was happening when we first heard that song.
Our daily routines are rooted in habits--we do what we have already done over and over and over. Even our emtional reactions are largely rooted in our past experiences of those emotions.
Nostalgia is living in the past. Clinging to certain memories--good or bad--is living in the past.
Really, when we look closely, we see that our entire sense of being is rooted in the past. Consequently, we are living in a perpetual state of 'has been'.

Answer 2

Living in the past is precisely what you describe. When you speak or think of the past, the same emotional and physiological state that existed then is recreated in the present moment. Thinking of the future generally causes fear and anxiety. Those who suffer depression typically think about the past. Those who think about the present typically are disengaged from themselves, others and the environment as thinking is an internalized state of existence.

Preparing for the future assumes that you know how the future will unfold. The future has not happened yet. Planning for the future is usually masked fear.

Answer 3

well lets see i live in the present, and future, i take what i have learned from the past and use it to benefit my future. so that good could keep going and bad never happens again. well at least try not to let it happen. some things are just out of you hands.

Answer 4

I think we all live in the past, the memories of when we were little, the fun things, the bad things, they are all stored in our brains and things jog them to come up in the present. I lost my best friend to cancer, I remember the good times like yesterday, and wish there was that time again to do fun things, it's so sad to lose people, but people go on, and you do tend to block the bad times to a degree until something jogs your memory. My friend died of cancer, it was a horrible month long ICU death alive on machines to breathe for her, she set it up that way. I'm a cancer survivor and when I go for my 6 month tests each time, I think of her, those horrible times holding her hand, knowing there was nothing I could do. I try not to live in the past, it's like you want to soak up all those little things, little memories of someone you don't want to forget. I made a scrapbook of all her pictures and just fun stuff and that's my memory now and I look at it on her birthday each year and take flowers to the cemetary. I try to focus on the present to enjoy life each day, each day is precious when there is the threat of cancer taking you out, and I don't really think alot of the future, it's too scary for me because I know if I have a reocurrance I may not be here.

Answer 5

well for me it all started one night when my unit was overrun in Vietnam. This thing lasted most of the night and near dawn there were only two of us left. Now understand that I didn't do anything different that anyone else, but I survived. It has been almost 38 years and I remember that night like it was last night, the smell of blood and high explosives hung in the air like a fog. I'm sorry but for me that's my story of living in the past

Answer 6

People live in the past by dwelling on the past, every moment of every day. they haven't learned anything from it...they live in the land of I had, I used to, I once, I was going to. They fear making new friend, entering new relationships, trying new things...and instead, go home every day and do the same things over and over again. It goes way past "routine"....it becomes habit. They sit and daydream about what used to be, long for it, cry over it. They miss the moments each day that could bring them joy, give them new memories.
That's "living in the past."

Answer 7

Living in the past is when someone refuses to move on.you remember the past and learn from it but some people dont cause they refuse to move on from the past.say for instance everything was grand in a persons life and they had a good time but things drastically change for various reasons but the person does not adjust to those changes and lives with their ideals that theyve learned but they dont work in their current situation.they are living in the past and its not working for them now.they dwell on the past and refuse to live in the here and now.erm its hard to explain.ha.but i hope you get the idea

Answer 8

I remember the good times of my past; vacations and shops to buy things in our vacations.

And I remember the bad times; school and kids who were back stabbers. I am very careful today with co workers as those kids never really grew up. I still have backstabbers, even at work.

Sad...

Answer 9

Many do. In fact all most every body. History repeats it self, and human nature is as good as it is/was. The art of modernity only simplifies living and people like who, refuse to adopt. Anyway, same all crap. The future is here, "MODERNITY".

Answer 10

you tend to finder the older generation tend to live in the past,but i thing mainly with technologies eg computers ,ipods etc.i live in the past,live for the present and look forward to the future