Do we hold on to the past or is it that the past holds on to us?

Question

Of course the past is gone, but why does it live on in our heads, and why is it so hard to let go of?

Not referring to things that have no need to be let go of(good memories, lessons learned, etc.)

Answer 1

The Past is like a withered rose, it's dead but it's scent stays sweet....
it goes through your inner senses.. the rose that was once alive will stay fresh within a wistful heart.

but the rose will turn to dust someday...
the scent will linger but wont stay forever....
you'd forget not because you must..
simply because you will.

& the spring will come again...
a different rose..... a different memory...
:-)

Answer 2

The past is who we are, it is our whole socialization. Without remembering, we cannot be who we are, a bit like the movie Starman with Jeff Bridges. He had no memory because it did not exist, and what type of person (alien) was he. Also, we hang onto the good things of the past because when things are bad, we can reflect on the good times. The bad times unfortunately come along in the package, we have to absolve them, and learn to live with them, because taking away the bad memories, will also remove the good, and there we are, back to a person without a personality or character.

Answer 3

Past is the womb from which present takes birth. It is the base, it is the foundation. Our present holds it & it holds our present for support.
I read somewhere that however bitter the past was, its memories are always sweet.
It is hard to let go because it has taught us lessons we need to recollect & use in our life on a daily basis. Once burnt, a child learns not to play with fire carelessly for the rest of his life but then this should not stop him from using fire at all.
Whether past holds us or we hold our past is of little significance. What is important is to understand that all those experiences are like a knife which we can use either to shape our future or to cut our finger. Choice is all ours.....

Answer 4

I think it's a little of both. We try to put the past behind us and look forward and then something happens to remind us of our past. Sometimes we hold onto the past as a way to hang on to our youth. Some people live in the past and don't want anything to change. Other times a memory of something from the past hangs on to us,stays in our memory and won't go away. It is possible to break out of this though and live each day as it comes.

Answer 5

We hold on to the past. The past is just that, past. It has no real power. It is not animate, we are. We are the aspect in this question with all the authority. The liar that is present in us all will use many emotions to keep us wrapped up in the past. Anger, envy, fear, & my personal favorite guilt {the gift that keeps on giving}. These are all decoys from the truth & we buy it hook, line, & sinker. The truth is we stay hooked to our past because we believe it defines us & gives us our idenity. I am like I am because of what my parents did to me, I am scum because of what I did, I have always done this in the past, etc. We walk around with bandages & a sign that says "Look what they did to me", & we make them pay everyday. As long as we continue to breathe life back in to the past we can never live in our true home, the now.Right now, this very minute is where we are. Lets not waste anymore of our precious now. Just because you have always done a certain thing does not in any way mean you are forced to continue that way. You have the power of decision. Build a real identity & stop taking hostages.

Answer 6

There are people that seem not to grow because they hold to every bit of crap that happened and held in the frontal part of the brain. I have family members that I swear that I age two decades after visiting with them for an hour or so. I am talking about negativity 302. Only the bad recollections and they continue to harp on it.

Answer 7

The past is like the foundation for a tall building. A deep hole must be built and reinforced. But when you are on the tenth floor of the structure, you aren't sending every moment thinking of the sub basement but without it, you could not see the view from that level.

Answer 8

The past is there to teach us how to get better or for the worst. It can be a good teacher or a bad teacher..we make the choice.....it depends how one make good use of the past for the better or exploit it to create much greater devils in many forms that walk the Earth..Aha!

Answer 9

Both. We hold on to the past by remembering what happened and learning from it. Just because we have moved on does not mean we forget and so long as we remember we hold on to the past. The past only holds on to us when we refuse to move on or learn from our mistakes. When this happens we find ourselves "living in the past" as the phrase goes.

Answer 10

people hold on to changes in the familiar by logging those historical moments in their minds. deaths, births, weddings; these are all large-scale changes to the familiar things that keep people sane. when those things change, people need to adapt to that change. so they use the memories of the past as a way to gauge their lives as it goes on. kinda like setting marks in the woods so you don't get lost on the way back. do you remember the mundanaities in life, or the large events? always the big things only.

Answer 11

We hold onto the past. Anything that has happened in the past that has had a major effect on you, you won't forget it. If its something small or insignificant you won't remember because it had little effect on you. We have all of these history and biography books because we can't let go of things that have happened in the past.