• Welcome to ZD Forums! You must create an account and log in to see and participate in the Shoutbox chat on this main index page.

Living in the Past.

Joined
Jun 12, 2012
Location
Illinois
I've always been a person to live in the past. I've done it as far back as 9 years old. The only time I didn't do it was from 2011 to 2015 when I was more happy and positive about my life and where it was headed. The past few years I've been longing for 2011 to 2015 and I know in another few years i'll be longing for 2016 to 2019. It's a cycle I've been in my whole life pretty much and I don't really dislike because I've always enjoyed looking back because I've always been a very nostalgic person.

Do any of you live in the past and how often do you look back on your life?
 

Ninja

Well well well
Joined
Jul 5, 2017
I try not to dwell on the past so much, however I accept the fact that past events have currently shaped who I am today.

Putting the negative moments behind me, and cherishing the positive moments helps. However even the bad memories can have a positive impact depending on the situation.

Now, using all of it to impact my future in a positive way is something worth focusing on! Largely, your path in life is dictated not by things you can’t control, but by how you react to things and make the best of what you got.
 

Dio

~ It's me, Dio!~
Joined
Jul 6, 2011
Location
England
Gender
Absolute unit
I don't like to live in the past. Instead I like to focus on the future and making the most of the present. Remembering happy times is not a substitute for making new happy times and future happy times to come.

The past can contain good memories to look back upon. Fun times and funny tales of the past are always good to reflect upon and bring up in conversation especially with those who experienced them with you. These memories helped shape who we have become.

The past can also contain bad times for us as well. If we made any mistakes which gave a bad outcome, memories of them are reminders to not repeat those same mistakes in order to ensure better outcomes. These things should be learnt from. Dwelling on these things wasting time wishing you had done differently is pointless if you won't change. You can't go back to undo the past but you can change the future and avoid repeating your mistakes.
 

Mido

Version 1
Joined
Apr 6, 2011
Location
The Turnabout
I do tend to reflect on the past a ton, but I've often fallen into the trap of being resentful over negative experiences and such which has often led to questions such as "if I had only done ____ differently" and so forth. Regret is something I've often struggled with handling on the front of constant dwelling on these things as opposed to trying to make peace with these regrets.
 
I dont really look to the past and long for it because my past, like my present, is often terrible.

My life has been a contant stream of ups and downs and the good times are always so short lived.

When things go wrong i'm reminded of the past and try to recall how i survived it back then.
 
Joined
Jan 18, 2018
Location
Boston, MA
Gender
Male
I do like remembering the past and even like to recapture the good times - like by going to certain places I've been before, watching an old movie, playing an old game or catching up with an old friend - these things put a smile on my face. I try to not to ever dwell on the bad times of my life. God knows the regret that I have for things that I've either done or not done in the past that ended up with a negative outcome. Unfortunately, being reminded of those things, especially the ones I can never rectify, can really be depressing.

So, my mantra for the past several years is to live day by day enjoying what I can out of it. I don't relive the past much. I rarely plan far in the future except in lifetime type goals. My normal future planning generally doesn't go past the next 48 hours.
 

Beauts

Rock and roll will never die
Joined
Jun 15, 2012
Location
London, United Kingdom
I've always been a person to live in the past. I've done it as far back as 9 years old. The only time I didn't do it was from 2011 to 2015 when I was more happy and positive about my life and where it was headed. The past few years I've been longing for 2011 to 2015 and I know in another few years i'll be longing for 2016 to 2019. It's a cycle I've been in my whole life pretty much and I don't really dislike because I've always enjoyed looking back because I've always been a very nostalgic person.

Do any of you live in the past and how often do you look back on your life?

Tbh I think everyone kind of lives in the past to some extent. It’s what makes us who we are. But i definitely try not to dwell on things I can’t change anymore. All it does is get me down.
 

Jimmu

Administrator
Staff member
Administrator
I do think about the past a fair amount but I wouldn't say that I live in the past. When reflecting on the past I have sometimes noticed that things seem better in reflection than they did at the time, so taking from that I try my best to see the good in the now so I don't only discover it later.
 

CynicalSquid

Swag Master General
Joined
Aug 1, 2012
Location
The End
Gender
Apache Helicopter
I don’t ever worry about the past. I don’t even like to worry about the future. I typically just try to focus on today. The past is behind me and the future is something I can worry about later. All I need to worry about is what’s happening now. I know there’s a lot of problems with that way of thinking but that’s just how I am.

I do think there is some value in living in the past though. You can use it in a positive way to reflect on yourself and see how you’ve changed over the years. With that you can either try and better yourself or see how you’ve grown as a person and push yourself to become an even better person.
 

Mellow Ezlo

Spoony Bard
Joined
Dec 2, 2012
Location
eh?
Gender
Slothkin
The past couple years in particular were plagued with negative memories of my past, for which I sought counseling services at the beginning of this school year. There was so much conglomerating within my mind that it was causing me really bad mood swings and increasingly frequent spurts of depression.

I've spent a fair amount of time this past year thinking and I have come to realize that clinging onto painful memories and letting them control you does nothing but bad things for your psych. Now, though I definitely have many regrets (doesn't everyone?), I generally feel more optimistic than ever because I no longer think about the past a lot, and when I do, I think mostly about the happy memories. Though past events, both positive and negative, help shape who we eventually become, dwelling on them isn't good and I know that now.

So there was a time when I was constantly living in the past, and it was often hard for me to feel happy as a result. So, with some help, I no longer do so.
 

Castle

Ch!ld0fV!si0n
Joined
Oct 24, 2012
Location
Crisis? What Crisis?
Gender
Pan-decepticon-transdeliberate-selfidentifying-sodiumbased-extraexistential-temporal anomaly
There is no point to it. I get as nostalgic as the next bloke but it's fruitless to pine for better days when you have a future to work towards.

I suppose my childhood wasn't all that remarkable anyway, and there's nothing that I liked about it then that I would yearn for now. I'm far more interested in the future and improving my lot. Even back then I kinda had the feeling that childhood was overrated.

On a societal scale, however, that time was much better overall. In case anyone hasn't noticed things are kinda cruddy all around now. People were less up tight back then, entertainment was far better, cartoons were great, games were fun, movies were exciting. 9/11 and wars on terror and whatever else we need to be fighting for no reason hadn't started yet and the economy hadn't spent a decade in a ditch either.

But I don't so much want to go back to all that as make it happen again!
 

Sheikah_Witch

I just really like botw
Joined
Apr 8, 2019
Location
Sweden
I thoroughly despise my past so it's a clear no, on my part. I always look ahead for better things. When I think of the future I think of stuff like my Tokyo trip, the new Tool album and BotW 2. When I think of the past I think of depressive stuff I did in like 2008, and not to mention this awkward thing and that awkward thing I said in 2014-2015
 

Users who are viewing this thread

Top Bottom