Making peace with the past to move forward
Letting go or moving on can be extremely difficult. We revisit the past to try to make sense of it, or fix what can’t be fixed. It’s a natural response, but if left unchecked, it can impact your wellbeing.
Psychologists note that rumination — mentally reliving the past — keeps the body in a mild state of stress. It can drain your energy and limit your capacity for new experiences.
If you’re struggling to break the cycle of constantly thinking about old conversations or mistakes, these tips might help.
You can’t release what you haven’t acknowledged. Instead of shutting down difficult feelings, give them a name — anger, grief, regret — and notice how these feelings show up in your body.
We can get stuck in endless loops of why it happened. A gentler question is, what do I need now? This reframes the past as information — not identity.
You made choices based on who you were then, with what you knew at the time. Compassion toward your past self opens the door for change.