Recapitulation

keep dancing the dance of emptiness, of fluidity, of eternal evolution

I have friends and family who largely live in the past. I'm thinking about a buddy of mine that I served with in the Marine Corps; even after nearly fifty years, what happened then, however inconsequential, continued to be foremost in his mind for much of his life. An uncle of mine who fought in North Africa and Italy during WWII was preoccupied with “the war” until the day he died, spending considerable amounts of time visiting cemeteries, forever talking about the good 'ole days at the expense of living in the moment. I could never fully appreciate their attachment to the past with so much emerging in the present moment to hold one's attention.

Though I have lived a very storied life, I rarely think about the days of old; I rarely crack an old photo album to bring back the memories; I rarely rehash the good, the bad, and the ugly of what was said or done in times before. There were mistakes and there were great accomplishments; what is done is done. The mind seems to have an egotistical tendency to rewrite personal history and make it better than or more favorable than what it may have actually been. But the moment is all any of us have. I don't trust my own mind or that of anyone else enough to spend time reconstructing what happened in bygone days. It is a waste of energy to rehash the past over and over at the expense of living in the moment, so I don't.

People generally like to revisit certain stories or events that were pleasurable or gratifying. The problem is that they too often get fixated on these, trying again and again to recreate some specific outcome, only to be frustrated by being unable to repeat the same experience with as profound a result as the first time, leaving them unfulfilled and emotionally drained, persistently irritable and exhausted. On the other hand, many people revisit negative experiences in their life, very often sharing their stories of pain with others over and over again. What happens is they end up feeding the past with the energy of the present, becoming willing slaves to their own past. Continuing to feed the past with one's life-force can make it grow to such proportions that it becomes all-consuming.

The questions are how to get unstuck from this behavior, how to release the thought forms that keep us bound to some specific incident from our lives that cause us to become trapped within a vicious cycle of replaying repetitive and draining emotional conflict, and how to stop the continual rehashing of patterns that cause our vital life-force energy to be wasted.

How does one reclaim the energy that has been emotionally disbursed or unwillingly taken from us, and can we recapture the energy we have squandered over the years? Denial and avoidance are not the answers; they can only lead to energetic blockages that can send one into depression, illness, or worse. One must deliberately restore their own energy to reclaim power in the present.

I am not a psychotherapist, but I know the way to accomplish a liberation of one's own personal power and energy is through detachment... from all that lays claim to you from the past. If our heads are filled with thoughts of the past, we must empty them. Go into the silence through meditation or by simply sitting quietly, turning off the flow of thoughts and becoming open to the pregnant moment. Empty the bucket of your mind so that new ideas may flow in. I travel light, hold onto nothing, and keep my mind clear for the moment to have room for something emergent to flow through. Only once you are empty can you again perceive the fullness of creation. Attend to only what is new and fresh in the moment. Only when you once again find a certain breathless delight in your awareness of each moment will you reclaim the energy and power you were born with, the same as that which you experienced as a child. Be that child in every moment and stop perceiving yourself as the adolescent, adult, or old person burdened by a lifetime of experience.

Perhaps you have forgotten, but you create the world you live in with your thoughts. Every thought has the potential to be your reality. You can only manifest a positive experience in life with positive thoughts. Once you think something, the thought hangs suspended in the universe waiting to be sculpted, nurtured, and created into form. Be very attentive to every thought, for our thoughts are fed by our energy, shaped and formed into the creation we intended them to be. So all thoughts need to be recapitulated, whether for the past or the future.

If it is well-being and beauty you wish for in your life, you must think positive thoughts. When thoughts emerge from the mind they are directed by our intention to become manifest. It is essential that we not have any attachment to the past or future in our thoughts or they become weighted with expectation. If we plan or prepare for any outcome, we give up energy to that outcome by envisioning how it might be. If the future unfolds differently than what we had envisioned, we may miss it completely.

Be very mindful of all negative thoughts. Negative thoughts, no matter how seemingly innocuous, are like parasites that feed off us in anticipation of their creation. If we continue to feed negativity in our own minds and create the outcome of our intent, others can pile on and feed it even more, building its power and capacity to hurt, alter, or destroy.

Remain receptive – empty - unattached to the past, unattached to any outcome in the future. Recapitulate the past. Recapitulate the future. This is how one reclaims one's rightful power and energy in the moment. When we can do this, life unfolds without distractions. We return to being the creative force we were born to be when we sit within silent knowledge, completely in control of the force and direction of our own intention. We are free.