Ask Lh: How to Get Over Past Mistakes

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Question: How do I get over past mistakes, pains or failures?

Answer: Can you imagine watching the same movie every day for five years straight? Even after you stop watching it, you won’t forget the imagery, the sounds, and the characters. You have committed it to memory by your habitual behavior and now can mentally play it back almost instantaneously.

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Past mistakes can feel like a nuisance, especially for those of us who are self-proclaimed perfectionists. We all feel the pain of these irritants of life. But what if we could alleviate some of the pressure just by changing our frame of mind? Usually, it is us who can help ourselves during difficult moments and there are many instant alleviation tricks we can use to overcome stress.


How to Get Over Past Mistakes Using Mind Over Matter


Don’t Dwell

You can’t get past something that stays on repeat. While it’s good at times to acknowledge and examine past mistakes, it’s harmful to keep reliving these moments by dwelling on everything that went wrong.

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The Right Perspective

It’s hard to let go of something that you have defined as your identity. Some of us wear our past mistakes like tattoos, branding ourselves with failures.  It becomes incredibly difficult to embrace something new and positive while still attached to something old and negative. Remember that you are not your mistakes.      

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Be Aware of Triggers

Do you remember your first breakup? Every time you saw your significant other’s picture you became distraught. That was one of your many triggers. A trigger can come in all forms; however, the end result is to recall some past pain, anxiety or trauma. But since we don’t have control over every trigger that comes, we must set our minds in advance. Invest in overcoming past mistakes, instead of managing triggers.

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Benefit from Your Mistakes

Every mistake is an opportunity to learn and grow. Life doesn’t have a rewind or a repeat button, so stop allowing your mind to live somewhere that your body can’t. Love your mistakes enough to attain their wisdom and knowledge and hate them enough to dismiss their pain and hold on to your life.

Ask Lh Series by Jada Ledbetter

Feature Image: Photo by @swagstyle