Move Past Yesterday
Whether it was good or bad, yesterday has come and gone.
When I write about yesterday, I’m not necessarily referring to the day before today. Yesterday, in this context, is mostly referring to the past.
Many people get stuck in their lives because of the past. Things great and small, personal and impersonal hold them back. Some yearn for a return to yesterday – while others would like nothing better than to recreate the past the same in the future.
There is an absolute truth here that we need to recognize and acknowledge.
The past has passed. Yesterday is gone. You cannot go back, return to it, redo it, or recreate it as it was.
When people neither recognize nor acknowledge this truth, stagnation and worse can occur.
For example – rather than the COVID-19 pandemic being largely over, the Delta variant is returning us to mask-wearing and more necessarily severe indoor restrictions.
So many people were in a rush to return to how life was pre-pandemic that they neglected that that was impossible. Of course, it doesn’t help that all sorts of outside influencers have been selling a “return to normal” in one form or another.
But the truth is that we can’t “return” to normal – or otherwise restore how life was yesterday. Many people see this as a terrible thing. But the truth is – it’s only a bad thing when you think it’s bad.
You have a choice for how you live now and going forward to tomorrow.
Hindsight tends to be Pollyanna
There is a huge machine inside of American society hell-bent on returning us to the “family values” of the 1950s and 1960s. Specifically, the wholesome Leave it to Beaver and Dick Van Dyke Show idealizations of that era.
Of course, this utterly disregards the struggles of women and minorities, LGBTQA+ individuals, and anyone else not white middle-class. And, after Trump’s presidency, some of it is blatantly white-supremacist – but whatever the case may be, it’s an impossible ideal.
This whole idea of returning to a “happier, better time” or the ludicrous, misguided “Make America Great Again” notion blatantly ignores the truth. Yesterday is gone. It is impossible to go back in time.
Why? Because change is inevitable. Change is also the one constant in the whole Universe. So many elements of the world, both big and small, have changed in the almost three-fourths of a century that has come since the 50s and 60s.
All the gains in civil rights and for equality cannot be dialed back (nor should they be). We have connectivity allowing instantaneous global communications leaps and bounds beyond what we had. Information is at the tips of our fingertips – though, unfortunately, disinformation is as readily available.
The bygone era of yesterday is bye, gone. There is no going back – and frankly, it’s time more people realize, recognize, and acknowledge this truth.
Why? Because, frankly, it’s good to move past yesterday.
It’s good that today isn’t yesterday
There were a lot of less-than-ideal matters of yesterday, historically, that it is good are gone. That so many still bite us in the ass today is an unfortunate byproduct of industries selling nostalgia and convincing consumers that we CAN return to the past.
But we can’t. And that’s a good thing.
Why is it good? Because since yesterday, we have grown. There have been new lessons learned, ideas made real, and the world has changed considerably because of them.
You’re reading this online, via a phone, tablet, computer, or similar tech. My words are potentially available to over 4.5 billion people – more than half the population of the world. The potential to reach that many people is less than a quarter of a century old. Yesterday this would have been impossible. But here we are.
Sure, some change is bad. And a lot of change in the world at large is way outside of yours and my control. But because change is constant and utterly inevitable – yesterday is no more.
Accepting that removes a weight on our shoulders most of us feel – but seldom realize is there.
Releasing the past begins with you and me
While I can argue until I’m blue in the face that our society needs to better recognize, acknowledge, and then move past yesterday – I can’t do anything about that. Nobody has that kind of power.
But I can change. I can choose to work with change in the now and going forward – without nostalgically holding onto a return to yesterday. When it comes to me and how I see yesterday – I can recognize and acknowledge that it is the past and I cannot return to it.
The only reason this isn’t easy is because society is fixated on the past in more ways than one.
For example – my mom has this vision of me based on who I was as much as 20 years ago. But that’s not who I am – nor who I’ve been – for a long time, now. But still, that’s where she is.
Because of that, she judges me, my life choices, and other matters about my life based on a version of who I was in a distant yesterday. Which she often brings up in the hope that I might return to some of the ideals I held back then.
If this applied to who I am now and/or who I might be striving to be going forward, that would be one thing. But for the most part – those ideals ceased to speak to me long ago.
That’s a very personal example. Trump’s entire campaign focused on a notion of returning the nation to past greatness – which, frankly, never was. Not to keep harping on that guy, but it’s simply the easiest wider-view example to turn to.
I only control MY life. Thus, I have the power to choose to move past yesterday.
You choose to live in yesterday, today, or tomorrow
Pause a moment. Where are you, right now? What are you doing? What are you thinking? How and what are you feeling? What are your current intentions?
Asking any or all of the above questions puts you in the here and now. Thus, you become consciously aware. Or, to use the buzz word, mindful. But that’s a good thing.
Mindfulness of the here-and-now lets you see both where you were and where you could go. Today, you can look back to yesterday and determine what you learned from it – and look forward with those lessons and see how today’s choices drive you from here to there. Or not.
What’s more, being in the now, consciously aware of the present, will show you that yesterday is the past and tomorrow is potential. And you can choose where to go from here.
I get that for some people, yesterday was awesome. Or at least, they think it was. And maybe it was incredible. But it is no more – and we must keep moving forward. This is why attempting to return to the world pre-COVID-19 isn’t working. Nor will it. Because yesterday is no more.
When you learn to make your peace with that – you empower yourself. That empowerment allows you to move past yesterday into today. And when you are here, now, you open yourself to see and work with change rather than be bulldozed and overwhelmed by it.
The only reason this isn’t easy is because you need to resist a lot of outside messages and influences pushing a return to yesterday on you. But recognizing and acknowledging that we can’t opens the door – but only for you and me.
When you and I move past yesterday, we help show others the way to also move past yesterday.
It isn’t hard to move past yesterday
It begins with mindfulness of your thoughts, feelings, actions, and intentions.
Knowing that yesterday is the past – and we cannot return to it, redo it, undo it, or do it over – recognizing and acknowledging this unavoidable truth opens the way to learn lessons from the past and be more present in the now. When we are more consciously aware – ergo, mindful – in the here and now, we can do more to take control of change and make choices to impact both today and tomorrow. And that ultimately empowers us.
When you are empowered, your mindfulness increases, you become more aware overall, and that gets reflected and spreads to more people. This creates a feedback loop of awareness and positivity. A feedback loop everyone everywhere can take part in.
Then, we build more positive feelings and discover further reasons to feel positivity and gratitude. That becomes the impetus to improve numerous aspects of our lives for the better, help overcome the overwhelming negativity of any current situation, and generate yet more positivity and gratitude.
You, me, and everybody are worthy and deserving of all the good we desire.
An attitude of gratitude is an attitude of pure positivity. That positivity can generate even greater positive energies – and that is always worthwhile.
This is the three-hundred and ninety-second entry of my Positivity series. It is my hope these weekly messages might help spread positive energies for everyone. Feel free to share, re-blog, and spread the positivity.
Please visit here to explore all of my published works – both fiction and non-fiction.
Please take a moment to sign up for my newsletter. Fill in the info and click the submit button to the right and receive a free eBook.
Follow me here!
