Reflection; it’s a meaningful and integral component of self-awareness and conscious growth. It’s something that, knowingly or not, we all do.
It’s human nature to think about the past; to revisit it, to recalculate it, to relive it. It’s human nature to allow our past to shape our future. The truth, though, is that our past doesn’t actually shape our future. The truth is that we allow our past to shape who we are right now by that of which we, by choice, then employ to create our future.
The reason your windshield is bigger than your rear view mirror is because what’s in front of you is much more important than what you’ve already passed by. Yet, there can often be an involuntary pull to stay affixed to that what was.
For a lot of us, we don’t just use the rear view to glance at what may be approaching that we don’t expect. We stare. We get lost in it. We begin to forget what direction we’re actually travelling in. This isn’t hard to do. Your windshield isn’t that far from your rear view. We convince ourselves that, even though we’re looking at the reflection of something in behind of us, it’s the forward direction. It can certainly have a tendency to look a lot like what’s in front of us. But, it’s not. And, while what’s back there is integral to your journey, the beliefs that have been created as a product of those travels are limiting to who you really can be. They have created the singularity that is exactly the definition of the past; there is only one option in the past – the option that was.
Uncertainty persuades us to believe the rear view is the windshield. We’ve done what’s back there, we know what it’s like, we’ve been through it before. We want to stay there because we know what it is. We are familiar with it. What happens is that we allow our past to shape who we are right now and that’s it; we end it there. We don’t grow. We don’t get bigger. We don’t see new challenges. We don’t open our Hearts. Yes of course your past plays a part in your present and your future. But, the part it plays is not the one whereby it dictates any timeline beyond what it already was. The part it plays is that moment of reflection as you glance into it to remind yourself that you can be as much of it, or as little of it, as you choose.
The path we travel down doesn’t stop whether we’re looking at the broad expanse of view through the windshield or the compact back facing mirror. Though, when we stare into our rear view with our foot still on the gas, the inevitable happens. We either hit what we didn’t see or we pass by beautiful opportunities in our life because we were too busy trying to navigate a road we’ve already navigated. I guess you could keep looking out the back and just stop accelerating. But then you wouldn’t be going anywhere, would you?
I’m not trying to say that the past is the past and you should leave it there. I’m not saying that at all. But, we all have experiences from our lives that we don’t use to positively impact our future, or very simply, we just hang onto and limit the person we can be. We limit the belief of the person that we can be. You can only be as caring, as open, as compassionate and as Loving of a person as you believe you can be. And, similarly, you can only receive as much of all of that as you believe you deserve.
First you believe, then you can see.
Be Love.
