The Past Is Not Who You Are - Realize That to Be Free

In many people, the personality is almost entirely identified with the past. For those people, what they have done is essential for them and is all their ego recognizes as real and important, as the key factor to evaluate who they are, their achievements, or future goals.

However, if we become able to recognize that this is not accurate — that the past is not all there is — that will give us a much more positive view of our life.

The past is not all there is

In fact, all we have done is just one part of us, a very small part. It is true that the past is important to what we have become, to what is significant to us, but it’s not all we are.

It’s not easy for us to realize this, because our ego tends to use our personal history as ground base and organizes events in terms of chronological flows of cause and effect. But we are much more than our history and realizing that can be very liberating.

Be free from the past

I remember the first time I understood I was more than my past history I felt an amazing joy and freedom.

I realized that I was no longer limited by what had happened, for all I have done or cloud have.

Accepting this creates the foundations for a new freedom, allows us to discover new ways to go deeper into our true selves.

If the past is no longer a limitation:

• It means I am no longer conditioned, in my present or future actions, by what I have done.
• The fact that I was unable to do something in the past, no longer means I cannot do it now or in the future.

If the past is no longer a restriction, if I have done something I am not proud of, that is no longer a limitation of my abilities, because:

• I accept that what I have done was determined by who I was then, by my state of conscience, and by the existing circumstances of that specific time.
• As I accept that, I don’t need to feel shame or anger for having done what I — in the present time — no longer consider a correct action.

If the past is set into perspective, I can also accept better other people actions, because:

• I realize that what they have done to me, good or bad, was also determined by their state of conscience and by the circumstances they were facing.
• I can give them new opportunities as I realize they can be different now, they might have changed, as I did.

As I realize I evolve every day — and as I am no longer determined by my past history — I conquer new possibilities to the present moment, because:

• I realize my state of conscience changes and improves every day.
• I realize I can do things in a different way, by being conscious.

Be free to the present moment

We are more than our history. The past is just a small part of us and is not the most important one — it’s not a limitation to all we can achieve.

We need to accept and honor our past, but we cannot be determined by it.

The present is here for us and if we embrace it without the limitations we associate with the past, we can find a new type of freedom.

“Nothing ever happened in the past that can prevent you from being present now, and if the past can’t prevent you from being present now, what power does it have?”

— Eckhart Tolle