Theloopylululog

Advice.

That annoying sack of dead weight we carry on our backs as if we are beasts of burden. Some good, some bad, many unasked for and most of them totally unneeded. Dropped on us like unexpected bombs from the skies.

They are aplenty and strewn everywhere like bags of single use plastic. You can neither stop them from coming at you nor can you ignore them. So we do what we can. Leave them hanging in the air…like a forgotten sock on a clothes line.

And then there is that one piece of advice: unforgettable, that came for free from an unexpected source when you were busy searching for that sock you forgot on the clothesline a week ago!

The BEST piece of advice I have ever received came to me while doing a guided meditation, around 8 years ago. Totally unexpected because I was simply trying to breathe and pacify my monkey mind to take a break from jumping to yet another thought tree.

Keep dying to your past. ~ davidji

One wise thought.

One profound insight.

One intentional pattern interrupt.

A purposeful death.

A life saved.

A new birth gained.

I am who I am today because of this one piece of life-changing advice.

For someone as emotionally unregulated as I was, this was the zero point where the journey to rebuild my life from the ground up began.

These 5 words became the rosary that I carried with me from dawn to dusk. These pearls of wisdom became the prayer I chanted everyday.

Through good times and bad, through storms and tranquility; it stayed with me through every curve ball I faced since 2018.

This wasn’t just advice from a man I revered. This was a culmination of all the places I sought refuge in, when I drowned in an unholy mess of depression and disregulated emotions. A blend of all the esoteric teachings I worshipped. An amalgamation of faith, philosophy and spirituality distilled into 5 meaningful words that tethered me to a life of freedom and liberation from my own destructive self-sabotaging behaviour.

It taught me that we are not just what happened to us, who happened to us, why it happened to us and when it happened to us.

We are not who we are because of the storms we faced in the past.

We are who we are because of how we reacted, responded, moved, changed and transformed ourselves as we found our way out of those storms.

Maybe we stumbled. Maybe we crumbled. Maybe all we did was grumble through it all.

Maybe we cowered in fear when our past threatened us. But we didn’t let it suffocate us.

Maybe we were asphyxiated by our past that refused to let us go. But we didn’t allow it to strangulate us.

Maybe we almost died trying to stay alive.

We fought. We fell. We rose.

Again and again, never letting our past choke us or drown us.

We were putting up a brave fight and we still are, in all probability.

Because every breath we take is a new step into a new future. Thus with every step we move forward into the unknown, we are essentially leaving behind everything that is known to us…thus dying to our past.

Every breath we take is every death we are bidding goodbye to. The death of our past.

So never let your past drive your life.

It deserves a seat, yes. But not the driver’s seat! Perhaps in the backseat, maybe in the boot?

Our past is the road map we followed that led us here. The onus is on us now to guide our life to wherever we want it to lead us to…and that can’t be the same old map anymore.

The future is unknown to us. We are in uncharted waters now. How would we like to move? The old set of guides and guidelines ceased to work yesterday. We can’t base our tomorrow on yesterday’s knowledge.

So recognise your past.

Acknowledge your older versions.

They did what they did led by their fears, worries, lack of self-esteem and lack of self-worth.

But also recognise the strength and the resilience that made them fight their way through their past storms however badly they might have been stocked for the journey.

Be proud of the truth that they chose to ride it out. However unprepared they were, they made it through and that is exactly why you are here.

Keep dying to your past, my friend. Honour your past, but do not let it become your Northstar as you walk into the future.

Let it go. Let it all go with ease, grace and gratitude.

Keep dying to your past.

Appreciate the role it played. But burn the script as you venture into directing your life into all the infinite possibilities that lies ahead. Amen!