Is the Past Keeping You From Enjoying Your Day?

All of us have things that happen to us that hurt us. People say things or do things to us. We get passed over for a raise. Our children don't do what we have taught them is right. There are so many things that happen that over a period of time all these things can cause us to be depressed. It can cause us not to enjoy our life and not to enjoy our loved ones.

In a book by Dr. Norman Vincent Peale called "Enthusiasm Makes the Difference" he tells of a way to get rid of the past hurts and pains. He calls it "Mental Ventilation". He says that we need to daily empty our minds of the dark thoughts, regrets, resentments, and the like. If you allow them to stay in your mind it effects your whole being.

Maybe someone says a sharp word to you, or an insinuating remark, a hostile act by someone else. These things can cause undo worry and stress. The way to practice mental ventilation is in the following steps:

1. Review all the things that happened to you today that upset you or hurt you.
2. Review all your own mistakes, errors or stupidity.
3. Review all the disappointments, frustrations, and every form of unhappiness that clouded the preceding hours.
4. Hold these in a strong mental view, deliberately drawing from them all the experience and understanding they had to give.
5. Then lump all these together and then mentally drop them out of your consciousness.
6. Then say, "Forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before...(Philippians 3:13)

This will take some practice each day, but will pay great benefits!