Sometimes the past is so very present that it’s almost impossible to see any way forwards.
In our recent Unstuck workshop, we asked people to draw a picture of their “stuck” and one of my clients later told me she drew a picture of herself standing in a doorway looking at the past (which bizarrely matched exactly to a meditation we later did).
For another client, it turned out her past could be summed up by the image of a stuffed filing cabinet, dusty and filled to overflowing with information, stories, negativity, expectations, thoughts, patterns, habits from the past … and no room for anything new.
She’s still in her teens.
And the filing cabinet wasn’t sitting in some back room hidden away where she could perhaps go retrieve the stuff she did want when she needed it … it was like it was always right there, in front of her.
All this old stuff. Weighing her down with its heaviness.
So. What did she want to do with it?
A clean out was definitely in order. She imagined clearing out the cabinet. It took some time. She needed a dump truck.
Then, all the old stuff needed to be driven out into the countryside, into the middle of a big, bare paddock, where it could be burnt.
A bonfire? I ventured.
It’s more like an inferno, she said.
It was such a simple visualisation, but her energy completely changed, seeing all this old stuff go up in flames.
Who knew getting rid of all that stuff would be so easy? she said. There was a feeling of lightness, joy.
It was kind of funny. You just needed to clear out the filing cabinet?!
What an interesting image, not one I’ve thought of before but it seemed so clear, this overflowing filing cabinet.
Makes such sense … be careful what thoughts, words, stories you tell yourself … they’re all filed away and if you don’t pay attention to them and clear away the ones you no longer want … they can build up into a real mess!
What about you, is your past in the past?
