Ideally, the best place to be is in the present moment, as Ekhart Tolle and others advise us. Worrying about the future produces anxiety. Worrying about the past is a recipe for regret. The reality is that sometimes, despite our best efforts, we do both. It’s called being human. And it’s part of what we have to do in our everyday lives.
Consider bank statements. They are an accounting of our finances over the previous month. We go over them to make sure they are correct and to see where we stand financially. That’s looking back. I’m sure Ekhart Tolle reconciles his bank statements as well.
Now consider “emotional” bank accounts, where we sometimes look back on our lives in an attempt to “reconcile” them. Many of us here have had a lot of pain in our lives. Depression has drained us. Anxiety has wracked us. We’ve lost a lot….a lot of time, energy, relationships, jobs, etc. But if you’re like me your view is often distorted. It looks and feels like our lives have ONLY been full of pain, regret, and lost opportunities. We often fail to see any of the positives in our past. Especially the little ones.
That’s like counting only the withdrawals on our bank statements and ignoring the deposits. Would you do that? Do you do that? I’m guessing not. So let’s not do that on our “life statements” either. If you’re going to sweat the “withdrawals” and define yourself by them, isn’t it only fair to account and take credit for the “deposits” too? It doesn’t matter if it’s 5 cents or a thousand bucks. A deposit is a deposit. And no matter how huge our emotional losses have been, there are many gains we’ve all made, however small they have been or may seem.
If you’re going to count the debits you need also to add in the credits from the past and the present. Remember that the next time you take stock of your life. You may feel a bit better about it.
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