Maybe It’s Time To Let Go Of The Past

My client Joyce arrived last month totally frustrated and unhappy. Joyce had been sick for five weeks during the winter.  She felt her immune system was weak and that she was not as strong as everyone else she knew. Joyce had a lot of illness in her immediate family growing up and had always been sick with so many colds, flus and sore throats –  more than anyone that she’d ever known. She told me she could not even travel on a plane and not get sick and has ruined numerous vacations. Over the years she found some herbs and vitamins to boost her system but she when she came to me she felt negative and stressed about her inability to be well.

Now, if I were to tell someone like Joyce to just be positive about her health, she would try, but then she would catch a cold and feel hopeless. She would remember her past experiences of being sick and just believe it meant her future would be the same. It wasn’t until Joyce embraced the idea of Maybe that she was able to contemplate the possibility of good health.

Like Joyce, we all have a unique perspective about life based at least partly on past experiences. It is often not easy for us to change our perspectives. I have many clients that have had difficult past circumstances and believed deep down that they could never have the life they wanted.  Many of them shifted their perspectives when I shared with them the idea of Maybe. The reason Maybe is so powerful is that it allows us to contemplate the possibility that our lives could be different – completely free of what happened in all our yesterdays.

Thoughts such as “things are not working out again,” “I can never have what I want,” or “things will never be different” or in Joyce’s case “I am not well” cannot survive with the philosophy of Maybe because Maybe doesn’t ask us to stay positive in the face of adversity. Instead, it allows us to just take a peek into a new mindset and engage in what may be possible.

Here is an exercise clients such as Joyce and I regularly use to help keep our minds open to Maybe:

 Close your eyes and think about a situation that is making you feel sad or hopeless. For Joyce it was her health. Joyce has started contemplating thoughts such as “Maybe I will get better,” Maybe I am well.” For someone else, thoughts could be “Maybe I do have the strength to accomplish my goals,” “Maybe this is the time in my life I can find love,” or “Maybe I can make money and be successful.”  Use Maybe with whatever troubles you the most. Stay with these thoughts and follow your breath. In this moment, you are creating an opening to a new place that you have never been before. You are contemplating a possibility not based on your past but instead based on all that can be.

You will be very surprised if you allow yourself to believe that change may actually happen. This is the game changer. You will no longer get discouraged at every little mishap or feel disappointment because every disappointment is met with the fact that other possibilities exist.  In this way, the past can no longer hold you hostage. 
I have found Maybe to be the easiest path to engage in a new way of thinking and healing. Maybe is a bridge that helps us leave the past and leads us to a new place where we can believe that all may be well.

As for Joyce, she has been feeling well for about a month. When she gets scared or negative she uses the above exercise to help her realize that life can change, the past is over and the future has many possibilities for a healthy life.  Joyce feels more joy and hope with this new mindset, which has also led her to make some changes to her diet and take some new supplements.  Joyce’s new motto is “It’s all about the Maybe!”