Social Media is full of New: new diets, new exercise regimes, new self-care ideas, new image, new confidence, new career, etc, etc…

But what if the old is just as important?

Are we missing something?

We are so keen to improve, update, remake, change, that we forget to value what was.

There is much written on gratitude and reflective practise but do we actually embrace our past? Can we? Can I accept my past and value what has been before, knowing it’s made me what I am today?

Quotes such as ‘inhale the future, exhale the past’ and ‘don’t let the past steal your present’ are all very good but are they sending an only negative message?

‘Inhale the future’. Ok I’m inhaling.

But what am I inhaling? I have ambitions and ideas of what I would like to see but they are not concrete. Like feathers they float in the air, waiting to be captured.

‘Exhale the past’. OK.

Wait! The past has made me who I am. Yes, there are parts of it I wouldn’t wish on my worst enemy, but they are mine. They form the very bones of me, they have given me scars yet strength. I understand that it is important to deal with the past, to not let it shape me in a bad way, not let it prevent me from ‘living my best life’ and yet to deny it would seem hypocritical.

‘Don’t let the past steal your present’.

Maybe this should read: ‘Acknowledge the past has created your present’.

I am recovering; a work in progress.

To continue my journey, I’d like to inhale and exhale every part of it. The rough and the smooth. I want to use the bad to shape the future, use the worst to inform the best.

NEW YEAR, NEW ME?

No.

New year, same me.

Just further along my journey.

Blog by Emma Sithole, Founder, The Recovery Foundation

THE RECOVERY FOUNDATION

The Recovery Foundation is a charitable organisation who promote mental health recovery through ‘Hope in Recovery’ groups within the community and training packages available to organisation and charitable groups.

For more information please contact: info@therecoveryfoundation.org.uk