I’ve finally let go of my past

Life in Recovery
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For years I’ve been prone to living in the past. I would romanticize even the most traumatic parts of my life as “the good ole days”. It’s one of the main reasons I’d been unable to get sober. I hung onto and romanticized my addicted self, and I would just tell myself that I would never leave that part of me behind. However, a week ago I finally realized that I just needed to move on. I needed to let go of my past because it has no reason being my present. As someone here said: “can’t drive forward if you’re stuck in reverse, keep the past in your rear view”. All I can do is live for the me of today, as that’s the only me I can change. Not the me of yesterday or even the me of tomorrow. I’m now only focused on what I can do today to make my life joyfully sober.

“Brothers, I do not account myself to have laid hold; but one thing I do: Forgetting the things which are behind and stretching to the things which are before,” Philippians 3:13

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Thanks so much for this! I was struggling with some guilt and regret today and this really helped me remember that the things that happened when I drank are behind me. I’ve got 16 days sober today and that decision opened the door to a life living forward, not backwards! The past is definitely a good tool for remembering the reason behind my sobriety but it doesn’t have to consume me if I admit it was bad and I can’t change it but I’ve made the change I needed to make and am walking away from that past in a good direction.

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What a fantastic post :heart_eyes: Being able to free yourself of past guilt and regrets is a huge hurdle to get over when getting sober. I’m eternally grateful for the 12 steps mainly for this reason. Steps 4-9 made leaving the past in the past a lot easier than trying to work through that shit on my own.

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Yeah…This is an interesting perspective that I think affects a lot of people in recovery. I sort of came to grips with this by thinking about how the people I had those ‘Good Times’ and ‘Fun Memories’ with turned out and the answer is often not good. Moments of fun do not compensate for a lifetime of regret and missed opportunities.

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