The Past is the Past

In the Tree House: The Past is the Past (#26)

By: Samantha Stroube Daviss

Sometimes there are occurrences in life that make us so angry that we are unable to release those feelings of anger, betrayal, or just plan hatred. But did you know that too much harbored anger can cause mental, physical and emotional damage to your body?

It’s true, the physical evidence lies within high blood pressure and we all know what that will lead to. Also, on the physical side, if you harbor too much anger it starts to show in your physical make up. Your hair may turn gray faster, your skin will age sooner, and honestly your body language says it all. The way you carry yourself, your posture, and just overall mannerisms is a tell tale sign that you are a miserable person.

The mental aspect affects you in a way that you may not realize. It makes you a mean angry person, and you then lose the ability to find the good in life, people and the world for that matter. You see the world as a glass half empty, rather than a glass half full kind of person. Everything people do in your eyes is, ridiculous or ludicrous.

And that old saying, it takes more muscles to frown than to smile. Well it is true. It takes 37 muscles in your face to frown and 22 muscles to smile. So smile. You’ll conserve energy.

Also, what’s the point of being angry for so long? If you have something to say to someone, then say it. Get it off your chest. Or if you have chosen to write them out of your life completely, then let it go. Don’t come back and haunt those five years down the line with some mean and deceitful trick or mind game. If you are done with them, then be done with them.

As the old saying goes, “You’ve made your bed, now you must lie in it”. And that is so true. If you have decided to wash your hands of a person that was once a big part of your life, then you must release them and release yourself of them.

I recently had an incident in which a family member, that I was once close to but haven’t had much to do with in the past few years, decided to contact another member of my family through an outside source.

At first I was a little dumbfounded, because this person made the conscientious effort to remove themselves completely from my life, and now they have made contact with a part of my life, so-to-speak, to play mind games. I just don’t understand people’s maliciousness sometimes. If you are angry and harbor those feelings then that is for you to handle and deal with, you don’t have to come back and “haunt” the person that you have removed from your life.

Let’s move on. And as Ellen DeGeneres always says “Be kind to one another”. That is what makes our world go round, the love, support, and admiration we hold for one another, because without that the world is a very dark and gloomy place.