The Most Excellent Adventure
Time travel has always been something that interested me. Maybe it’s because I was just about to start Kindergarten when the first Back to the Future movie was released. Bill and Ted’s excellent adventure wasn’t far behind. Since then, there have been plenty of sequels to those movies and many others that dealt with the past. One of the more recent shows I really enjoyed was Timeless. I’ve always thought going back and seeing the major players in history would be an amazing thing. But you have to be careful not to alter the future in some negative way of course. A couple of years back, Lonnie Jones and I went on an adventure together - no not time travel - just an adventure to a conference. Yes compared to time travel Bill and Ted might declare that as totally lame. However, the conference was on helping people deal with trauma. It was a tough pill to swallow when the presenter pointed out a truth that I had never quite considered before and didn’t want to hear: the past doesn’t exist. Wait, what? Yes, it doesn’t exist.
When we make statements like “in the past you hurt me” or “that terrible event happened in the past” it leaves us with a subconscious thought that the event is still taking place and we can run over to it like we can go to Walmart or the grocery store. Just like we say, that person is IN New York City, we find ourselves saying “that trauma is IN the past” and our brain believes it to be alive and well and just lurking around the corner to get us. The reality is that it did in fact happen but it is no longer occurring now! It’s not IN THE PAST, it simply doesn’t exist. What exists is a person who didn’t just experience a trauma but SURVIVED and OVERCAME it. The person, place, thing, or event has only as much power as your mind is currently allowing it to have. Those things can’t travel to the present, and anymore than we can travel to the no longer existing “past.” And we can travel to the future. Each of us are only allowed the present. In it, at least I hope, you are safe. What I am sure of is that each of you have have been through a valley are survivors. You are strong. Thoughts of the past and the future only bring anxiety. So strive each day to bring your mind Back to the Present. You will find that the present is the most excellent adventure of all.
Ben Hayes
Photo by Andy Beales https://unsplash.com/@andybeales