Allyson Question #11

 

Dear Joshua,

I was having dinner with my 23-year-old daughter tonight as she just returned from 6 months in Thailand - an experience that goes beyond growth and change and so there were many discussions. One, in particular, grabbed me.

She says she wouldn't remember things from her youth unless she had pictures and even then she didn't feel that she really remembered. Were they real memories? So this stirred a few questions:

1) What role do our memories play in our development - both human and spiritual?
2) I was going to ask - is it a good thing or bad thing and then I heard you ..so I will rephrase ... Are detailed memories valuable? Necessary? Useful?
3) How can we work to 'let go of memories' that don't serve us?

Thank you!!
Allyson


Dear Allyson,

Memories are like blurry and shadowy images of past events that happened from a perception of reality that no longer exists. You don't have much information and so as time goes by, the memories take on their own life and importance. We will always say that the past unfolded perfectly to bring you here. Your judgment of everything is always based in fear. If you judge a memory as good, then you can use that as your excuse to be in alignment with the way your inner self sees that past event. If you see the memory as bad, then you are just using the memory to feel fear, which is certainly irrational because the event did not kill you, it possibly made you stronger.

How you perceive the memory is the only thing that matters. All memories can be perceived in an empowering way. All events, for that matter, can be perceived in an empowering way. Your habit of judging past events as good or bad, is simply that, a habit. You can perceive all past events as good, because those events led to the creation of who you are now. When you regret things in the past that you feel you got wrong, then you are simply not understanding the perfection of the path that led you here. If you believe that someone else did something wrong and you hold resentments, then you are simply allowing the faulty perception of the event to make you feel bad in the present. Everything worked out perfectly.

You make up stories about what might have happened if things went differently. That's all they are; made up stories. Since you're already making up stories, why not make up a more empowering story? The fact is that everything worked out. Everything always works out. Everything is always good. Everything that unfolds does so perfectly because it is always a perfect match to the vibrations of those involved in the event at the time. Your vibration is different now and that's why the memory loses its detail over time. You are no longer a match to the events of the past. They occurred then based on the vibrations at that time.

There are certain people who have highly refined abilities to remember things in detail. This can be seen as a positive thing by those people or a negative thing. It all depends on how they frame the events. This is a rare ability, because it does not necessarily serve you to be thinking too much about the past. But for these people, it is a unique way to experience life and that is why the few who chose this ability did so. For most people, it is more effective to have a foggy memory.

The way to let go of memories that don't serve you is to think of them (and everything else) in a way that does serve you. Your inner self holds onto a very high perspective and knows exactly what transpired at every point in your life. Your inner self is happy with how every event unfolded. Your inner self sees no wrong in any of it, because it knows that all of it was part of your trajectory to where you are now and thus it was all good. You can choose to see things as wrong if you want, but that is not the truth of the matter. Every event occurred for your benefit, even ones you think were wrong. It's just that you have not found the higher perspective.

For a long time Gary went over the past events that led to the loss of his fortune in great detail and thought, "If I had just done this and that, then everything would be good now." However, if he had done those things, then he would have been living that old life that he did not really enjoy, rather than this life that gives him everything he needs and provides him the opportunity to live in bliss.

With our love,
We are Joshua

Back