Do not dwell in the past, do not dream of the future, concentrate your mind in the present moment. – Buddha

I have been dwelling – a lot lately, and it’s not good.  I shared with you all a few months ago that I was dealing with some health issues.  I still am, and lately they have gotten a little worse.  It’s not like I’m dealing with anything terminal, so I am very fortunate, but I’m still dwelling on it a lot.  Translation, I’m feeling sorry for myself.  Dwelling on anything isn’t good, and that includes the past.  You can get so caught up on what was, that your forget about what is, and that’s right now.

I think that sometimes, it’s okay to have a good wallow every now and again, it can be healthy and even healing.  But to dwell just means you are focusing on what is negative or bad, or gone, and what good does that do?  When you dwell on the past, you’re focusing on what was, be it good or bad.  You can’t go back to it, and you can’t change it.  So if it’s good, appreciate it, if it’s bad, let it go and move on.

For me, with my health, I unfortunately, can’t let it go, and for the most part, I’m doing a fairly decent job of trying to be positive, but I think I’m still falling into the dumps about it a little too often.  So what I need to do is dig out my handy dandy tool kit of mood changers.  Yes I have a tool kit, I talk about it in Chapter 4 of my book Thinking Positive: Take the Journey into Positivity which is available on Amazon.  Some of the things I do is escape into mindless comedy on tv, or singing on the top of my lungs.  I also have a fondness for making up words, which while annoying for others tends to cheer me up a lot!

So do what you have to do to stop dwelling, be it on the past, or on something that is going on right now.  It’s not helping, and dwelling isn’t going to change a thing, so why bother.   What strategies do you have to let go of things and not dwell?  I’d love to hear about them.