Health

Learn To Enjoy Life And Savor Your Experiences

By Elizabeth Scott, M.S., About.com Guide

Updated October 12, 2012

About.com Health's Disease and Condition content is reviewed by the Medical Review Board

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How To Enjoy Life: Embrace Your Past

Learn To Enjoy Life And Savor Your Experiences

Journaling, forgiving, and letting go are ways to embrace your past and move on.

Photo from iStockPhoto.com

You can enjoy life more by embracing your past and using those experiences to create a better present life for yourself. By healing the past and savoring your positive memories, you can maximize your past to enjoy life more in the present. The following tips can help you to enjoy life more and use your past as a springboard:

Remember And Relive: Remembering your fondest memories can help to bring the best of the past into the present. Go beyond merely recalling that good things happened, and really think about all the details. Feel how you felt in the best of times. Look at how those positive events may be parallelled in good times that are still happening today.
Share Memories: You can bring your positive memories to life by discussing them with others. Reminisce with loved ones about memories you share. Tell your best stories to others, and enjoy hearing theirs. And don't forget to savor what is happening now, so you can remember it in the future.
Re-read Old Journals: If you were someone who has kept journals in the past, you may really enjoy re-reading them now, particularly if they are gratitude journals. You may gain a clearer memory of the good times, and there will be new layers of understanding as you think about the past through the lens of what you know now. Here is how I have experienced the pleasure of re-reading and old gratitude journal.) This special form of connecting to your past self can help you to appreciate even the mundane, otherwise forgotten details of your daily life then, and savor what is going on in your life now.
Journaling To Rework Past Events: One of the benefits of journaling is that it can help you to re-assess events from your past. You can choose parts of your past that have brought you stress, and explore them in your journal, to gain a new perspective now. When attempting to shift your perspective to a more positive one, you can look at aspects of the events such as the growth it may have brought you, the positive events that may have come out of the negative, and the comparative success that you are having now. In this way, you can come to terms with parts of your past that have always bothered you, and create better memories out of those you remember less than fondly.
Let Go Of Past Resentments: As you are exploring your past, you may take opportunities to forgive those toward whom you may have anger or unresolved issues. Forgiveness isn't always easy, but it brings greater benefits to the one who forgives than it does for those who receive forgiveness. Holding onto past hurts can be a heavy burden, and working through them, either through the help of forgiveness tips like these or with a therapist, can be freeing.