OpinionsOn the past and the future

On the past and the future

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One of the real reasons why some people suffer from mental anguish is their almost-permanent attachment to the past and the future.

Oft-times, they get weighed down by the traumas in the past – not to mention feelings of regret or grief. They also get eaten up by uncertainties, which would then lead to anxieties about the future.

As a result, they most likely will experience wretched lives since instead of living in the present, they tend to reminisce on the past, and worry about the future.

All these things then lead to a woeful life – this is perhaps why many people nowadays suffer from depression.

I, for one, can attest to this feeling, as I have always been an incorrigible worrier (constantly worrying about the future), and I also have a penchant of invariably looking back in the past, and connecting it with the present. This almost-obsessive fascination with the past perhaps made me who I am today – an academic historian; but it also brought along with it a lot of anguish and sorrow.

This is not to say that most of the things I study, teach, and write about the past have caused my personal (mental) problems, albeit there were some topics that to some extent affected me personally (like a research paper on the Japanese atrocities during World War II that I wrote for the Journal of History last year).

This only means that sometimes, I am not able to separate what I do as an academic historian from my personal life as a husband, or a son, brother, or friend.

Since I study and write about World War II and the Japanese Occupation of the Philippines, I often find it interesting how people who lived through the war still had the mental fortitude to continue living. I’m sure that some of them – especially those who had relatives or friends killed – remember vividly what had transpired, but being able to move on from it, and continue living life like nothing traumatizing happened is just something I cannot fathom.

My maternal grandfather (Lolo Dads, as we call him) has had his fair share of traumas from the Second World War. I learned many things from his stories, and looking back, I cannot help but think why, even with the traumas of war (he was almost killed when a squad of Japanese soldiers fired at them with a machine gun as they lined up to get water during the Battle of Manila), he still loved to watch World War II movies.

Until now, I do not understand how a person like him who has experienced the war wants to recall it through films.

Marcus Aurelius would remind himself in his journal that “no one can lose either the past or the future – how could anyone be deprived of what he does not possess?… It is only in the present moment of which either stands to be deprived: and if this is all he has, he cannot lose what he does not have.”

In other words, we have no control of both the past and the future; the past had happened; we can remember it, but it would not be helpful if we dwell too much in it. Apropos of the future, though it hasn’t happened, it is then axiomatical that we also have no control of it, we then become anxious, for we can never tell what will happen.

In the end, the only thing that we have control over is the present. Thus, we must live in it – be mindful, and try to enjoy, and seize every moment.

All the fears and anxieties are brought about by the fear of the future – by the total lack of control of what lies ahead. But we should always remember that no matter how much we try to take control of things, we still, or will never be able to predict what will happen in the future; we can never control it, and the more we try to take control of it, the more problematic our lives will be.

When we get affected by these uncertainties, we then tend to suffer from irrational and baseless fears. Seneca would say that “for truth has its own definite boundaries, but that which arises from uncertainty is delivered over to guesswork, and the irresponsible license of a frightened mind.”

The more we speculate, overthink, and worry about the future, the more we suffer at present.

In the end, the best thing to do is to live more in the present – to experience it as it is, and refrain from dwelling in the past, and worrying about the future.

Even if looking back in the past has its perks, as we can learn from past mistakes; dwelling on it somehow is different as there is a big chance we get stuck in it, and will most certainly suffer more from melancholy, grief, and regret.

It is also best to let the future be – to refrain from controlling it; whatever happens, happens. What matters most now is the present. Try not to let the past and the future weigh you down. Always keep that in mind. Carpe diem!

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Author’s email: [email protected]

 

 

 

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