painting the future with the past
We all have dreams about what we’d like to create in our life -more freedom, more love, more friends, more money…and we have the potential to create all these things, but only if we stop investing our energy in the past and future and start investing it in the now.
I came up with a simple metaphor to help explain what I mean by this:
IMAGINE
Imagine you have painted you past with yellow paint but that you want to paint your future with blue. To do this, you will need to find some space to separate the colours and importantly, you’re going to have to clean the yellow off your brush.
If you can’t wash all the yellow off your brush, you’re going to end up with all shades of green instead (and there’s nothing wrong with green, unless you’re looking for blue). If you want to paint a NEW future, you need to stop painting with the colours of the past.
I’ve bounced around many themes since I became a coach but one that has always stuck is the idea of ‘taking responsibility’ for ourselves. That is what I mean by this metaphor. To me it’s about listening/looking for the triggers that we’re ‘painting with yellow’ and then drawing a line in the sand and saying ‘yes! I’m ready to change my course’ / start painting with blue.
Here are 3 questions to ask yourself:
Can I say that I have no regrets about my past?
Do I love who I am today?
Do I feel excited about the future I am creating?
Answered all NO? You’re painting with yellow
A mix of YES and NO? You’re painting with green
Answered all yes? You’re painting with blue
Here’s what I think it means to paint with yellow, green and blue, and some ideas about what you can do once you realise what’s on your brush.
How to know you’re painting with yellow?
Your past is dictating your future. You’re trying to create a new future using old data (memories) and this is hard – almost impossible. For the brain to generate new thoughts that help you make new choices, it needs to be able to grasp new possibilities.
What to do: Visualize the changes you want to see (write, meditate, Pinterest). Close your eyes and immerse yourself into how you imagine life with these changes. What does it look like? What does it feel like? What will you be most grateful for when they all come to fruition? Fill your brain with these thoughts and images until your body starts to feel it. This is something that became so key for me after going to Joe Dispenza’s workshop. When we only intellectualise, we don’t give our bodies a chance to feel or essentially ‘believe’ the thoughts we’re thinking. Therefore, the old feelings (memories from the past) remain in control and the thought becomes almost redundant. This is why I try to encourage #gratitudefeels instead of gratitude lists! As soon as you can start feeling, you’ll start sending your brain and your body new data (fresh paint!). You may also want to consider The Clear Out.
How to know when you’re painting with green?
You’re stuck in a blend of what you want for your future and what you’ve had in your past. The two are mixing together and you’ve lost your clarity. A lot of the time this happens because we don’t want to forget or regret the past – but we don’t have to!
What to do: List the things you’re holding on to from the past, then write three positives for each. What have you learnt? How have they shaped you? What are the opportunities? Creating a new future doesn’t mean we have to resent our past, to me the most important thing is finding acceptance. We can choose to take/hold on to the lessons as positives and accept the rest as part of our unique story. The story that has shaped who we are today and where we want to be.
How to know when you’re painting with blue?
You're in the sweet spot that is creation mode! You feel like you’re in the flow! You understand that you have the power to create your future, you have found what it means to get present and the results/changes are coming.
What to do: Congratulate yourself. In creating space between you and your past you have freed yourself to create new, exciting and fulfilling experiences. Make the most of this space as it can come and go often. Enjoy!
While you’re at it, here is an affirmation to use as well:
Affirmations help us to engrain new ways of thinking. By saying something this to yourself every day, you’re literally training your brain to think this way.
