I thinks it's taken me a while to realise this and accept it. I often find myself thinking about the past. I am constantly comparing my life as is now, to what life was. Not to say I hate my life here or that I find my life is better or worse. I'm just always going to life as it was. Been here 3 years now, have always been one to adapt very quickly to different situations. I really want to live here and now - I seem to be enjoying myself but there's always something as tiny as a needle that keeps poking at me from the past. Everything reminds me of something.

Is this normal? Does anyone understand what I mean? Just wondering if anyone else does this too?

Mods you can shift this wherever you feel suitable.

Sure, it's called The Crushing Pain of Existence. Best to find a glass of something strong and a tube of Pringles and sit in front of the TV for a few hours. Doesn't make the pain go away, but it stops your brain from spinning.

Used to do that.

No More.

If you look to your past, your future is behind you....

I have to say, I agree with this!

My brain is very over-active, I stress out quite a lot about where I am in life, where I've been, where I'm going. It can take it's toll on you, and also make you very tired mentally.

I usually try and relax, either at home or going out and being around people, to feel better. I'm a believer in everything happening for a reason. For some reason, we can get very distracted by the past. Easy to say 'don't dwell on it', but in all reality, it's sometimes difficult not to.

Maybe there is something in your past that you just need to let go, in order to embrace the future? Again, easier said than done...

Don't be too hard on yourself by making comparisons about your life now and then. Your past has made you the person you are today, and ultimately brought you *here*. It's all on the same road. Try and take it easy, remember that nothing takes the past away...like the future!!!

ATB :-)

__________________

My life has been a carousel of misery, pain and tedium ever since the fall of Constantinople (that was a Tuesday afternoon to remember...)

However, the thought of living in the past rarely occurs to me. Sanitation is so much better now. Even in Switzerland!

It's not normal and you should see a physicist.
Boom boom

I almost groaned you. Looks like I'll be up all night now watching Jethro Tull videos

It's not his fault - he's Thick as A Brick.
.

You know that part on Deal Or No Deal where the guy turns down $14,000 for a shot at $250,000 and ultimately walks away with $5? That's the Great Metaphor For Life.

Things were always better in The Old Days. Do not believe the words of renowned philosophers D:Ream, "Things can only get better". They won't. Just look at what "New Labour" did to the UK.
(/ramble)

Or, in other words, don't look back; you're not going that way.

Churchill said, "The longer you can look back, the farther you can look forward".

It's important to acknowledge your past, it will always be a part of you. The tricky part is sentimentality.

From Common Sense and How to Use It by Yoritomo Tashi:

"We are capable of sacrificing ourselves for sentiment."


Pringles are your only hope!

aye mamita- we always think of the past- just remind yourself it has nothing to do with being here in c.h. it may be exasperated by it, but i think it's more about () growing up and maturing. ug. like people who hang out together and say, " remember the time when we..." it's always like that. you can't really sit and simmer in that you will never have times to remember when your 30/40/etc. in three years you've had a bunch of experiences, but never the passion or flight you've had when you are in your homeland. when you experience things here, just think of it as a new experience too- you've never done these things either!
of course we all feel this, it's normal. i constantly think, oh this is good but in new york this is nothing! but hey, i'm not in new york, and in new york, just the view i have walking here, in lausanne to the bus stop, would be incredible to imagine. remember, my dear, it's all relative! it's never comparable! and all the things you were ready to leave, you were tired of, in your homeland, are now filled with new things. sounds corny, but if you don't appreciate and embrace the differences and the beauty here, you may really miss the beauty that is right before your eyes here and now!
best of luck and if you ever feel, ug, like it's no fun, not the life you had planned, try to remember a time in your homeland when you were not satisfied. it can happen anywhere. better it happens in a new place than in the same old, same old.

__________________
'there isn't enough of anything as long as we live.
but at intervals a sweetness appears and, given a chance prevails'

I used to suffer from that once. In order to ease the pain, I used to play mindless video games in cybercafes all day. Once I fell asleep at my station and a old guy woke me up. He opened a site with timelapse videos and said watch this...lo and behold I was cured instantly !

I would recommend the same to you. In fact I have quite a collection of timelapse videos myself as I never know when I will need them. To novices such as yourself, I would definitely recommend watching timelapse video of milky way over the alps with Beethoven music. This will help a lot I am sure
http://www.vimeo.com/7853947

To naysayers on the forum I will say this- this is a scientifically proven method. Do not dismiss it. The reason it works is because the past goes away fast in this medium. No other therapy can achieve that !

Now, wait a minute... is this simply regret for having moved to Switzerland?

We all have our past with us. If you think about something very nice you had in the past, try to define it and to find out how you might revive it in a modern way into the future. Do not try to forget the gone relatives and friends, but in case of doubt try to imagine what they would have told you. I still use a binocular and a slide-watching apparatus and some other things purchased by my grandfather (mother side) in the early 1950ies. Is that living in the past ? No, it is reconciling the past with the future !

Everything reminds you of something ? Why not ? But you ought to define what exactly is does remind you of ! It may be something useful you had in the past and just have to buy in a nearby shop !

To look back and forward at the same time not only is possible, but really important. It is all about the "Raum-Zeit-Gefüge" of Albert Einstein in a practical world.

But stop "comparing", rather try to use your past as your portfolio for ideas for the future. And death of people is no barrier. My Godfather, just a few months before he died gave me valuable advice I still have in mind back in 1990. He looked forward into times far "behind" his personal end.

While it should NOT be a pain, but a nice thing, a good glass of wine or spirit will help to master the matter


No, I think you have to look to the past and to the future at the same time. It is the SAME really. If you understand the past as a source of inspiration to tackle the future.

The "fall of Constantinople" was the start of the rise of Istanbul ! To quote the famous words of JFK at the inaugural "an end as well as a beginning".

may be, but possibly rather thoughts about things all around in the past. Which could easily be procured, either in a shop here, or in a shop in any other country.

My Best Friend and coach for life, He told me once the story:

With the coming of dawn, the angels urged Lot, saying, “Hurry! Take your wife and your two daughters who are here, or you will be swept away when the city is punished…As soon as they [angels] had brought them out, one of them said, “Flee for your lives!” Don’t look back, and don’t stop anywhere in the plain!” (Genesis 19:16, 17a)

But his wife somehow made it to Glattbrugg and drank Glattbrugg tapwater unpreparedly, and therefore turned into a salt-figure !

I suggest you find here one thing that you used to love to do at home, like - theater, or put a circle of friends together to have a good laugh and nag, some activity..It is really nice to remind eachother what is a lot better here than elsewhere.

And if that does not work, you should come to our funky book club, it gets wild. We have no Pringles but ton of good red wine, with that, both past and future seem fabulous.

ahhh, le bon vin rouge vaudois ! Well, I right now enjoy some glasses of "Alta Sierra Jumilla" which really is nice !

Yeah, you're right. But leave the feelings, the emotions in the past. They are of no help.