Looking at the Past with Rose-Tinted Glasses

What do you do when you reflect on simpler times with rose-tinted glasses so strong it seems like you're living in a daydream of your past? I'm talking about growing up in a specific climate and missing that environment as an adult. Or certain people you've met who seem to have it made in more ways than you. Maybe there's a past job or college or even high school you wish still occupied most of your days.

Every 7 years or so, our personalities are scientifically proven to change. This means developing brand-new habits over that course of time and being a somewhat-completely different person in 2020 than you were in 2013. In 2020 we may look back at 2013 as being a simpler time. As spring approaches, the sun shines today, and our hearts swell. We remember a time spent outdoors in the sun as a young adult, teenager, or child. Overwhelmed by the emotions, sights, sounds, and touch of that time, our brain convinces us that we'd rather be there than here. 

I encourage you, then, to go back to those places. Physically return to the places you think of fondly. Visit the home you grew up in, rewatch a movie you thought was incredible as a kid, check out the website of a past employer, take a tour through the old college campus you once attended. I don't mean to discourage or discredit these thoughts. It's important to remember that feeling of your parent being proud of you in a possibly rare moment of your youth. I do mean to say, however, that maybe the "good ol' days" were that way because that's what we made them. Maybe we have more power to influence our own lives and attitudes than ever before but we have a harder time recognizing this is the truth. And maybe we can turn today's humdrum into the good ol' days of tomorrow by living, fully immersed, in them. 

Cancel what stresses you out, if you can. Resolve the issues that keep you up at night, if you can. Cut out the bad that keeps takes your focus off of today and puts it on tomorrow, if you can. You don't know the mental stress you could be putting yourself under that's not allowing you to live a fully content life. You don't know how just one more day of apathy can cost you a lifetime of action, passion, and a heart on fire.