Are we prisoners of the past?

Yesterday I stumbled upon a question from a friend that intrigued me: are we prisoners of the past?

We are a result of our past experiences, yes, amongst other things, but as a lot of people would say, we always have a choice as to how we use the past in our daily lives. i.e.do I allow my past to rule my life, or do I rule my past and consciously decide NEVER to let it take over my life, but only use what I have learned to lead an effective and fulfilling life, and not make the same mistakes that allowed my past to rule me in the first place.

I choose the latter.

Each and every action and thought has brought us to wherever it is we are right now. Tomorrow is a new day. What happened to us yesterday should only serve to guide us, not determine our exact path. 

Often our future is brighter than we think. It is so easy to concentrate on all the bad things in this world, and let it get us down. We focus too much on the bad things in our life, and the horrible situation we may be in. But we can solve our problems, overcome our situations and become wiser and stronger for them.

Throughout our life we encounter situations, those situations teach of lessons, challenge us to change and to grow. If we do not learn those lessons, if we do not grow, then we become stuck in the same place. Those same situations will continue to come back, trying harder and harder to teach us the same lesson, help us grow in the same way. 

Many people refuse to learn these lessons, many of the lessons are not fun to learn, or require us to grow or change in a way that at the time does not seem like something we want.

However, if we learn the lessons, if we grow as we need to, then we move on into our future and the past becomes the past forever.

Our past is part of who we are, but it is not who we are going to become.