Today I fought my greatest enemy.  They seemed to be following me throughout my day and gleefully took each opportunity to point out my apparent shortcomings. My enemy spoke against me of decisions made in the past. Then I was inundated with their worry about the future. It was a non-stop assault that had its desired effect on me, I felt let down, angry, upset, and wanted to fight back.  So I engaged my greatest enemy with the truth, which always seems to be the best weapon. My thoughts are the enemy. My mind continually provides negative ones if I let it.  But pushed in the right direction, a positive reward can be found. Here are some truths which build the positive.  Look at your life.

The Past Doesn’t Matter.

I calmly explained that the past is an illusion that we all choose to remember our way. All people tend to have selective and prejudice memories about the events of their lives. Sometimes making them more prominent and more terrifying than they were to justify our behavior today or use them as motivation. Sometimes we tend to wax nostalgic about the past and make people and moments more significant than they were. Our attachment is due to our emotional behavior at the time or a wish to experience it again today. Our memories are not entirely true. The past is a game of the mind, and you remember most of it exactly how you want to.

As I explained this to the enemy, there was a quick recap of the events he perceived as mistakes in my life. All brought one thought of truth.
“Accurate or not, there is no way a thing can be changed today.”  It is all history, and it is done and over. The best any of us can do with our past is to learn the lessons it teaches, then put it away and move forward with an optimistic outlook on the potential that each new day brings to us.

The Future is Never Known

Then almost immediately defeated in bringing up the past, the enemy moved to worry about the future. Throwing all catastrophic scenarios that may occur if I didn’t start to take some specific action that the enemy condescendingly called “Common Sense.” Yet, I was able to fight this battle with thoughts about the future. Nothing has been written in stone. All things are continuously changing, and no matter how much detail you plan something with, the results may be different from what you ever expected. Worrying about the future is taking away the capability for happiness today. It robs you of the ability to enjoy the moment. My enemy revels in this type of victory, but today was not his day. I was resolute in my convictions. Plan for tomorrow as best you can, and let tomorrow take care of itself because, in the end, it always will.

The Victory is In Today

So as my enemy, frustrated and angry at not being able to raise my anger, I silently questioned himself. I started to think about the only thing left, and that is this moment right now. Sitting here, typing this, right here and right now. Not even my greatest enemy can disturb the truth and wonder that this moment contains. As I breathe in and out and contemplate the moment, I realize that the enemy is gone.

You won the game for the day, but there will be more struggles in the future because the most significant enemy lives, smugly, arrogantly, and entirely within me.  Waiting to remind me to: Accept the past, don’t worry about the future, and live in the moment. To do anything else seems like a losing battle.