This may sound like some overshared zen saying.
But seriously.
Things can never, and will never, be different from how they are. Not now, not in the past, and not even in the future.
Life will only and always be exactly as it is. No different, no better, no worse. It’s a literal fantasy land to think that things could be other than they are.
Minds love counterfactual thinking—thinking up alternate realities, different outcomes, and possibilities that are pure imagination. Our mind thinks in these counterfactual ways so much so that we’ve lost sight of the fact that these “realities” aren’t, won’t be, and can’t be.
We will only ever experience what we’re experiencing. Duh.
Notice how much your mind loves to think about how to make the future what it wants it to be. Note that you aren’t doing this, your mind is.
Isn’t it almost always imagining you and your life a certain way in the future, thinking up what needs to happen to bring those images to life? Doesn’t it spend a good deal of time creating stories about how you should be today so that life can go a particular way?
How much time does your mind spend replaying the past–even when the past is one second ago–creating imaginary stories about how it should have gone?
There is nothing wrong with any of this. Seriously.
It’s a mind creating imaginary worlds, counterfactuals, for its own amusement. I’m sure it thinks it’s protecting you by looking past THIS and creating some made up THAT.
There’s nothing wrong with it, except that when we take it seriously, we suffer. We miss THIS when we jump on board with a mind trying to manipulate some made up future time. And we swim in shame, guilt, and regret when we jump on board with the idea that some past time could have possibly been other than it was.
Let it play its games but don’t believe it. Things can never, and will never, be different from how they are. Not now, not in the past, and not even in the future.
