I think that most of us can relate to the feeling of being “stuck” in life.

This is the idea that we keep running in place, trying to move forward but despite what we feel are our best efforts, we keep landing back where we began.

And this feeling can permeate any area of our lives, whether it is related to our career, our relationships, our mental health, or even our physical health and vitality.

When your past, whether it is from this life or a past life (or both!) has this kind of hold over you it can become a kind of a prison that can be difficult to escape unless you are able to confront the past, acknowledge it, and ultimately heal from it.

Events from our past, especially traumatic or troubling ones don’t just go away on their own- I have found that the idea that “time heals all wounds” is a complete and total myth.

Not long ago I was working with a client who was describing her traumatic childhood and when I asked her how she handled it she replied that she “stuffed it”, which I thought was such a vivid way of describing how we often tend to bury our pain because it can feel too overwhelming or we don’t have the proper tools at the time to process or handle them.

But, when you “stuff it” your pain does not disappear, in fact it often can make it much worse as these unprocessed feelings make their way into your unconscious mind where they become fears, phobias, depression, anxiety, limiting belief systems, rigid thinking, judgmental ideas about others, anger, rage, addiction, and even mental health conditions and physical illnesses.

And again, this is true of the events that happened to us in our past lives as well as our childhood or the past in this life, as the pain stays and continues to run the show – only unconsciously.

Time alone doesn’t heal, you have to do the work of looking back at the past and confronting it, acknowledging the pain, understanding the circumstances around it including the fact that often our parents, lovers, and other family members were operating from their own woundedness and hurt, so you can release it and let it go.

And then you will no longer be held in the prison of your past and can move forward into a future that is free from your past- one that contains more joy, peace, success, love, and much more.

When you find the courage to confront your pain and the hurt from your past, you will find that your past no longer is holding you prisoner- in fact, you will discover that once you are free from your past that the future becomes open and full of endless possibilities.

Healing the past will open the future.