I think in order to understand how we create our situations and circumstances, we need to take time to remember the past. I don't mean dwell on the past, I mean think about what we thought and did that brought us to the present, in order to understand the mechanisms of thought and action.

What is a good way to do this? One possible way is to get yourself in a meditative frame of mind, find a quite place to set or lie down where you will not be disturbed. Once you have settled yourself down and relaxed, try to work backwards in time taking a few circumstances that had happened that you may have preferred not to have experienced. Take one situation and try going back to the time before it happened. Try and examine what you where thinking, doing, examine what your attitude was at that time.

Using my "In the Workplace" experience from the other forum post I will go back in time and look at my thought patterns, actions, and overall attitude during those stressful times.

My thoughts at the time? I hated my job, my boss, and my coworkers.
Getting myself to go to work was like robotic moves and an endless cycle of repetition going through the motions. It also seemed like I bumped heads with my coworkers and my boss constantly. Eventually, I was like a zambe, walking around going through the motions and daily routine with my mind, as they say, "out to lunch."

I did this for years and all it got me was more of the same. It wasn't until I changed my thinking that things began to change and they changed drastically.

Now I am in another mess that I created going back 7 years. I am doing the very same thing and I believe with allot of effort, I will come out and get another chance to do it right.

"Those who forget the past, are condemned to repeat it." George Santayana

What are your thoughts on this possible technique?
Do you think this can work and help you understand the thoughts and actions that create your circumstances and situations around you? If not, what would you do differently?

Only when we change something in our pattern will we be able to change our circumstances. You keep doing the same ole, same ole, you're going to get the same ole, same ole.

For years I worked only to pay the bills, feed the kids...etc, but I was never happy. It got so bad that I looked for an escape route and turned to casino gambling. I spent so much time gambling that I was evicted from my apartment and lost my job.
I'd look for and find another job, place and whatever, and within another year I found myself back out on the street. This pattern repeated itself for a number of years. (about ten).

Finally, I said ENOUGH!

I took a first step to control my gambling problem by having myself banned from the casino indefinitely. I worked at my job only to save my money. When I had enough money saved, I bought a ticket to the west coast. When i got here, instead of falling back into the habit of looking for a menial job, I decided to go back to school and study acting for film and television, something that i always wanted to do, but never did because of domestic responsibilities and other commitments. Now I am in school and following my dream. I have never been happier and everything seems to be falling into place.

Yes, exactly! So I think we do have to look at our past to learn from it, so we can also let it go, and not let it define us. So like you wrote, we can change our patterns and change our future.

And thanks for sharing your past with us. That was a touching story and I am so glad that you were able to change and things are now looking up and you are where you want to be. Amen!!

Yes, I definitely think that looking at past mistakes we've made in different situations can make a big difference in how we deal with the situation, if we come across it again, later in life. And I think that changing your behavior in a positive way can change things for the better, too. I can think of a few situations where I tried this technique and it was really starting to make a difference in how I felt about it (I say 'starting to' because the preson who was in volved with the situation passed away some months later after I started taking stock of how to best deal with the situation (for myself). But I think had the person lived, this technique would have continued to work well for me.

In a nutshell, it was the living situation between my cousin and aunt who lived here in town (my aunt has since passed away, but my cousin is still in town). My cousin, who is near my age, had been an angry person growing up (for reasons I won't get into) so she became an angry adult later in life. She lived with my aunt (her mother) and would often take her anger or frustrations about anything-out on my aunt. My mother and I visited them often so we would see this. Oddly, my aunt would often take her anger/abuse. My cousin would do this even in front of company (like family or friends). This would really irritate and upset me. One day I decided I was tired of hearing and seeing their behavior. I decided the next time my cousin was disrespectful (which was often) towards my aunt, I would apologize and simply walk out of their house or walk away from whereever they/we were.

My new behavior and whatever effects it may have had for me (and them) didn't last long because my aunt passed away not long after, but it did make me feel better and I decided it was probably a good solution for any situation that makes me as uncomfortable as they often did when they fought. In fact, I'm not sure why their friends and my other family members didn't do the same thing. Maybe if they had showed how unpleasant they found my cousin's behavior to be, it was have spurred my aunt to put an end to the awful treatment she was dealt.

Good post, heartfelt story, thanks for sharing catlynn04!!!