Mementos

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Whenever we have a good experience on an outing or a vacation for example, we tend to want a memento of the occasion. Whether that is a souvenir of some sort ~ a stone or seashell we have picked up, or something we have bought to bring back home with us ~ or pictures; something that has become so much easier to do with the immensely improved camera’s in smartphones and all of the filters that can go with it.
Either way we end up with something we take home with us; a memento.

Once back in our familiar surroundings these mementos can bring back the memories of that point in time when we collected them, and with them all the feelings, the experiences can be recollected.

And that is a good thing! It is fun, and there is a definite advantage to being able to bring back the nice things, the wonderful experiences we have had. Focusing on things that work for us, automatically creates an expansive movement that opens the door to more good experiences to come into our lives.

The danger is that as we collect these mementos and place them in our homes and on our computers ~ they will start taking up space. Not much, as they are often small things; but space nevertheless. And the more we surround ourselves with icons of past events, of places we have been and things we have done and seen, the greater the pull back into the past to long ago and far away when we had this wonderful experience…

And that is a ‘bad’ thing! When we are focusing on our past experiences ~ in a sense reliving our past experiences over and again ~ we may not allow ourselves new wonderful experiences that can be happening right now! We could even get into a space where we feel the friends were more loving back then, the sun was brighter, the food was tastier; all in all life was better in those instances from when we brought back our mementos…

The point of balance ~ as so often ~ lies somewhere in the middle.
It is wonderful that we can build upon the great, fun experiences we have had; yet it is important that we won’t dwell on the past to such extend that it prevents us from living our lives right now.

From that perspective of balance it is also a good idea to revisit all of the collected mementos every once in a while in order to see which ones we really want to keep and which ones ~ while they are still fond memories ~ we may want to discard of to create space for mementos of new wonderful experiences…
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