Past does not exist anymore, you cannot revisit it, Nor can you go back and make changes. Past exists in our minds alone. Hence our pasts are not the same, Your past is not the same as mine, They are reminiscence of individual experiences, shaped by interactions with environment at a point of time.

Our memories have this great ability to be selective of what we remember … We have memories of this life and not of the past lives we lived. .. And as we age memories of current life also starts to fade. If we observe we tend to recollect difficult or tough times from our past with more ease, than the pleasurable happy ones.

In most cases the emotions experienced during pleasure — moments are felt then and there, so we feel the good and enjoy as it arises, that is the emotions associated with an event is consumed and exhausted; we live through our lives, and enjoy the next such pleasurable moment and this goes on and on and older ones in due course of time fade from our memory. In some cases, we may have memories of good times, but the pleasure associated with it is not carried forward. For example you go on a holiday with family and have a great time, seeing places and enjoying time together, laughing, traveling etc. … long after you may recollect that holiday from memory; but you cannot feel it again in the same way.

But the situation is different in case of pain; Just as pleasure causes emotional responses so does pain. But in many cases the the emotions associated are not fully expressed. Feelings are not adequately expressed at the time and place of occurrence; Hence our bodies keep the emotions associated with the respective pains along with the memories. We use the term bottled up emotions. This baggage of unexpressed pain is Suffering.

We are capable of expressing the event and the pain it caused to us in words. But the emotions associated with that pain are personal and cannot be shared. This holds true for Pleasure also, that is when a group of friends enjoy a movie or a joke, their response to that happy event have differences in intensity and in relation to that event, the Pleasure is also personal . I may thoroughly enjoy a joke and share it with a friend, who may not respond with laughter the way I enjoyed.

So the key point here is we cannot share the suffering associated with pain. It cannot be distributed by sharing with many people and hope that it gets diluted. Individuals at times find ways to vent out their bottled up emotions, many times though anger, and at times crying alone in solitude. At times such bottled up emotions, and its sufferings are carried to our graves.

But I believe there is a way to address this. Writing provides a channel to outpour our emotions, try expressing everything you feel in words in a personal dairy; make attempts to dispose the baggage’s of the past. We are capable of making this choice. We can brood over the past we cannot change, or focus our energies on a future we can shape. By creating many more happy memories today and henceforth, by involving in actions that give us happiness; or makes us pleasurable. So that over time the volume of happy memories far outnumber the painful ones. I Guess, That’s what positive thinking is.