How to flip your relationship with the past to be happier

I’ve spent a long time looking back at my school years with deep regret.

I hated school because I hated who I was there.

I cringed over my quiet personality and pined for things to be different.

I wished I was cool and that more girls liked me.

This hatred made my present self anxious and angry.

Some years ago, I found a way to respect my younger self again.

I saw that I was doing the best I could, given my fearful thinking at the time.

I saw that I was quiet because I wanted to connect with others, not because I had some strange need for distance.

I didn’t want to risk sharing too much of myself because then I’d risk lost connection if I ‘got it wrong.’

It was a painful loop, which I now understand.

I see it differently now.

I saw how my time at school was not the ‘hell’ I’d envisioned it as.

I began to see school as an excellent teacher. It prompted my life-long passion for understanding the mind, psychology and consciousness.

I saw my time at school as a strengthener of character rather than a weakener.