Our minds are enriched with memories and they serve a useful purpose in helping us to not make the same mistakes. However, although we may have blocked out some of the bad memories, some of them are are hard to shift.

In my business I have to give lots of talks and I had a recurring fear of making a mess of a presentation. This is based on an experience I had in my early public speaking career when I had to give a talk that I hadn’t prepared as well as I would have liked. My mouth went completely dry and I could barely remember what I wanted to say. I had been plagued with this memory and the acute feelings of embarrassment and anger and frustration at my own inadequacy. I fairly recently discovered a new technique using eye movement to help blot out those negative memories.

The picture of my bad experience was so vivid in my mind but after working on how to get rid of it, I feel so much more positive. The image of my bad memory is now so out of focus that I can barely see or feel it at all.

These techniques are a useful way of weeding out those memories but it really is about putting them into context and recognising that it is in the past, which you cannot change. You are now a different person and no longer need to be affected by what happened.

Leave the past behind and have faith in a better tomorrow….