I recently listened to a podcast where the guest equated life to a relay race: “last year’s me is the runner before me; he hands me the baton and my job now is to run the next portion of the race. Now I’m not going to berate myself for something the previous runner did but I do have to pay for what the previous runner did. If the previous runner tripped up, slowed down, hurt our time, I might have to run a better race today as a result of that runner.” Every experience you can learn from or adjust things in the future, but beating up that previous runner for what they did isn’t going to get you where you want to go. I remind myself of this and hope it helps!
I am not worried, I will probably do more stupid stuff in the future.
Plus, if I cannot amuse myself with past me stupidity, future me will have nothing to laugh at when I look back at my life.
Turn them into jokes! Honestly, most of my cringey mistakes involve me being socially awkward, but having a good sense of humor makes it easier to talk to people. So, I turn my social anxiety into comedy in order to beat my social anxiety. Take that, my brain! 🙂
Call myself a fucking idiot and make sure I don’t do that again.
Depending on the circumstance, I use one of 3 different techniques when a heinous memory of my awful wrongdoings or awkward interactions pops into my head.
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I practice gratitude that I’ve grown as a person and can recognize these moments as “learning opportunities” (boring)
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I start counting “1, 2, 3, 4” rapidly in my head to banish the thought back into the cave of hidden misdemeanours where it belongs
Or 3. I think about how technicallythe past nor the future even exist at all, only this exact present moment is real, and nothing matters, and everyone dies so ¯_(ツ)_/¯
(*not a scientist.)