The past can hurt. But the way I see it, you can either run from it, or learn from it.

You can’t change your past, but you can choose to make your future a lighter place. Here’s the thing – it’s your responsibility to heal yourself.

Remember, don’t drive into the past using your rear-view mirror as a guide. You want to learn from your past, not live in it — focus on the things that empower you.

To heal the past you have to “time travel” with the genuine intention of seeking and breaking repetitious patterns and gaining insights into what you need to learn in this lifetime.

It is my deep belief that in talking about the past, in understanding the things that have happened to us we can heal and go forward. Some people believe that it is best to put the past behind you, to never speak about the events that have happened that have hurt or wounded us, and this is their way of coping — but coping is not healing. By confronting the past without shame we are free of its hold on us.

So many people get caught up in allowing the past to define them or haunt them simply because they have not evolved to the place of seeing how the past did not prevent them from achieving the life they want, it facilitated it. This doesn’t mean to disregard or gloss over painful or traumatic events, but simply to be able to recall them with acceptance and to be able to place them in the storyline of your personal evolution.

Don't live in the past, and don't carry the past around like a burden. But simply use your past as one of your mentors to help refine mistakes and make changes you can invest now and the future.

You can't look back - you just have to put the past behind you, and find something better in your future.

Be very, very careful who you let into your life. And learn to make peace with whatever happens. You can't erase the past. It's trapped in there with you. But you can make peace with it. If you don't,' he said, 'you'll be at perpetual war.

You think your past defines you, and worse, you think that it is an unchangeable reality, when really, your perception of it changes as you do.
Because experience is always multi-dimensional, there are a variety of memories, experiences, feelings, “gists” you can choose to recall…and what you choose is indicative of your present state of mind. So many people get caught up in allowing the past to define them or haunt them simply because they have not evolved to the place of seeing how the past did not prevent them from achieving the life they want, it facilitated it. This doesn’t mean to disregard or gloss over painful or traumatic events, but simply to be able to recall them with acceptance and to be able to place them in the storyline of your personal evolution.

Don't you think you're trying a little too hard to hold on to the past?

Maybe, but don't you think you're trying a little too hard to run away from it?

Not everybody's past is like yours, Aang. Some of us have to run away just to... just to live.

We have to slowly train ourselves to stop living in the past and set aside the emotional baggage we carry.

You will have to live with those memories and make them into something new. Only by acceptance of the past will you alter its meaning.

Accept what you are able to do and what you are not able to do. Accept the past as past, without denying it or discarding it. Learn to forgive yourself and to forgive others. Don't assume that it's too late to get involved.