Living Between the Past and the Future

Do you spend more time thinking about the future or the past? Why?

I used to live almost entirely in the past.

Not because I wanted to stay there, but because it shaped how I learned to survive. The past taught me patterns, warning signs, and ways to protect myself when things felt uncertain or unsafe. For a long time, looking back felt like the only way to stay grounded.

Lately, though, I’ve noticed a quiet shift.

I still carry the past with me — I don’t believe healing means forgetting — but it no longer holds all of my attention. Instead, I find myself thinking about the future in smaller, gentler ways. Not in rigid plans or expectations, but in possibilities. In what might feel safe. In what could be steady.

The future doesn’t scare me the way it once did.

And the past doesn’t control me the way it used to.

I think I live somewhere in between now — honoring where I’ve been, while slowly allowing myself to imagine where I’m going. And for the first time, that middle space feels like growth.