by Cody Hodge

Created on: December 21, 2008

Despite all the reasons that we have not to do it, we all tend to dwell on the past. Never mind all the pain that it can cause, the undue frustration that a remembrance of an event may cause, it seems as if we all do it from time to time. Why though do we do this even though for the most part it seems as if it does no good?

I think that we dwell on the past because as they say "Those who forget history are doomed to repeat it." I think the scariest thing for a person is to make the same mistake twice, especially if a mistake is so big that we vow never to make it again. Not forgetting what happened in the past helps us make better decisions in the future. So while it may seem to hurt us to think of a painful memory, it could help us avoid that scene again.

We also dwell on the past because as humans we tend to believe that we always should be in control. Has anyone ever come up to you after a relationship ended, and confirmed to you a suspicion that you had all along in the relationship?

You want to think that you would have done things differently had you only known, and now you have to life your life thinking that someone get the better of you. Even though there may have been nothing you can do about it at the time, hindsight is 20/20 and you think that if you only knew you could have done things differently.

Dwelling on the past can help us from gaining too much confidence from a slight glimmer of hope. For example, when the Buffalo Bills started 5-1 this season, I was pretty happy, and I thought the future was bright. However, I kept thinking about all the failures that had occurred over the past few years.

From Scott Norwood missing a feild goal in the Super Bowl, to the Homerun Throwback play where the Tennessee Titans defeated the Bills in 1999 on a last second kickoff return for a touchdown, and all the recent years of just losing. That helped temper my expectations, and when they ultimately were staring at a 6-8 record as of today, I wasn't too bummed about it.

Dwelling on the past seems to be some sort of evolutionary response to pain, or other negative emotions, a way to cope so to speak. Remembering the past helps us remember what we have gone through in life, it helps out to keep things in perspective. Things may be good or bad now, but they aren't always going to stay the same. Whether that brings hope or pain to the individual depends on the context of one's life, but is universal to us all.

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