Stop living in the past

Because the present could be amazing!

It’s natural to spend time thinking about the past. Who wouldn’t want to relive happy memories?

But when we spend too much time with memories of the past it can threaten our quality of life right now.

Tinnitus nostalgia sprinkles our life before tinnitus with gold dust. It gilds and overexaggerates how wonderful our life was pre-tinnitus:

• It pretends we went bar-hopping or clubbing every night because we didn’t have to worry how the noise would affect us.

• It tells us our relationships were so much better. We never argued with our partner or shouted at our kids.

• And our work? We loved our work before tinnitus, didn’t we? We were engaged, productive and stimulated by our jobs. Our colleagues were great. Our manager was the best manager we could wish for!

All true for you? No, me neither.

As tempting and understandable as it is to look at our life before tinnitus with rose-tinted glasses, it stops us from living in, and appreciating, the life we have now – even with noise in our head.

It also stops us from taking proactive steps to manage our tinnitus. How can we make our life today as good as it can be if we’re lost in (false) memories?

The first step is to notice when we are dwelling on the good old days rather than the here and now. Once we become aware of our thoughts we can gently turn our attention to the present.

The more we do this, the easier we will find it to notice - and disengage from - unhelpful nostalgia. As we start to spend longer in the present, we can work on creating a life that is worth paying attention to.

And you know what? We start to realise that the present is actually not a bad place to be. A place where we can find things that make us happy. A place where we can create some great new memories. A place where tinnitus becomes just part of our life, not all of it.

If you like what you have read, please share it with other members of the Tinnitus Tribe. Tinnitus can be so difficult to live with, and I'd like as many people as possible to benefit from the tips and tactics in this newsletter.