Repeating Themes: One More Time

It seems like throughout the course of our lives, we seem to run in to many repeating themes. There are these lessons, events, ideas, that seem to just keep coming back to us. Are we meant to keep repeating them, or are they there for us to relive until we get it right?

Over And Over Again

As we go through life, we may find our selves in the same patterns. And we may ask ourselves why that is. Maybe we are supposed to learn something from this that we didn’t see the last time. Maybe it is something that we are better equipped to deal with than someone else because of our our past experience. Then again, it could just be confirmation bias; we see something because we’ve seen it before. Because if there is one thing the human mind does to try to make sense of chaos, it is to find patterns, even where there may be none.

The themes that repeat themselves in our lives shape our very core. Someone who keeps experiencing heartache after heartache will become more reluctant over time to share their heart. Someone that experiences compassion from others constantly will be more likely to show compassion to others. In a way, it is like the Law of Attraction that has become so popular in New Age beliefs over the last decade or so.

Opportunities Repeating Themes Provide

Some of the repeating themes in our lives may seem like the movie Groundhog Day. It feels like we keep experiencing the same scenario repeatedly until we get it right. Maybe that is the point, that we should simply not repeat past mistakes. Or maybe it is to not let the past define us now. The thing is though, we all have a past, and if our past doesn’t define us, then what does? It is really about what lens we use to look at the past and how we let that determine future action that determines who we are now.

Lather, Rinse, Repeat

I think the most important things to do when you experience a repeating theme in your life are to recognize it for what it is and to apply what you learned in the past with a critical eye. Too many times, we fall into the trap of repeating past mistakes. We need to recognize what went right in the past, and what went wrong. Then act accordingly.

Housekeeping: I completed revisions on ASMR: Did You Feel That Sound?, Focus Affirmation: Goal Centered Life, Emotional Debt: Red in the Ledger of Your Heart, Artist’s Value: Compensating Creators Of Art, and Compartmentalized Life: Living Out Of Boxes.

Teaser: Next time, we’ll talk about vulnerability.