Why Chronically Talking About Your Past Will Keep You Stuck In It

Part of Kathy Caprino’s series “Finding Brave To Build a Happier Life and Career”

Back in 2018, I was traveling to Virginia to visit my beloved elderly mother (who has now passed) and my sister. I lived far from them and I didn’t get the opportunity to see them in person nearly as much as I wished to. On my drive down, my sister and I did a lot of catching up and a lot of talking – about our lives, our families, our current areas of focus and, of course, our challenges. In our discussions, something happened that stopped me in my tracks and made me think long and hard.

I was sharing with my sister a story of an event from my past – when I was 16 years old – that was devastating to me and still angering and hurting me to think of it. I won’t share the details of the story but I can tell you that the net effect of the event back then was that, as a young teen, I suddenly and irrevocably felt very alone and I realized that it was not safe for me to share my fears and my grief with this individual because their response and backlash gave me the clear signal that they couldn’t handle it unless I was continually demonstrating myself to be strong and capable. Their boundaries were such that my fear and grief were too much for them to bear. And their critical response made my grief and fear even worse, and it shut me down from feeling I could be my real self with them.

After sharing that story with my sister, she mentioned that she’d heard me talk about that event many times before. I hadn’t realized how many times I’d repeated it, but clearly it was a LOT. She then offered that, while it was perfectly fine with her to listen to that story as many times as I wanted and needed to tell it, she felt sad for me that the pain of that event was still so alive and “active.”

We began discussing how both of us can, at times, delve back into the past and dredge up the hurtful things that happened to us, with very specific detail, as if it happened yesterday. Sometimes we’re doing it just because something in our current lives triggered the painful memory. Sometimes we do it as a way to vindicate why we’re feeling what we're feeling today. And sometimes we do it, I believe, because the past is absolutely not dead to us –  it lives in a vibrant, active way inside of us and, in many cases, is still coloring much of what we’re thinking, feeling and communicating.

And our past influences our decisions and relationships as well. This is true of almost everyone I’ve ever met, coached and worked with.

In my years as a therapist, and in my career and leadership coaching today, I’ve seen that what happens to us in childhood and in our early years dramatically shapes us, so much so that if we don’t actively address the pain and trauma that we've experienced, it will most likely never be released. If we don’t look it squarely in the face and learn to see it differently and move beyond it, we will never be free of it.

In fact, I say often,

“We are what our childhood taught us to be, unless we’ve healed it or unlearned it.”

As a therapist, I learned too that “trauma” can occur even in happy families, families that seem to have it “all together” and are the envy of the neighborhood. Children and young people can indeed be traumatized by even one parental remark or event, or one behavior that was crushing and made them feel very sad, alone, scared or rejected. These traumatic events are often burned into our memories and will not let go, unless we actively work to address, heal and release the pain.

A crazy thing happened when my sister shared her observation with me – that I have repeated that one painful story over and over in past years. First, I had some very potent realizations about whether or not talking about our past is helpful, or keeping us stuck in a never-ending cycle of pain. And secondly, from the moment she shared that, it was like a pain switch was flicked off - I felt suddenly healed from the need to talk about it in this way again. I felt weirdly free of it.

And that feeling has stayed with me all through the years. I had finally, truly, let the hurt over this experience go and I chose to stop blaming this person over and over. More than 40 years had passed since this painful event occurred - how long was I going to blame this person for the hurt they caused (especially because I know that their own childhood experiences led them to react in this exact, non-empathic way)?

Since that time, I’ve written the book The Most Powerful You: 7 Bravery-Boosting Paths to Career Bliss, all about what my research working with thousands of professional women across 6 continents has revealed are the 7 most damaging power and confidence gaps that keep us from thriving, experiencing healing, growth and success, and reaching our highest potential in both life and work.

One of the most challenging gaps is Gap #7: Allowing the Past (and Past Pain) to Continue to Shape and Define Us.

Here’s more about that gap and how it hurts us, from my Finding Brave podcast:              

Here’s what I’ve seen to be true about talking about the past:

When it’s helpful to talk about the past

Sharing a painful story from the past can be helpful, but only under one condition – when you endeavor to think differently about it, to be willing to grow beyond it, to learn from it and be positively changed by it, rather than simply repeat it over and over in the exact same way, without new awareness or growth.

When it’s hurtful to keep talking about the past

On the other hand, it’s hurtful to keep talking about the past when you’re using that story over and over again, in the same way, to vindicate you and to justify your current behavior, to yourself or others. (Here are 5 other toxic behaviors we engage in that hurt us as well.)

Talking about the past solidifies the memory that you have of it, and often, that memory morphs over time and changes the whole tone and nature of the event, often in a way that supports the anger and pain you continue to feel.

I don’t mean to imply that we consciously try to change history. But we often do revise actual events in our minds (even ever so slightly) so that those events tell a story that’s more in line with what we're feeling today (including hurt and pain). In other words, our memories are a reflection of who we are today.

How to grow beyond pain from your past

People often ask me, “Kathy, how can I let this go? How can move beyond this painful event that keeps me feeling devastated?”

There are many ways to heal, but I’ve found that one of the most potent ways is first expanding your willingness to let this pain go, to stop blaming this other person, allowing you to become someone different – one who is stronger, more resilient, authoritative, self-loving, and capable of being the true author of your life, building your present and future in new, successful ways.

Often we don’t want to relinquish the painful memory because doing so might feel like a betrayal – to our hurt self that was so damaged at the time by the event. But the more we are willing to finally let go of the blame and the pain, the more we can open the door to becoming the person we are ready to be.

I’m pretty sure that our younger, more vulnerable self would want that for us – to not stay stuck in the cycle of pain, but be willing to muster the bravery to learn and grow from our past hurts so we can finally thrive beyond them.

For hands-on help to close your power and confidence gaps and release pain from past experiences, work with Kathy, read The Most Powerful You, and take her 8-week course The Most Powerful You. For weekly inspiration, tune into her podcast Finding Brave.