Discussion Where does your brain spend the most time? The past, the present, the future?

[Forever Sleep]

Have you read Eckart Tolle's 'The Power of Now'? It was a while ago I read it but, one focus is the importance of being present and focussed on the present. Now and again, I'll pause to notice my surroundings, the weather, sensations. I suppose we all run constant checks on our health- how am I feeling today? Does anything hurt? What do I need? I also have to focus on some of the tasks I'm doing.

Asides from that though, my mind wanders about. Memories pop in. Day dreams materialise. I deliberately put on media in the hopes my brain will be occupied with that and work, so won't have time to focus on how unhappy I am.

That's another issue really. What period makes you the most unhappy? Your past, present or future? For me, it's a mixture of all three. I'm generally feeling resentful of the chores I'm going to need to get on with now. I remember for how many decades I've hated them to date and, the future is full of the same!

I suppose my present is better than certain aspects of my past- certainly. That gives me a sense of calm/ gratitude. But, certain elements of my past threaten to re-emerge so- that threat never really leaves. I suppose that's why suicide appeals- it simply stops all three time periods at once- so long as there isn't an afterlife.

 

[Pluto]

 

[CutToRelease]

The present. I cant remember shit so the past basically don't exist for me. An I got no plans for the future. So yeah im just here till I die or something else happens to me.

 

[Doll Steak]

I sometimes like to think of the future cause its interesting, like what if I lived? what would I experience? what if fuckin, I don't know, world war 3 broke out in 30 years and I'm still kickin? I just like to wonder what I'll miss after death, gives it a sense of realism.

My mind spends all the time in the present, but very frequently does it delve into the past because that is unchangeable and very regretful for me.

 

[hopeless302]

The past. I've been reliving things that happened almost 10 years ago. The present feels like a fog.

 

[Seered Doom]

Brain dissociates. so it spends most time in a void

 

[Vlad Tepes]

The past. I'm haunted every day by all of the horrible things that have happened to me. All the things I never got to experience. Even just seeing happy families and young couples in the street is enough to evoke great jealousy and bring back memories of how miserable those years were for me, how lonely I was, how horrible and dysfunctional my family is. Even just particular words become mentally inseparable from things I have experienced.

 

[cemeteryismyhome]

I've been thinking about this recently. Nowhere. I noticed a few months ago that my past is dying and disappearing. And there is nothing in my future, no plans, no desires, nothing I want to do or fix or change or achieve. Nothing. Zero. It's fascinating and I like it. My past is gone, no longer exists, no longer matters, and is fading from my memory. My future doesn't exist and doesn't matter. I've always thought of the present as a kind of razor thin line where the future becomes the past. So for me, the present doesn't exist either, because it's where the nonexistent meaningless future becomes the nonexistent meaningless past. So at the most fundamental level, I'm already dead and no longer exist.

 

[FoxSauce]

Present- be in the present in a crisis and focus on the now

Past - to remeber all the pain Ive caused to others, my failures and traumatic events.

Future- ill ill ever get to live a full live, be successful or find love. If ill ever be happy.
Whats gonna happen, bad scenarios.

 

[orcapythia]

The past hurts and feels like yesterday. The distant future hurts and feels like it'll happen in one minute. I think it's the future that makes me unhappiest. Although I can look forward to an end, I don't want to experience getting sicker and lonelier. Time feels pretty unbalanced as a whole. It seems hard to imagine that we all experience it differently but it makes sense.

 

[TheShadowQueen]

The past and the present mainly I don't think about the future cause I don't expect to have one

 

[Forveleth]

As a maladaptive daydreamer, my brain is usually anywhere but the present. I know it is supposed to be better to be "in the moment", but I have so many intrusive thoughts that my head in the present is the last place I want to be.

 

[wham311]

Every one of them is absolute agony.

Past and future is in the morning when I'm laying in bed, present during day and everything I see it think associates with the past which is torture

 

[Cauliflour]

None of them. It's been on autopilot so long I can't remember when it started. Senses of time feel like a haze just part of the same gradient. I feel like I'm operating a robot like I'm playing some kind of video game but I can't just save my progress and leave, I gotta keep playing 24/7 because that's how life works. I'm in a constant state of nothing. People talk about how "time flies" but I just constantly feel like I'm wasting my time because I didn't "do enough" within that time frame even though I'm probably gonna say the same thing in 5 years to my current self so maybe I'm just stupid.

 

[LaVieEnRose]

The past. There were several watershed negative experiences I have had with very lasting repercussions and I constantly find myself in the lead-up to them, desperately imagining swerving, as it were,and avoiding barreling right into them, and always frustrated at my complete impotence to undo anything.

Of course, the present and the envisioned future ain't so hot either.

 

[kitkat9234]

I can't get myself to not think about the past. The guilt I have from my mistakes and shitty decisions haunt me everyday and eats me up inside. Ruining my life. Ruining my daughter's life. She is the one who suffers. I wish I could go back to how things used to be. I'm literally reminded of all my fuck ups every single day. My poor daughter. She had so much promise. Now she suffers because I was a selfish asshole.

How do you get over guilt and regret?

 

[katara]

Brain dissociates. so it spends most time in a void

This is my issue too. It comes and goes and it's really frustrating I don't know what to do. I function less then an alcoholic

 

[Green Destiny]

I've always been a daydreamer ever since I was young. Even as a much older person I still do the same, especially regarding the past. Suppose it's just too painful to focus on the present and future.

 

[OvercastingClouds]

I reflect on the past a lot, mainly my childhood because that was when I last generally felt happy, or well, not depressed. When I later started getting bullied and stuff I started dissociating as much as I could, coping by daydreaming and stuff and thinking about the past.
I was scared of growing up/becoming an adult (more prevalent when I got to highschool) so I refused to think about the future/didn't plan for it (also because I didn't think I'd live long). I still do these things now. Wouldn't say I disregard the present, I'm aware of it, I'll have my occasional moments where I'm like "yeah I'm here right now". Mentally I still feel like a kid though and haven't grown much.

I'm mentally stuck in the past, aware of the present, scared of thinking about the future.

 

[Praestat_Mori]

It's a mix that depends on my mood and how I feel. Sometimes I think about past things that happened then about future and how much better life could have been if I didn't fail. The present is there but there's not so much think about bc my situation is more or less always the same and doesn't change much.

 

[darksouls]

my time is up
if my health condition worsens then I will be forced to ctb
that is why i am thinking most about the near future

 

[yuppieflu]

By far the healthiest option is to be able to live in the here and now in the moment. In fact, the past and the future do not exist, there is only now. I probably understand this thought, but alas I cannot follow it.

It's funny, this is one of those questions where there's a clear division of people into two groups like cat lovers and dog lovers lol. I'm definitely one of those who lives in the memories of the past.

In the past, I might have been saddened by some setbacks that made me worry about the future. Like it could be different! Let's say I was denied something and I was sad fantasizing about what it would have been like if I'd been treated differently.... and I found a solution in one very simple idea - there is no guarantee of potential happiness! You never know how events would have unfolded if something had gone differently, you might have ended up in an even worse scenario. That's the fun of all movies about traveling back in time and trying to fix things. I like "butterfly effect", especially the director's version, it's the most violent but with a cool idea. Every decision will be unreliable and life will always be full of mistakes that just can't help but happen

But of course it keeps you in the present. And I can't not think about the sweet moments I had in the past, I appreciate them.