How to forget past bad memories?

Question

Intellectually speaking, you have only 2 options in forgetting process. Decide yourself which you find correct.

The easy one- Use alcohol, narcotic drugs & other substance abuses so as to suppress your gruesome and horrific experiences within few days. But I will not recommend you to go & get addicted to them & enjoy everything, all pain, anger, anxiety, stress, sadness,trauma or depression.
The harder one- This solution requires determination & Perseverance so as to remain attached to it. It's not easy as same for our PC's where you can easily select all traumatic, trival experiences & click on the delete button. You can't do this in few seconds as forgetting them requires time, leave it for time. It will heel everything. Give yourself time to redefine, rejuvenate your life again.
Following steps you can try to wipe out things easily-

a) Distract yourself: Focus on pleasant things, try to remember part of life which makes you hopeful. Gradually it takes you one step forward towards forgetting bad memories. On the contrary giving it more attention will just make you continue to remember it.

b) Talk to others : Have a conversation with elders about bad memories, its impact, & even can take tips from them so as to figure out how to cope up with immense sufferings. It really works to get in back to life. Its better to express out what you feel deep inside, the unbearable pain, anger, everything just say it. It will give you pangs of self satisfaction and relaxation.

c) Adopt a strict routine: Throw all your anger, depression in hard workouts, briskly exercises. Even try to nurture yourself. Its better to surmount bad experiences & take them as a source so as to get best out of you. Always try to trigger yourself for self improvement so as to get best version of you.

d) Start Learning :Try to forget about past & instead of dwelling in it focus on present for making beautiful future. You have to understand that it was your past & doesn't exist anymore. It just requires a proper understanding so as to expand our thinking about nasty stuffs that you want to forget.

e) Motivate yourself: Try to motivate yourself such that your bad experiences will turn you in a better human being, react positively to them. You just need only internal motivation.

f) Change priority list: Most of the times we enlist our bad memories in our priority lists which inhibits us to forget them completely. So remove them from your list.

g) Adopt Busy schedules: Don't give yourself time to think of it is better solution. Whenever your incomfortable past popps get in your mind, never resist it as it may create negative effects. Try to get busy with something else, some other interesting field.

It's not easy, even spiritual masters didn't just make it without a struggle.

Also, human minds are neutral as it constitutes both bad & good memories. But by following stronger discipline & making ourselves comfortable, more we will be able to give less importance to bad ones in order to wipe them out.

Prashant K Vaidya · Accepted Answer