• Bucks the current cultural obsessions with "living in the now" that devalues our rich histories and blinds us to our true potential

• Provides insight and encouragement for mining the hidden gold within our lives and reprogramming hidden self-limiting beliefs

• Includes affirmations, exercises, and questions in every chapter along with movie and book examples that bring the concepts to life

Most of us value learning from the rich histories of well-known figures, gleaning insights from their failures, triumphs, inspirations, and key learnings. And yet how many times are we taught to devalue our own past, to live it behind--especially when it involves difficulties and unresolved challenges?

The Power of Your Past is in sharp contrast to "nowness," a concept advocated by philosophers who argue that our past has little value. It has great value, but we don't use it well. John Schuster shows the many ways we ignore, distort, or become captive to our pasts and explains how we can tap into this treasure trove of wisdom be revisiting and reframing our experiences.

Schuster describes our good experiences as evocations--they allow our gifts and possibilities to be called forth. Negative experiences are compressions--they squelch, mute, and even mangle these same gifts and possibilities. But these processes remain largely hidden from us. We need to come to grips with what our stories were and what they mean for us now. As Faulkner said. "The past is never dead. It is not even past."

To unleash the power of our past we first must recall key images and experiences that have influenced us, for good or ill. Then we can reclaim the positive experiences--deepen our understanding of their impact and use them to guide our going forward. The negative experiences must be recast--reinterpreted so that they no longer lessen our possibilities but rather serve to expand our understanding of who we are and what we can be. Schuster guides you through each step of this process of recalling, reclaiming, and recasting, helping you to live more authentically and to consciously choose your future.