Many of us have a strong, recurrent tendency to waste a lot of time, energy & heartache on external events that have already passed, or are unlikely to happen in the future. In no way is this useful or practical such as seriously deciding to change our behavior, or drawing up a real action plan.
By obsessing over the contents of consciousness like this, we inflict tremendous unnecessary suffering on ourselves.
“We are all prisoners of our minds.
This realization is the first step on the journey to freedom.” Ram Das
“When water is still it is like a mirror ….
And if water thus derives lucidity from stillness,
How much more the faculties of mind?
The mind of the sage being in repose
Becomes the mirror of the universe.” Chuang Tzu
We're free to effortlessly shift from attending to the contents of (our noisy egoic) consciousness to directly experience the depth of stillness & silence within - the vast field of consciousness itself.
Contents can be compared to clouds, while (transpersonal post-symbolic) consciousness is the sky in which clouds occasionally float by.
See: http://jglovas.wix.com/awarenessnow#!Two-Levels-of-Consciousness/c17jj/56f14e0c0cf266a292561f27