I don't always love the "digging around in our past" part of recovery. Most days, I crave and strive to be present and living in the now, or to be forward-thinking and forward-moving.
When I do visit the past, my preference is to focus on the happy and good parts. But the wounded pieces of my past come calling without being invited.
Completely new experiences and circumstances can trigger my very old, very core wounds. I've done a lot of therapy and have been working on my recovery for a long time, so when my core wounds are triggered, I can usually respond to them with gentle understanding.
One of my predominant past wounds is abandonment, and it's amazing how often it shows up. It's even more amazing that I recognize it almost immediately, acknowledge it, feel it, and then remind myself that it's an old hurt.
I remind myself that the only person who can abandon me now is myself, and I'm not about to ever do that again. I greet my past wounds with understanding and compassion, then I release them, again and again.