How to leave past relationships in the past...

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I don't know about you, but everytime me and my husband argue, one of use has got to bring up a past relationship. I know of quite a few people where this is also true for them. Everyone always says, leave the past in the past, but few people do when it comes to disagreements in the relationship. It appears that such a tactic serves only one purpose, which is to incite jealousy in one's partner. Often this jealousy creates anger, which solves nothing and only serves to make the argument even more explosive. It would be nice if people could avoid arguments completely but that, of course is wishful thinking. If couples must argue they should at least stick to the issue at hand and leave past relationships in the past. Here are a few ways to solve disagreements in the present rather than bringing up the past. Unless you are arguing about a past event, past circumstances have no place in your disagreement. Even if you are arguing about something that happened in the past, ask yourself why. If a past event does affect your current relationship you need to talk about it openly, honestly and rationally. More than likely, past events that you are thinking about throwing into the argument have no relevancy to your current disagreement. If you find that to be the case, simply drop it. Let go of the past and live in the present. Don't bring up old flames that result in red-hot anger by saying things like, "You're more stubborn than Mark" or "Donna would have understood what I mean." When you do this you're asking for an argument. Mark or Donna has nothing to do with your situation now so leave them out of it. Everyone will be a lot better off if you do. If your partner is the one who wants to continue arguing, let him or her know that you refuse to argue any further and you wish to leave past events where they belong - in the past. If you can't talk rationally at the moment, extricate yourself from the argument. Take a walk. Go for a drive. It's hard to argue if there's no one to argue with. The majority of things that people argue about are totally irrelevant. They start out disagreeing about one thing and end up arguing over a barrage of past events. If you can take a moment to step back and look at the argument from an observer's point of view, you may be able to see how ridiculous it is and find the whole situation amusing. Once you do that, the whole disagreement may dissipate into thin air and leave you wondering how it ever got started in the first place. So to all of you who find yourself in an endless arguement about your past or always bringing up your lovers past, remember these simple tactics and you should see better days. Do you ever bring up your lovers past indiscretions, or do you keep things in the past. Or, does your lover bring up your past to start an arguement?