The past always remains inherent in our life; as very similar experiences in the now manifest, that remind us of something that happened in our past.
People remind us of similar people we have encountered before. Events begin occurring like they have before. So much so we can almost predict what is going to happen, based on their similarities with their clone in the past. These occurrences cannot be ignored in many instances ... as they appear to be a repeating cycle that is haunting us, or is trying to tell us something about ourselves.
There may well be a person who is very similar in character to someone in the past, starting to do what the person in our past did to us. There could be a work, or life situation, presenting itself to us that is almost identical to one in the past.
The best thing to do, when these repeating cycles are making themselves known to us, is to write down all the similarities between now and the past. Write down all that wasn't learned from the past, and what could be learned by them taking place again. Then write down what path needs to be taken in order for this repeating cycle to be understood, and possibly not occurring again in the future.