Don't ignore the past but deal with it on your own pace. Once you deal with it you are free of it and you are free to embrace your life and be a happy loving person because if you don't the past will come back to haunt and keep coming back to haunt you.
I'm not a religious person and I'm not too interested in being a part of a religion but I do like having some sort of communal gathering and having some sense of peoples.
