Judging by all the time-travel movies, that have time completely wrong, most people have no idea about time.
And, it is kinda hard not to, when we are focused into a linear time perspective. Linear time meaning that there we perceive the past and the future as real. That we are on a continuous timeline stretching from the past into the future.
This also shapes our comprehension of cause and effect. So that we believe that each moment in our time-stream, each choice is just a simple intellectual choice.
Comprehending how time really works will help you comprehend what is happening, and deal with it as it actually is.
People think they could go back in time and change things
You cannot solve a problem with the same mindset that created it - Albert Einstein
Basically, this says, that if you went back in time to correct a "mistake" you made in order to have a different future, you will fail.
If you think that going back in time, you would be able to fix things, means, that you have the same mindset, and so, would attract the same future, no matter what "decisions" you tried out. They all lead to the same place.
More importantly, if you have changed your mindset, your vibration. If you have changed how you respond to circumstances in your life, then you have changed, and your past will actually change. Without having to go back in time.
If you have changed, and so, would have made a different choice back then, you will also being making a different choice now, and your life, now, would reflect that.
(and for a really weird tale, if you change, and so, would have chose the "other woman/guy" you may find that your current partner actually changes. You have the other woman/guy and they are just how you imagined the other would be, but you still have the same person.)
Time is not linear
It is not exactly cyclical either.
You could think of time as pictures on a film reel. But, in this analogy, people believe that the past is before in the reel, and the future is after. In this universe, the pictures are much less connected than we think. Further, each picture has a past and a present built into it. The past and the present spring up with every moment of now. And only have a relationship with what you think of as a linear progression, because that is what you expect.
You, as a being in this universe, could experience the film reel in any order you can think of.
Further, there are many reels, all happening at the same time. Each picture on each reel is happening NOW. And, if you can focus on that now, being YOUR now, then you can have that timeline as your own.
As you grow, more NOWs are open to you
It would be easier on most people if i said "futures" are open to you. But, as i explained earlier, there really isn't any futures. There is only NOWs.
That said, there are many dimensions to grow in. Like, with more imagination, you can think/dream of more possibilities, and thus, you have more NOWs to choose from.
If you get over (learn the less from) your childhood trauma, and now feel that you are a loving and lovable, instead of feeling unworthy of love, then so many more NOWs are available to you. You will not accept an abusive partner, which is all you could accept when you were accepting that you weren't worthy. Your NOWs will be opened to all kinds of good relationships that you can explore.
You can grow so much that each day that you awake has very little connection with the "day before". Quite actual-factual. Like how many people describe their dreams. Each night's dream being seemingly not connected to the previous ones.
This is not a way to run away from things. Just like you cannot run fast enough in your dreams to escape that monster. You must deal with the "things" in your life. They will be in your NOW with a 1000 different faces. The same thing. (This is also why "history rhymes", the same thing will come up until your deal with it, learn from it, break free from it.)
These kinds of thoughts are not easy for most people to think. We, humans, are very stuck in the idea of linear time.
Of course, it really helps to have the experience of changing timelines, of having changed your past. Imagine that you have memories of your childhood, and you changed them, in your mind, to where you had a neutral or good experience, instead of the trauma that left you scarred. What you find is that everyone else remembers your new history. The new history that only existed in your mind (you thought). Only you, and some highly time-sensitive, psychic people, remember they past with the trauma. Of course this makes sense, when every NOW comes complete with its own past.
Use this knowledge to see how you are not as trapped as you thought. There is much more flexibility in reality.