The past tense is a grammatical tense whose function is to place an action or situation in past time.
I operate in the past tense. That’s my lane. I know there’s all this talk about being present, how you need to be present, have to be present, present, present, present...Nope get away from that. Get past it.
I didn't always. For a long while I operated in the present tense...Ie: I was always tense. You can’t do anything well when you’re tense.