
Yes — your mind will travel to another time where you can observe situations from a different perspective. You can suggest different actions to yourself and you can progress through the new timeline. If you are paying attention, you will notice that going through a difficult time may have given you the gift of planning, budgeting, or even the realization that if you continually push the limits you will break.
When you return to the present, it's a little bit like you've lived your life twice. Now that you are much wiser, what adjustments do you want to make to your current path?
You can learn lessons from any time you care to visit. One of the things you might learn is that a child doesn't have a lot of control over their circumstances as the adults in their life generally make the big decisions. Sometimes understanding that can be a big relief. Something that is obviously a bad idea to someone who is 30, might appear exciting and enticing to someone who is 15. If all you do is have more compassion for yourself and your mistakes your time would be well spent.
Chances are that now that you are older, when you look at some of the choices your parents made, you can see their flawed thinking. If you can see that some of the things they did were thoughtless blunders, rather than premeditated plans to torture you, it might be easier to forgive them. Once you forgive someone the urge to strike back at them for hurting you decreases and it is easier to be civil at family get togethers.
No, you can return to the present at anytime by opening your eyes.
You are always in charge of your experience. If you see something that reminds you about a mistake you made, you maybe sad. That is natural. The unusual thing about this process is that you can look at it differently now. Often you made the decision with another person or you were influenced by something they said. Now you can look at those circumstances with the advantage of understanding the eventual result and see more clearly why you did what you did and what incited your behavior. Sometimes after an event things happen quickly and a lot changes in a few minutes, you might not have seen or understood everything the first time through, but now it is safe to remember and contemplate your actions and the actions of others.
Yes the time machine can go to the future as well as the past. Instead of remembering your younger self, you imagine your older self is going into the time machine with you. You allow their imagines and ideas to flow into you and you see new possibilities.
When you return, think of it as having lived a part of your life twice. What do you want to change based on what you learned? What do you see differently? Is there a third alternative? For example suppose you went into the time machine to see what it would be like to retire in Phoenix, AZ. What if your future self suggests that you also might also like Santa Fe, New Mexico? You could then ask your future self to show you Santa Fe. Or you might keep your original journey to Phoenix and take a second journey to Santa Fe. Gathering knowledge is very affordable when you have a time machine.
